“Don’t Give Up On What You Love”

Mandy holding her piece of artwork “Tom the Takahē”.

Artist Mandy Thorburn-Paku was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration (MD) around 3 years ago. Mandy has wet (neovascular) MD and has been having regular injections since she was first diagnosed.

Having these regular injections has enabled her to continue to read, drive, and most importantly, pursue her passion for art. Mandy has loved art from an early age. Her grandmother was an artist. By the age of 12, Mandy was already producing oil paintings.

While the injections have stabilised her sight, Mandy still lives with low vision caused by MD. There was a time when she became very frustrated with producing the fine detail of her artwork. Her “straight lines started to go crooked” and at this point she almost gave up.

Luckily, she met a low vision specialist through Blind Low Vision NZ (BLVNZ). The specialist introduced her to the idea of using a Topaz machine for the finer details. Using this machine, Mandy experimented and drew three little kiwis with Christmas hats for the BLVNZ Christmas Card. The card ended up going out all over the world!

Earlier this year, Pacific Vision donated a Topaz machine to Mandy for her to use at home. She entered the Vision Australia Calendar Competition and won! She received a $200 prize and her artwork (Tom the Takahē below) is being used for the month of June in the calendar. Mandy used the Topaz to create the outline of the artwork, then added the colour without the use of the machine. She then put the drawing back under the Topaz to do the detailed design work, which she calls her “scribbles”.

Mandy’s message for other people with MD is; “Don’t give up on what you love…carry on with what you are doing and experiment with new ways of doing things,” she says. She wants to encourage other people to explore their artistic side and explains, “you don’t have to be able to draw to paint”. Mandy recommends just giving it a go, you might surprise yourself.