When Curt Starkey lost all vision in his left eye, his life changed completely.

Daily tasks like driving became extremely difficult for him, and he had to teach himself how to live with one working eye.

Starkey’s ability to paint, something he described as a therapeutic hobby, was hindered by his damaged eye.

A therapist with no formal training in art, Starkey relearned everything he knew about art to be able to paint once more.

“I had to reteach myself how to paint,” Starkey said. “I learned that if I could see it as a three-dimensional image, others would too.”

However tedious it may have been to start from scratch and regain abilities he had lost, Starkey now has a collection of paintings that depict lively images of nature hanging along the walls of the Jackson Avenue Coffee.

Starkey said nature has always played an immense role in his artwork, with the majority of his paintings featuring some element associated with the outdoors.

“I prefer to paint nature in the impressionists style, but I don’t really have a set style,” Starkey said.

Looking up at the paintings, he said he believes the Earth is equally important as all human beings.

“Some people believe we are above nature, but I like to think we are a part of nature,” Starkey said.

Starkey said he uses trees to show a clear change in the seasons.

Starkey, instead of limiting himself to traditional shades of brown for the trees’ trunks, painted them in shades of dark green and different mixtures of brown.

Even the leaves were painted in different shades.

“When you actually look out at nature, you’ll notice different colors everywhere,” Starkey said. “For example, there are all sorts of greens in the leaves.”

Nature depicted in an impressionistic style—a style that is known for its small, thin brushstrokes and was made famous by artists like Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh—may not be the only artistic route he takes with his work.

He said he always finds himself revisiting this specific technique and adding new details to his work when he’s caught in an artistic drought and cannot seem to think of new ideas.

“It’s important to go back and rehash the things you’ve already learned,” Starkey said. “If I assumed I knew everything, I’d be making a big mistake.”

Sometimes, Starkey said, part of an idea for a painting will sit in his head for months at a time until he maps out exactly what his painting will look like.

“I enjoy those (ideas) the most, but that type of inspiration doesn’t come all the time,” Starkey said. “Sometimes I’ll picture a sky in my head and spend months trying to determine what the foreground will look like.”

Starkey’s signature on the paintings also relates to nature.

Instead of writing his initials “C.J.S.,” he writes them in the form of three interlocking circles that resemble those letters.

The symbol he uses to sign each of his paintings is called a “triskele,” which is an ancient Celtic symbol used to symbolize the sun, the afterlife and reincarnation.

“It has many meanings,” Starkey said. “For me, the Celtic meanings have the most meaning because I believe in the cycle of life.”

Starkey’s art collection will sit in the JAC for the rest of August with a few other local artists’ works.

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu