07/16/2025
Happy Disability Pride Month Yotes! Today we have another installment of the Community Spotlight, this week’s artist is Chuck Close!
Despite his severe paralysis, Chuck Close became famous for his massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Throughout his childhood, he honed his artistic skills through private art lessons, drawing and painting from live models.
It was later in life that he found his unique take on art. Chuck transposed his subjects from photographs into visual data organized by gridded compositions, creating realistic, one-of-a-kind pieces.
Chuck is another example of an artist who adapted his skills to overcome his disability, proving that physical limitations do not need to hinder creativity.
Alt-text:
A blue graphic with text “Community Spotlight Chuck Close” beside an abstract geometric self-portrait of Chuck.
The image showcases a collage of four digital portraits with intricate patterns overlaid. The top-left portrait, titled “The Beat of the Grid,” depicts a man’s face with a grid of circular and square patterns, using a color palette of blues, pinks, and greens. The top-right image is titled “Francesco I” and presents a close-up of a man’s face with a mosaic of dots and small geometric shapes in shades of orange, blue, and white. The bottom-left portrait, named “Agnes,” features an older woman’s face covered with a grid of square patterns in a mix of earthy tones, including browns, blues, and greens. The bottom-right image, titled “Portrait of the Artist Kara Walker,” shows a side profile of a woman with a textured overlay, utilizing darker tones such as browns and blacks, highlighted with reds.
