​Mick Yoder / Selected Artwork / Biography / Artist Statement / Past Exhibitions

Mick Yoder - Artist Statement

​“I knew after I did my first carving that it was a gift from God. Up until this last year, when I would carve a piece, I did not know how it could be used or what the purpose of it was. I brought the pieces to the Oregon Commission for the Blind, showed them to people who have no sight. Some of them have never had any visual sight, and I watched them for the first time to be able to see. By losing my eyesight, I was able to see why I was given this gift. I began to see more clearly without sight than I could see with sight. When you get to watch someone look at the piece, they evaluate how I’m doing, what needs to happen next. One of the technical instructors, Chris, is totally blind, and she saw the cougar. She stood there for twenty minutes just looking at it, feeling the mouth, the ears, that the ears are pinned back, that the lips are turned back a little as though the cougar was hissing, how it’s perched on the limb with its back slightly arched. Her looking and seeing it [with her hands], being able to see that way in a lot of ways makes my loss of sight worthwhile.”