REGINA -- A Regina man is not letting a visual impairment stop his artistic dreams.
Dustin Ritter lives with macular dystrophy, a condition that impacts his depth perception. Having this condition impacts his portrait drawing.
“I’ll draw pretty much anything. I do a lot of pet portraits, family portraits, music portraits,” Dustin Ritter said.
Ritter attributes having macular dystrophy to eye damage he received sometime as a youth.
Having this eye disorder altered Ritter’s daily life. Over the years drawing has become a therapeutic activity for Ritter.
“I’ll have the phone five inches from my face while I draw and that’s kind of the only way I can do it,” Ritter said.
Since 2018 Ritter has created over 250 different portraits. The majority of them are done from photos.
“I’ve noticed it helps even more if it’s something meaningful to someone else. If somebody comes to me and wants me to draw a portrait for them it makes me put in more effort because I know how much it will mean when it’s done.”
With the help of his father, Ritter began making wooden frames for his pictures. The wood he uses was collected from an old barn as well as an old grain elevator.
In recent years Ritter’s work has been recognized by various places in Regina.
“I will pretty much attempt to draw. I enjoy it that much that there’s nothing that seems to be daunting at this point,” he said. “It’s just something that I like to do.”
Ritter plans to continue developing his drawing abilities and trying bigger projects like murals.
Currently, Ritter’s work is being displayed at the Bushwakker’s Brewing for the month of January.
