Paintings of visually impaired artist displays life as he perceives it!

Soup bubbling on the stove. Bread baking in the oven. Many people can talk in detail of memories from mama's kitchen.

But for Gardendale High School junior C.C. Perry, putting memories into words is hard. Cerebral palsy makes speech difficult for him.

Yet, he knows how to show what those smells look like.

"One of the first paintings C.C. did," said his mother, Jane, "he called 'Smells of Mama's Kitchen.' He sat in the kitchen while I cooked, and painted a picture of the way the kitchen smelled."

Since preschool days, C.C. has been painting, and winning awards, battling not only the disease that hinders his movements, but also partial blindness. Others see through C.C.'s work the things he sees most vividly only in his mind.

His latest work, called "These Three Trees," is making the holiday season a little brighter for people across the country. It was chosen by U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus and his wife, Linda, as the cover for their Christmas card this year.

Each year since 1993, Bachus' holiday cards have been original art produced by metro Birmingham children with disabilities.

"This has been C.C.'s year," said Gardendale teacher Jennifer Johnston. "He was in the top 25 in the Helen Keller Art Show of Alabama, won the Bachus card cover, and was also in the Liz Moore Low Vision Art Contest at Eastern Health Systems."

C.C., who says he's only called Charles Clay when he's in trouble, is the son of Ray and Jane Perry of Adamsville.

"We adopted C.C., and a month later I found I was pregnant," his mother said. "His sister, Paige, is 13 months younger and is a junior at the International Baccalaureate School at Shades Valley.
C.C. is classed as visually impaired.

"That means he can read very large print," Johnston said. "We also have a student who is legally blind and can only detect light, and one who is totally blind."

But C.C. sees just fine in his mind. "I don't paint from things I see, but from ideas," he said. "I've been doing it since preschool, and I enter every contest I can."

Most of C.C.'s works are abstracts.

"He has a wonderful eye for color," his mother said, "and with limited range of motion, abstracts are a better fit for his style."

He paints with help from his mom, dad and sister, and with a special chair and lap board at home. C.C.'s helper places the brush in his hand and positions it on the paper. Then the helper moves the paper as C.C. directs.

"I do a lot of the helping," Perry said, "but his dad was his main helper on his 'These Three Trees' painting."

C.C.'s first painting is now a fading 12-year-old piece of paper still hanging on the kitchen wall.
"He called it 'Bears Eating Blueberries,'" his mother said, "and he was only 5 years old when he did it."

After high school, C.C. hopes to paint and open an art store.

Other interests include Alabama football, NASCAR, hunting, Atlanta Braves baseball and girls. He has taken two deer and has one mounted.

In recent years C.C. has become an avid fan of Peyton Manning, the former Tennessee quarterback now with the NFL Indianapolis Colts. And in just a couple of weeks he'll meet Manning, thanks to the Make a Wish organization. C.C. and his parents will travel to Indianapolis, meet Manning on Dec. 31 and watch a game the next day.

"My next artwork," C.C. said, "will be something I can give to Peyton."