Sculptor share art with visually impaired students

"She could never live without it!" said Rhonda Kap's husband, Alisha Volotzky, when friends suggested that Kap might be compelled to forgo her work as an art instructor at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.

Success as a metal sculptress has brought Kap multiple commissions from the East and West coasts. Examples of her work in bronze and copper are on permanent display at Chabad of the Conejo in Agoura Hills, Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks and in private residences in Westlake Village and Hidden Hills.

Kap has also exhibited her work at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village and Temple Aliyah in West Hills.

"But the work I do at the Braille Institute is so important," said Kap, who's chosen to prolong her commitment to help the visually impaired there.

"It gives me an opportunity to share my love of art," Kap said. "Art is such a wonderful process for the visually impaired. It's another window to the world."

Kap said the visually impaired are an inspiration to her when they attend class and overcome the obstacles they've encountered in life.

"Oh my goodness! I couldn't do this even though I'm sighted!" said a Braille Institute visitor about a tile painted by one of Kap's students.

Kap, who's commuted from her home in Agoura to the Braille Institute in Los Angeles for 13 years, coaches the visually impaired to perform in plays before audiences at schools and community centers. Assisting them in making their own costumes, she said the visually impaired not only become successful at acting in plays, but they "learn to walk into a different environment at each performance."

Kap, who shares her studio/ home with her husband, a stained-glass artist, said her love of art has been nurtured since childhood by her parents. Kap's mother has saved her drawings since she was 4, and her father, William Kap, was Rhonda's inspiration as a painter.

"I've always felt like I was an artist," Kap said.

After studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, Kap continued her education with Judaic artists in Israel and California.

She's taught art at Head Start day-care centers and at various youth camps for at-risk youth.
She believes art is a method to reach others and that her classes help people overcome their grief process. "My main purpose is to get them in touch with themselves."

For information about performances by the Braille Institute's visually impaired or about Kap and her studio, please call (818) 706-2373.