In my last post, I wrote about artists whose eyesight shaped their work—Monet, Degas, O’Keeffe, Chuck Close, and others. Their paintings bear the trace of cataracts, macular degeneration, blindness, or simply a different way of seeing. But sometimes words and canvases aren’t enough—we want to see these struggles brought to life. Luckily, filmmakers have been fascinated with the same question: what happens when an artist’s vision changes?

I’ve been thinking about eyesight lately, for obvious reasons. Cataract surgery is on my horizon, and as a painter, the prospect of altered vision feels both frightening and strangely fascinating. Artists have always made work with the bodies and eyes they have—sometimes diminished, sometimes distorted—and the art often bears witness to those changes.