#TBT—Because who doesn't love the Fly Blind Guy, Melvin Freeman? We are taking it back to April 2022 and how the Morning Update Show covered his Out of Fokus 2: The Art of Sampling exhibit opening at Made Space below.

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The Fly Blind Guy (Melvin Freeman) is back with his exhibit Out of Fokus 2: The Art of Sampling, which he unveiled on Friday at the Liink Project (now Made Space) on East Union Street in Seattle’s Central District, the very same street that he grew up on as a kid and inspired his love for the culture. This collection actually has roots going back six years ago when Melvin, who is now legally blind, began preparing for his impending sight loss by attending Adjustment for Blindness Training school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to learn the life skills required once his sight left him. There was an art program in that school, and Melvin needed to create something out of wood. Being a hardcore lover of hip hop and music in general, Melvin decided to create not just one but two turntables and a mixer, as well as a complete DJ set for his project. In creating the turntables, Melvin had to walk to the record store blindfolded, measure the turntables and mixer blindfolded, select the wood and operate several saws blindfolded, as well as sand and finish the project all while blindfolded. What he created is astonishing and would be a difficult feat for trained woodworking artists with sight. 

Fast forward six years later, with the original show being delayed due to COVID, Melvin was able to finally show his creation along with a body of work that accompanies the turntables, including pieces of art composed of iconic record covers and movie photos pressed against gold dollar bills ranging from $1 to $100 denominations. According to Melvin, money represents Black people in America as the actual currency of culture. 

#FlyBlindGuy #MadeSpace #BlackArtMatters #MorningUpdateShow #WWConverge