About Lisa Squirrel

I am an art historian and poet living in the South East of England. I studied English literature at Reed College, writing a thesis on the poetry and art of Dante Gabriel Rosetti. I live in a 600-year-old cottage with my husband and my guide dog.

A photo of Old Kent Cottage, a timber-framed, wattle-and-daub four-bay hall built around 1450. We are looking at the front of the cottage, it is small with dark timbers and white lime-wash between the timbers. There is one latticed window to the front of the house, made up of three horizontal sets of diamond shaped leading. The front door is a low, wide, black rectangle of wood to the right of the window. The roof is tall, and sloping, made of reed, the thatch is light gold-brown in colour, and looks new. To the left in the picture a jetty, a small first storey, projects out over a stream. The wall of the jetty is tiled and there is another leaded window, in this wall. The stream is narrow and runs between the road and the bank directly at the side of the house. There are white railings running along the road side of the stream, and lots of green foliage growing on the opposite bank of the stream next to the house. There is a small bridge with simple wooden railings over the stream, which a visitor would cross to reach the garden and front door of the house. The cottage is surrounded by lots of tall trees, and greenery. — Old Kent Cottage

A photo of Lisa's guide dog 'Star' seated on the bridge in front of Old Kent Cottage. It is the winter holiday season, and behind and above Star, who takes up the centre front of the photo we see one wooden railing of the bridge decorated with red bows and garlands of evergreen branches. Star is a lab/golden-retriever mix with short, silky, off-white fur, and a pink nose. Here we see her with head slightly bent down, as she concentrates on sniffing, and licking the hand that is holding her lead. She has lifted one of her front paws and placed it on top of this hand. In the background of the photo we see part of the front of the timber-frame cottage at dusk. We can see blurred lights in the latticed front window, perhaps candles on a Christmas tree. — Lisa’s guide dog Star seated on the bridge in front of Old Kent Cottage

As a visually-impaired person myself, I understand how valuable it can be to learn about the visual arts through expert description. I regularly prepare and lead tours of art exhibitions for visually impaired people, providing detailed descriptions of the art works, background on the artists and their historical context, and information about the gallery environment and the curation of the works. Where possible I make use of tools that appeal to other senses to further enhance the experience for attendees, for example textured, feelable versions of Matisse cut-outs.

A photo of Lisa leading the audio descriptive tour of 'Matisse's Cut-outs' held at Tate Modern in 2014. On the left half of the photo we see Lisa side on, She is standing facing a semi-circle of seven or so people with varying levels of site, many of them holding canes. One woman is seated on a stool, and squatting next to her is another woman helping the seated participant to explore a tactile image of the cut-out Lisa is describing. We cannot see the painting Lisa is describing. In the background of the photo we can see there're other paintings hanging near by but none of them are distinct. Lisa wears a long, short-sleeved, iris-blue dress, her long dark hairs pulled back in a braid, and her former guide dog, Paige, a furry black lab, stands at Lisa's side. — Lisa leading the audio descriptive tour of “Matisse’s Cut-outs” held at Tate Modern in 2014, with former guide dog Paige

Tour locations have included Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and the Barbican, featuring a broad range of artists from Turner to Matisse. I welcome further opportunities to help visually-impaired people enjoy and appreciate the arts.

I would like to thank Gillian Cutbill for demonstrating for me and others how much a thorough, professional description can enhance the experience of art for visually-impaired people.