Lee Allen (artist) - Macular Degeneration

Macular Degeneration

Around 1988, while in retirement, Allen began to experience symptoms of macular degeneration, an incurable dysfunction that had resulted in functional blindness for millions of senior citizens. In response, he made a series of diary-like drawings of the progression of his illness and its treatment with laser surgery. In 2000, at age 90, he produced a book about his twelve-year introspective watch of macular degeneration, titled The Hole in My Vision: An Artist’s View of His Own Macular Degeneration. The book contains his drawings of the changes in his vision, his annotations, with other observations by his medical colleagues and physicians.