I would like to introduce myself:

my name is Orsolya (Ursula in German) and I am 41 years old.

My hair is dark blonde and shoulder-length, a little wavy. My eyes are blue-green, and my face is oval. My height is 172 cm, my body weight is 64 kilos.

As a Hungarian from Partium, I was born in Sathmar, Romania, and my mother tongue is Hungarian.

My father's name is Sándor Lorand Balvinszky. He is a reformed pastor. My mother's name is Mária Balvinszky, she is a reformed religious teacher and I have a brother. His name is Sándor Zoltán Balvinszky and he works as an IT specialist.

As a child, I often liked making clay figures with my brother.

At the age of 16, I moved to Debrecen, Hungary, as a result of my studies in classical music, where I attended a music grammar school and went to a specialised class for church music.

Afterwards I completed a specialised training course for a pedagogical assistant, and then I graduated as a curative education assistant.

Because of my studies in music, I didn't have the opportunity to study drawing and painting. This is good because it allows me to create freely without rules and obligations.

Why did I start looking into it?

During my time in Budapest, I had a blind boyfriend, Thomas, for two and a half years. Apart from the fact that he was blind from birth and couldn't even see the light, he enjoyed and experienced life and all its beauties to the full.

He had an upbringing that prepared him for a positive, independent life and as a child he regularly visited the theatre, concert halls and exhibitions.

As a child and also as an adult with an open personality, he enjoyed taking part in joint programmes, events and circles together with sighted people. He learned to play the harp, to make origami, he danced two or three times a week, he even had a leading role in a film and he obtained a diploma in English at university.

He often studied abroad, including in the USA and India. I consider it a great stroke of luck that I met him. We often went to exhibitions together, but he wasn't allowed to touch the paintings, so I tried to tell him everything I could.

At one exhibition, the museum attendant shouted at him when he tried to touch a painting that he wasn't allowed to. So I started making paintings like that, which were allowed to be touched. I also owe a lot to another nice friend of mine. His brother is also visually impaired and works as a snooker instructor in his own company in Budapest. Thanks to Thomas, I continued my curative education studies and started organising exhibitions in Budapest, its surroundings and in the larger Hungarian cities.

I received a lot of spiritual strength from Thomas and several visually impaired friends of mine, so I want to organise exhibitions all over the world for sighted and non-sighted people, the elderly and children. I want to spread the message around the world, wherever possible, that we should accept life from each other. We should dare to ask others for help and be able to accept help.

I have been organising exhibitions for sighted and non-sighted or visually impaired people in Hungary for over 18 years. I got my diploma in special pedagogy, but not in the subject about the visually impaired but in the subject about the learning disabled, for financial reasons only. I have been following the life of Thomas for over 15 years through his mother, with whom I have a sincere friendship. The aim of my exhibitions, apart from integration, is that visitors have a good time and laugh a lot. That's why my picture titles and descriptions are funny. But they also want to make their interpretation easier.

He replied that the height and size of a building cannot be visualised for a visually impaired person with a reduced form. This is all the more possible with the material of the buildings he passes with the white cane and which he can also touch.

Thomas introduced me to the world of sounds, flavours, types of music, spices and fabrics, so I started making things with them.

My exhibitions are not only aimed at blind people but also at sighted people.

I organised my first exhibition in 2004 in Érd, a small town not far from Budapest. After that, I had exhibitions in the Ervin Szabó Library in the centre of Budapest, in the Budapest Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired, in the School of the Blind, in numerous cafés in the centre of Budapest and also in the larger cities of Hungary, in Szeged, in Miskolc, in Siófok, in Cegléd.

In the organisation of the Budapest School of the Blind I was included in the group of "Tangible Art". I also took part in exhibitions with them, e.g. in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.

In 2020 September 25th I had a small exhibition at Schweiz—association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

I want to do something for blind and visually impaired people, so I will organise tea evenings for them and also for sighted people in my apartment.

Thank you for your attention!

Fotogalerie

The time

The picture measures 56 x 72 cm and weighs 10 kg. It is a 45 x 41 cm clock the size of a family pizza, to be seen and touched. In the centre of the clock is a clock hand, from the clock hand outwards are the other parts of the clock, the rattles covered in greenish, reddish and bronze-coloured fabric, spices, buttons, lace and a coffee pot lid. Two balls can be heard under the clock hand, the sound of which reminds me of a church bell.

The outline of the clock consists of a green felt fabric with a zip, buttons, half marbles covered with fabric and lots of bells in different sizes. The frame is also decorated with bells covered in green and turquoise felt fabric. There is also a necklace, a yellow and green patterned upholstery fabric and the outside consists of a grey upholstery fabric and a white and black jumper made of yarn.

With this picture I would like to send a message to everyone that it is time to realise your dreams and show love to your fellow human beings.

Der Schaukontrabass

Größe 85x118 cm, Gewicht 30 Kilo. Man kann einen Bass sehen. Der Hintergrund besteht aus Knöpfen, Juwelen und Reißverschlussschiebergriffen. Der Umriss des Basses ist durch dunkelblaue Glaskugeln vom Hintergrund getrennt.

Der Rahmen des Bildes ist mit schwarzem Samtstoff bedeckt. Die Mitte des Basses besteht aus einem alten Sieb, durch das Gitarren- und Klaviersaiten gezogen wurden. In der Mitte des Basses ist mit Spitze, Saiten und einer Regentropfenform ertastbar. Hier kann man verschiedene Düfte riechen und Glocken, Rasseln und verschiedene Düfte in den Konturen und Teilen des Basses entdecken. Der Hals des Kontrabasses besteht aus einem blauen Baumwollstoff mit seidigem und einem bläulich-grauen rutschigen Stoff, in dem man Kugeln und andere kleine und große Rasseln erklingen lassen kann.

The giant footprint

The picture is in the shape of a horizontal rectangle, 47 x 77 cm.

Its frame was made from grey-purple and burgundy silk fabrics. The frame is decorated with lilac-coloured beads, threads, wool, stones, a lilac leather bracelet and a heart medallion. The frame of the picture is bordered with a yellow-coloured cord. There is a large footprint on the picture. In the background are several shades of yellow, light blue, green and light brown. The footprint consists of glass stones, buttons, pieces of earplugs, string, beads, cloves, cinnamon powder and various balls. The balls are as follows: a larger ball filled with colourful threads, massage balls, balls with fur, balls made of leather, balls with yellow-coloured wrapped strings and another glass ball decorated with beads and a pyramid-shaped pyramid. The outer side of the footprint was formed with pearl necklaces and a pedicure set.

The picture looks like a drop of water. A soft brown fabric is wrapped around the picture frame. On the right-hand side of the picture frame there are small gold-coloured bells, between which there is also a decorated button. On the other side of the frame are different fabrics, the main parts of which are made from a perforated shopping bag. This shopping bag also includes small baskets made of ringlets with buttons and stones in the centre.

The picture shows a fountain just as I imagined it.

At the top is a soft round arch with rabbit fur, which is the roof of the well.

In the centre of the arch, a little further down, there is a small metal bucket with a small bell hanging from its handle. It has a heart-shaped stone in the centre. There is also a small basket containing a larger red bell that we can use to make sounds.

Next to the basket on the right is a plastic bag handle to which a wooden pen holder with a damillon thread is attached. On the left side of the basket we can smell and touch whole Kurumas spice sticks. Under the basket are two wooden shot glasses, between which we can touch two coffee spoons from Zurich and once again generate sounds. Underneath the fountain is a net with chequered holes containing rectangular Chinese cutlery holders, nuts, stones and rivets.

Window from another house

The picture is in a square flat basket from which two windows open. The windows are screwed to a tennis racket handle.

The main part of the picture is in the middle, where two glasses are not far apart.

The glasses are covered with lace. I imagined that under the glasses is an old table that has a drawer, but we can only touch the keyhole of the drawer. The table is round and on the right and on the left side we can feel wine corks. Above the glasses is an old oval-shaped picture in the middle of which we can feel the head profile of a lady.

At the top of the room hangs an old decorated chandelier, the top part of which is made of spectacle brackets, a chain and a string. The chandelier is decorated with bells, lentils, pearls, coffee beans, earrings. In the middle of the chandelier you can find a wine cork and a zip, a tie pin with 3 metal rings and generate tones with them.

The top part of the picture consists of gemstones, corduroy fabric with buttons and bells wrapped in corduroy fabric. At the bottom I imagined flowers and a balcony made of a wooden hair comb and dried flowers, plastic earrings, a feather holder and mozaic stones. On the right and on the left side of the picture we can find an open shutter, the frame of which is covered with pillowcase. The frames of the window are quite different. The one on the right has a roof made of bordeaux corduroy fabric filled with bells. The other shutter also has a roof which we can shake and hear something. This roof can be made to move a little with the help of the eyeglass bracket, the end of which is a spring. Wooden knobs, rubber chandeliers, lace and bells are attached to the two windows.

When I created the picture, I kept looking at a window and imagined that wherever there is a window, there is a person with their life story, which can be happy or sad.