SPRINGDALE, Ohio — William Rankins Jr. is frustrated.
He’s painting a tree. He’s painting rocks. He’s painting a serene nature scene because it’s easier for him than faces.
Up until now, he never had to worry about what was easier.
“Be my eyes,” he says.
He’s talking to his friend, Deb Clinkscale, who is helping him paint. She’s moving his hands, pouring paint and looking over his work.
But she's no artist, she's a social worker. And Rankins doesn't let her forget it.
“You’re going to be really good at this when you’re done,” he says.
The two sound like they could be a TV show.
“We’re supposed to be nice today,” Clinkscale says.
And they are. But it’s frustrating for Rankins, a renowned muralist in Cincinnati because he’s learning how to paint all over again.
Doctors diagnosed him with glaucoma 20 years ago. For years, he slept with the light on.
When he woke up, he said he wanted that light to mean he could still see.
"I started training myself,” he said. “I started walking around with my eyes closed – trying to see what I could remember."
Then, he had a stroke.
"Your whole life changes overnight," Rankins said.
Rankins was now blind, and he had to learn how to do more than just paint.
He started tying his shoelaces together, so he if he found one he could find the other. He folded his socks in a certain way, always buying the same kind. In his closet, everything is color-coordinated.
"The hardest part? I can't draw anything no more,” Rankins said. " I try to figure out how can I keep going.”
Even if you don’t recognize his name, you’ve probably seen Rankins’ work. He started in drywall and painting houses, but art was his life. And you could see his life all over Cincinnati.
“He painted history,” said Marvin Smith, owner of Ollie’s Trolley, a hamburger restaurant near FC Cincinnati’s stadium.
Smith met Rankins when he needed someone to paint the apartment building behind his restaurant.
“There’s a difference between a painter and an artist,” Smith said. “I didn’t know he was an artist.”
Rankins started painting hallways. Eventually, he started painting pictures on the walls. Art — not just colors. He soon moved outside.
Steve Urkel. Muhammed Ali. Former Mayor Mark Mallory. Rankins painted them all on buildings throughout Cincinnati. And Smith credits that artwork with making his restaurant a success.
“People come in and tell me I’m essential,” Smith said. “And it’s because of the art.”
Now, almost all Rankins' murals are gone. Painted over. Torn down. They became collateral damage to the redevelopment of Over-the-Rhine and West End.
It only makes him more determined to keep painting. Even if it’s almost impossible for him now.
“He never stops,” Clinkscale said. “He never says no.”
On a cold spring day last month, Rankins takes his dog outside for a walk. The same way he does every morning. He stays close to the grass. He can feel when it stops, and it’s how he knows when to turn.
It’s how he knows how to get to the smoking area.
“It’s five steps,” he says. “I swing my stick and I’m right there."
Rankins is 68 years old. And it takes him several hours to paint a tree.
He uses blue tape to separate colors. His hands feel where the painting ends. He can still see the picture in his head.
“I can see in my dreams,” he said.
Rankins is trying to remember what those look like before they fade completely.
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