Photo credit: Mr Dot
From high-profile commissions and international solo shows to history-making marathon runs, artist Mr Dot is challenging gallery rules and bringing tactile art into the mainstream, one dot at a time.
Growing up in the 1980s blind in one eye, Clarke Reynolds AKA Mr Dot was constantly fascinated by the way he perceived light and detail. “I've been fascinated with dots since age six. When I would describe how I saw things it was like looking for a thousand dots," he explains.
After earning a degree in model making and working as a dental model maker, Mr Dot experienced a shift at age 32 when a dark shadow appeared in his other eye. Realising his vision was deteriorating rapidly during his fine detail work, he went to an urgent hospital appointment and left with the realisation that his life had changed.
Losing his sight, job, and consequently his home, Mr Dot turned to art to rebuild his life. Seven years ago, a friend introduced him to a Perkins Brailler, which is a mechanical device used to write braille. Recognising braille as a tactile grid pattern, he learned it in just three weeks: "It's like playing an organ, and it was so rhythmic. When I magnified it, I realised braille is just a pattern made up of tiny dots." He instantly had a major revelation: "Why isn't braille an art form just like typography?" From that spark, his art persona Mr Dot was born with his signature look: dungarees in bright yellow with black dots.
Exhibitions, international work, and high-profile commissions
Mr Dot challenges traditional gallery rules by explicitly encouraging audiences to touch his art. A full-circle moment arrived with his solo exhibition ‘Journey by Dots’ at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth, the very venue that first inspired him at six years old.
Taking his work overseas, Mr Dot made his international debut in Wichita, Kansas, at Envision. This is the only gallery in the United States tailored specifically to visually impaired arts. For this show, he created a massive 3m by 3m braille scrabble board with oversized tiles. The interactive piece invited sighted players to play using colour cues, while visually impaired players navigated using touch: “Because of the nature of it being colour, every time you play the game of scrabble, you're creating a new piece of artwork," says Mr Dot.
Back in the UK, he marked the 10-year anniversary of the Disability FA Cup by creating a metre-wide installation, featuring football star Harry Kane's words rendered entirely in tactile braille: "From our team to your team, play with pride, play with passion, play with skill."
Beyond the gallery, Mr Dot has taught braille to tens of thousands of school children nationwide, often bringing along his self-published book:‘Mr Dot to the Magical White Cane Adventures’. “They take my ethos and they teach their kids the Mr Dot way of learning braille and that's amazing. I mean that's a pinch me moment,” he says.
As patron for children’s sight loss charity VICTA and ambassador for Fight for Sight, his tireless advocacy earned him a nomination for Positive Role Model of the Year at the National Diversity Awards. Mr Dot also starred in a national TV ad for Tesco, and created portraits of commonwealth gold medal boxer Lewis Williams.
He made history this year as the first blind runner to complete a marathon using smart technology, wearing Ray-Ban Meta glasses linked to the Be My Eyes app. “The story reached as far as Singapore, Japan, Germany,” says Mr Dot. “There was a two-day special about me on TV.”
Looking to the future
Looking ahead, Mr Dot is launching an ambitious 3D-printed art installation funded by a £35,000 Arts Council grant called Mr Dot’s Shop. Designed like a retail shop with no traditional text – all branding, packaging, prices, and signage will feature colour-coded braille.
Alongside this project, Mr Dot is expanding his 24 Dots a Second collection, translating iconic film posters into exact 24-by-24 braille grids.
Driven by a mission to bring tactile art into mainstream society, he sums up his purpose: "I'm meant to go blind to bring braille to the masses. That's my attitude."