First published: March 2026
After losing her sight in a car crash, Scottish artist Jo Sunshine brought colour and light back into her world in the only way she knew how
Picking up a paintbrush, Jo Sunshine thought that she might as well try using it. Like her father, she used to draw friends in the pub when she was younger. She would also paint murals or make art to give away. But she had given up a long time ago. She was 48 years old when her life was wrecked, alongside her car which span out of control and flipped over on the M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. “At least nobody else was hurt”, she says. But she still doesn’t remember what happened.
Sunshine in her bedroom-studio in 2025; photo: George Wright
What she does know is that months of rehabilitation turned into years of grey uncertainty. Her busy, bright days of working four jobs and drawing pictures of her friends in the pub were over. She endured two brain surgeries and was declared legally blind. She resigned herself to spending her days indoors, or carefully tapping her way to the local shop with her white cane – until several years later, in 2014.
By KATHERINE SUTHERLAND
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision 126.
