Blindness Doesn't Stand In The Way For Cooper Union Art Student

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Cooper Union art student has proven that no obstacle is too great to overcome.

As CBS 2's Andrea Grymes reported Friday, Cooper Union senior Emilie Gossiaux can recognize and feel her own works of art, but she cannot see them.

Gossiaux lost her eyesight and is also hearing impaired – but don't feel sorry for her.

"What I don't want them to do is to, like, look at it and say, 'Wow, that's really good for someone who's blind,'" Gossiaux said.

Gossiaux, 25, will graduate next week with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

"It's really unbelievable, almost," she said.

In 2010, Gossiaux was hit by a truck. She spent three months in the hospital and a year in rehab.

The accident left Gossiaux blind. But after growing up hearing impaired, she knew it wouldn't stop her.

"I wasn't scared and I wasn't like, I didn't cry," she said. "It's really weird. I don't understand it myself."

Gossiaux came back in 2013, proudly displaying her work last month in her senior show, and in the school's end of the year show this year.

She said now, she relies on her hands more than her eyes.

"I can visualize things in my head very clearly," Gossiaux said. "I know what things look like when I touch them."

Friend and instructor Tommy Coleman has helped Gossiaux conceptualize her ideas.

"Emilie is ferocious," Coleman said. "She doesn't ever stop making things."

She also gets a little help from her seeing-eye dog, London.

After Emilie graduates, she will work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She will be helping them make art more accessible for the visually impaired – in an opportunity she could not refuse.

"It's like my dream job to work at the Met," she said.

Another dream for Gossiaux is to own her own studio – just part of the wonderful future she sees for herself.

The end of the year show at Cooper Union opens to the public on Tuesday.

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