FORT MYERS, Fla. — Bobby Conley suffers from Stargardt (star-gard), which is a form of macular degeneration.
It's an eye disease that causes severe, permanent vision loss in people over age 60. Doctors say the disease is a result of when the small central portion of your retina, called the macula, wears down.
But that doesn’t keep Bobby from painting.
“That has made him unable to drive for 15 years now, it’s hereditary, but he still manages to do things around the house that are…amazing, “said Joan Conley.
“For me, it’s just, ah, a nuisance, I always felt like I could do anything I put my mind to,” says Bobby.
“My friends marvel at him, they say, I don’t believe he’s really blind. I can’t believe it, said Joan.
“I try to work around it. I really didn’t have any structural idea of what I wanted to paint, or anything like that. I just decided I wanted to paint. I wanted to paint pictures that I like and I wanted to paint pictures I thought other people would like, ” said Bobby.
