Barbara Blackman

Writings and broadcasting Work and interests Blackman lived a self-described unconventional life according to her autobiography. In a documentary film about her, Seeing From Within, released in 2017, Blackman states, "I could not have lived a conventional life, as I could not have picked up the rules".

She exhibited a wide range of intellectual interests and abilities. For example, she wrote the libretto for Peter Sculthorpe's Eliza Surviva (an opera that was never completed because of difficulties between him and his collaborator, Patrick White), an autobiography, and a humorous book of verse. Blackman's work is highly valued, as evidenced in the collection of correspondence between Blackman and her friend, the poet Judith Wright, published in 2007, and in the list of numerous resources written by her and about her that has been collected in the Australian Women's Register. Nevertheless, Blackman has maintained a humble attitude about her intellectual pursuits, saying, "I go with the angels and they know more than we do." She said "I told them what I wanted and they showed me the way."

She was a notable as a blind activist and pioneer of radio for printed handicap and was a member of the Blind Citizens's Committee Society since 1976. Herself launching into broadcasting in the early 1980's, she recorded 149 oral history programs for the National Library of Australia, The Barbara Blackman Collection included interview's with personality's associated with several genres with the arts, primarily the visual arts including painters, sculptures, potters and others, but also with writers, actors, musician's, theatre directors, architects, medical researchers, occupational therapists and ophalmologists. The interviews where conducted locally in all states of Australia, as well as in Britain and Italy between 1982 and 1989. Blackman was awarded the Australasian Sound Recording Association's Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and was considered as a significant record of "20th Century Art History".

Personal life and death She married the Australian artist Charles Blackman, in 1952, whom she had met in 1949, at his 21st birthday and they lived in Melbourne, supported by her income as an artist's model and from the blind pension and his earnings as a kitchen hand, most of which went to pay for costs associated with maintaining Charles' studio.

Recognition Blackman was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2012 for "distinguished service to the arts and to the community, as a supporter of artistic performance, through philanthropic contributions, and as an advocate for people who are blind and partially sighted."

Nigel Thomson's portrait of Blackman won the Archibald Prize in 1997.

Published works Certain Chairs, published by Viking Press Barbara and Charles Blackman Talk About Food (Taylor, John), published by Rigby, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Glass after Glass : Autobiographical Reflections, Penguin Books/Viking, 1997 / All My Januaries: Pleasures of Life and Other Essays, University of Queensland Press, 2016, Portrait of a Friendship: The Letters of Barbara Blackman and Judith Wright (Bryony Cosgrove), published by The Miegunyah Press, a division of Melbourne University Press