Take a moment to think of a piece of art.

Is it a painting?

A sculpture?

Whatever you're envisioning, you're probably not allowed to run your hands over it.

But if you can't see, how are you supposed to experience that art?

For Jill Wells, art is a universal form of expression and should be universally accepted.

[Jill Wells] If I don't have access to art and someone else doesn't have access to it, and I, as one single person, feel like I could change that, I do believe it's my responsibility to do that, and I find that to be vitally important because it acts as a vehicle of communication and information.

[Nebbe] Jill was born and raised in Indianola as the youngest of three.

She grew up making art with her siblings and grandmother and received encouraging feedback from teachers all the way through high school.

As she was getting ready to study art in college, her brother Lee suffered a brain aneurysm that rocked her family's life.

[Wells] He was in a coma for about 11 months, and the prognosis was not positive.

His friends, most specifically, who had never I don't think I'd ever seen them pray before, they were doing that.

He woke up one day and he had to learn how to do everything all over again.

And then one of the impacts of that aneurysm was the loss of his eyesight.

Things shifted so much so fast, and not knowing how to connect with him and just this whole other world of, like, who he is now, and it took a long time.

[Nebbe] This experience made Jill feel a responsibility to create pieces of art that anyone, regardless of ability, can enjoy.

[Wells] This is contracted braille, which is like a shorthand for very common words.

So, for this process here, I'm taking information out of a couple different sets of text.

Then I'll go ahead and kind of drill through and provide, like, a, kind of like a level of access through light.

The conversation around this series is looking at perception.

And so, I wanted to use that word and explore all these different variations of what happens to your perception when you have certain information and then when you don't have information.

So, we'll pull this up, see how we're looking.

I like to explore inaccessibility at the same time that I talk about accessibility, because we have so many inaccessibilities in our world and we all experience it.

So, I hope that this starts to cause people to, like, stop and question, like, well, why is it like that?

And then it can prompt the conversation around it.

A lot of times, like, the elephant in the room is like why so you do braille?

I always feel, like, pressure to tell my brother's story in a way, which that's not pressure, but it's like the pressure to explain myself.

I always question, like, why?

What if I didn't have that experience?

Would it not be okay if I was in love with this text?

You know, I don't know the answer to that question, but I ask it a lot.

♪♪ [Nebbe] Jill specializes in painting murals and creating interactive installations that incorporate sound, light, and touch.

♪♪ Her work can be found in public schools, on city buildings, and in community gathering spaces, ensuring that art is available for everyone.

In 2023, Jill created Iowa's first multisensory tactile mural at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Des Moines.

The piece features both braille and a 3D model of the mural as part of its description plaque.

[Wells] There's so many barriers for us to actually be able to engage with art.

I'm interested in removing as many of those barriers to the access of art as possible because I find art to be tremendously transformative and powerful.

[Nebbe] For Jill's brother, art is a means for connection and expression.

[Lee Simmons] Rolling, rolling, rolling, here I come.

I've always loved art, whether it be painting or drawing or coloring.

I don't want to blend in with everybody around me.

I want to stand out.

[Nebbe] In the spring of 2025, Lee took his art to a new level when he was able to help his sister paint a mural on the west side of Sioux City.

[Wells] Shimmy to the right.

Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.

All right, I'm going to hand you your roller.

Lay that whole thing nice and flat.

There you go.

You'll feel it.

And you can't mess this wall up.

There's so much space.

We got a lot to cover.

Working with my brother on a mural was something I only dreamt of.

It's very serendipitous that it's also around music because that's such a part of his art in his world, and that's how he's currently creating.

So, there's seven different languages in the mural.

Talks about music as universal language.

I don't think his doctors would have ever imagined he'd be doing something like this.

It's incredible.