Two years ago, professional artist Steven Zatto couldn’t see and was paralyzed from the neck down.

The Huron Township native thought his life’s passion for creating artwork was likely a thing of the past since he couldn’t see colors for his drawings or even stand up to make a sculpture.

It was the lowest point in life that Zatto, 71, had ever experienced.

“I was at the end,” Zatto said. “Every time I talk about it, I get very emotional. Art’s everything to me.”

Even though it felt like the end for Zatto, eventually there would be hope on the horizon not only for good health, but also for a rebirth for his artwork.

Today, Zatto can see exceptionally well given all that he’s been through, and the culmination of the last several years of health struggles is currently on display at his “Figures and Forms” art show at Black Box, 1034 Monroe St., Dearborn.

The exhibit is open to the public through July 29.

“I have 24 works of art on display at the exhibition, and just about all of the works were created after loss of my vision and paralysis,” Zatto said.

Zatto’s physical health started to decline years ago when he was hit by a semitruck while traveling home from an art exhibit in Detroit in 1992.

“After a long court trial, nothing ever happened and nothing ever helped, and I dealt with back pain and chronic pain for many years, even while I was going to college,” he said. “After many years of pain, I got into another accident, and again I had no help, no insurance coverage.”

After his multiple accidents, Zatto said, his decline came on quickly and to the point where he suddenly couldn’t use his hands anymore.

“This was after I won a court case and was sent to a doctor who told me there was nothing wrong with me,” he said. “Three weeks after that appointment, I was paralyzed. It came on kind of quickly. I fell down a couple times, and then a day later, I found I couldn’t use my hands very well, and the next thing was I couldn’t walk, my speech was slurred, and I had all kinds of problems.”

Zatto said he went into emergency surgery and that’s when he found out some terrible news.

“I had to go into emergency surgery, and it was very scary when I found out what was wrong,” he said. “I had a brain stem injury. My neck was cracked and my brain stem had swelled up.”

After the surgery was finished, he came home to recover. Even though the brain stem surgery helped with his paralysis, that’s when he noticed his vision was starting to get worse.

“Over a couple months and then a year, it was terrible,” he said. “I couldn’t see anymore. I could see shapes, but I couldn’t see my colors, so basically I was staring all the time, just trying to keep my eyes and my hands coordinated.”

According to Zatto, this is around the time desperation began to set in. Art was his life, and not being able to see was one of the worst things that could happen to a person like him.

“At that point, I figured if I couldn’t see anymore and I wondered how I could ever make art again,” he said. “I started to get desperate.”

Zatto said he began to research a little bit more about his vision problems, and he found a doctor in Florida who specialized in repairing damaged vision.

“I went to Florida and I found this doctor who was willing to do surgery on my eyes with a laser, and he got me my vision back,” Zatto said. “I’m sitting here today and I can’t believe my vision is getting better. Now I can read without glasses and I can see a good 100 yards perfectly.

After his first surgery, Zatto said he had to wait a while before the doctor would work on his second eye, and during this time, he had to refrain from making any artwork so his eye could heal.

“After my first eye surgery, I couldn’t draw and paint for over a year because my doctor told me not to stress my eyes,” he said. “So for a whole year I did exactly what he told me, really disciplined myself, and when he told me I could draw, I started drawing again and then I got my second eye done after a year.”

Once surgery on both of his eyes was completed, he said, it was like a rebirth — both for his physical ailments and for his creative spark.

“After my second surgery, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “My whole world opened up again. I got color back, I got clarity, and on some days when I wake up, it’s almost like I’m looking at things like a child again, like everything is crystal clear.”

Because of his new lease on life, Zatto said the ball got rolling quickly again for creating art.

“I got charged up you know, I started painting again, my colors came back,” he said, “I was painting in blues, kind of like Monet, you know his colors were like grayed-down, and he started the impressionist idea of not having lines and things, and because I couldn’t really see well, I know what he saw because I was seeing like that.”

Zatto said it was hard to hold back his motivation to be creative once he had regained his vision again.

“I could barely hold onto myself when I would get ahold of my colors because it felt that new to me,” Zatto said.

Zatto is no stranger to the metropolitan Detroit art scene.

He began his artistic studies at the Center for Creative Studies where he received his bachelor’s degree in painting in 1983.  Zatto went on to receive his master’s at Wayne State University in 1985. He has also done extensive study in ceramics and sculpture.

He is a member of the Cass Corridor Group of artists, recognized for their rugged, direct, and vibrant work, and it is some of his friends in the Detroit art scene who helped him get through the hard times he has experienced as an artist.

“I had a really dear friend call me to be in a show at the Black Box Gallery, and I worked hard to get a piece done for that exhibit, and it sold, and that brought me to the show I’m at now,” Zatto said.

“When you have friends that believe in you, that don’t give up, no matter how bad it looks for you, they stick by you, that is everything. These are my friends from the long past, real old-timers who have been around for a long time. Their help and their confidence in me, really helped me push along. This also includes my wife, who has been by my side through this whole thing.”

Zatto said he thinks when a person is at their lowest point in life, there is something special working amidst all the chaos.

“I was missing for a while, but I’ve been resurrected,” he said. “You never know how things work. When you’re really down, something in the universe helps you. I put everything into this show, all my skill and the presentation. I wanted to give the city of Dearborn the chance that I had to see things new again.”