Fine-ish Art

Isolation

We all know the feeling of being isolated at a party. For 'the only Deaf person at a party,' though, it's a bit more extreme. Under good conditions and lots of skill, lip-reading catches 30% of the sounds in English--you have to guess the other 70%. But with bad lighting and several people talking at once, it becomes impossible to follow anything.

What to do if you're the only Deaf person at a party? Learn to not mind the isolation.

This piece was concept art for a project on Deafhood in the US.

Materials: digital (Wacom Intuos + Krita).

Utopia is a State of Mind

This is a piece about using art to be happy, even if life isn't so great at the moment. Through drawing, the girl brings warmth to her life.

Materials: black India ink (shading), mustard (yellow), rusty rock (red), grass (green), purple cabbage (blue). The colors were all natural materials.

Blind Eyes See Clearly

I didn't wear glasses until I was 12. I am legally blind without them. Yet I developed a skill for drawing, and enjoyed my life during this time. My blind eyes saw clearly.

The hand signs in the picture echo this: they literally are the signs for "Blind eyes see clear(ly)." I know many Deaf people. I've come to love ASL (American Sign Language). And I've come to see that being different doesn't make your life emptier.

I drew this picture without my glasses. I had to stare inches away from the canvas, and yet no one can tell by looking at it. I guess that blind eyes see clearly.

Materials: Marker on posterboard.

Dragon School Days

This was a collaborative piece with a classmate. We traded off the piece week by week, and would not tell each other where we were heading with the piece. The result was a bit of a dance between a spontaneous free spirit and a methodical mathematician.

Materials: markers, goache, charcoal, colored pencils, acrylic paint, and ink on paper.

(Dis)Communication

90% of Deaf kids have hearing parents. 90% of those parents don't learn sign. They usually think their kids can get by with learning how to speak and lipread. But even a master lipreader has trouble doing more than faking a conversation. That's because only 30% of the sounds used in English can be read on the lips.

To quote the words of Rachel Kolb, a Deaf woman writing for Stanford Magazine,
"How does one have a meaningful conversation at 30 percent? It is like functioning at 30 percent of normal oxygen, or eating 30 percent of recommended calories.”

This piece was an attempt to bring awareness to the subject.

Materials: markers on bristol paper.

A Splash of Color

I had a bit too much white space on my wall. I challenged myself to draw something non-representational for a change, but still bright and full of color. This picture stands at 3' X 2'.

Materials: Pencil, colored pencil, and sponge on bristol paper.

Disrespect

A simple piece on ecology. Nature has reclaimed what used to be concrete.

There's some blue graffiti. Disrespect led a person to tag this structure, disrespect led builders to "tag" the environment with concrete and steel, and when humans are all but gone, nature "tags" with mushrooms and moss.

Materials: black india ink, dirt (warm grey and orange), color pencil on paper.

That Brotherhood May Prevail

The depths of some peoples' souls are much deeper than they may seem. At first glance, this piece looks like a lot of random dots. Upon closer inspection, you can make out words, names, and even whole phrases in braille buried amongst the dots.

We have to dig deep to learn about each other. There's a lot more there. I learned this, living amongst nearly 600 students from over 80 countries. 600 dots, but there was so much humanity in there. I had only to look closer.

Materials: marker, paper, cardstock, and modpodge on posterboard.

If you would like to see more of my works, you can check out my DeviantArt page.

Scattered Dances of Light