Artist Statement
Spring 2012
Current Artist Statement:
The brand deaf person is foreign and strange to me, as I do not ever refer myself as that. When it does arise in occasion, it halts my thoughts and forces a personal disliking of the term. I know and accept I am deaf but do not let the term and its stereotypical connotations shape who I am as a person and my life.
I use text as way to create an ongoing personal dialogue talking directly to the viewer on matters of personal nature, as I seek to make known the frustrations and the fear of being misunderstood that comes with being deaf in a hearing world. Using text as a medium, to create a language spoken and understood universally, about a personal struggle not understood by most. The commonality of the language can form a bridge into an understanding of a personal struggle.
I grew up having my hearing tested inside a stiff, box-like hearing booth with a one way mirror. I grew to have dreaded feelings each time I had to enter that box. It seemed hours in which I was told to sit in a hard chair and listen for a series of tones and beeps each with a different pitch. I had a hand control with a button in which I was to press when I heard the sound. The practice has long been burned in my brain and the tones and beeps have become a ringing in my ear. In that booth I felt trapped and grew to be frustrated like a caged animal who wasn’t understood. The one way mirror wasn’t always very strong and I could see silhouettes of the audiologist and others observing me and taking notes and discussing my progress. I felt like a specimen.
As I have gotten older I have accepted who I am as a person and my hearing impairment. I battled with it inside me for years and never felt comfortable showing who I truly was and what I honestly thought of being deaf in a hearing world, until the light bulb went off in my head and I started using my hearing impairment as my concept in my work. I have discovered through this process the feeling of being liberated from my frustrations and have come to see people genuinely interested in my work and hearing impairment. I now can be understood how I want to be heard.
Current Artist Statement:
The brand deaf person is foreign and strange to me, as I do not ever refer myself as that. When it does arise in occasion, it halts my thoughts and forces a personal disliking of the term. I know and accept I am deaf but do not let the term and its stereotypical connotations shape who I am as a person and my life.
I use text as way to create an ongoing personal dialogue talking directly to the viewer on matters of personal nature, as I seek to make known the frustrations and the fear of being misunderstood that comes with being deaf in a hearing world. Using text as a medium, to create a language spoken and understood universally, about a personal struggle not understood by most. The commonality of the language can form a bridge into an understanding of a personal struggle.
I grew up having my hearing tested inside a stiff, box-like hearing booth with a one way mirror. I grew to have dreaded feelings each time I had to enter that box. It seemed hours in which I was told to sit in a hard chair and listen for a series of tones and beeps each with a different pitch. I had a hand control with a button in which I was to press when I heard the sound. The practice has long been burned in my brain and the tones and beeps have become a ringing in my ear. In that booth I felt trapped and grew to be frustrated like a caged animal who wasn’t understood. The one way mirror wasn’t always very strong and I could see silhouettes of the audiologist and others observing me and taking notes and discussing my progress. I felt like a specimen.
As I have gotten older I have accepted who I am as a person and my hearing impairment. I battled with it inside me for years and never felt comfortable showing who I truly was and what I honestly thought of being deaf in a hearing world, until the light bulb went off in my head and I started using my hearing impairment as my concept in my work. I have discovered through this process the feeling of being liberated from my frustrations and have come to see people genuinely interested in my work and hearing impairment. I now can be understood how I want to be heard.
