Preview
Creation Date
2018
Description
Materials: Acrylics on paper
Dimensions: 14 x 12 inches
Project Advisor: Tony Conrad
Year of Graduation: 2018
Medium
Painting
Rights
Copyright for this work is held by the artist.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
COinS
Artist Statement
Barely out of my terrible twos, I was diagnosed with a speech deficiency. As I became older, my problems grew worse. Now, I am officially diagnosed with a learning disability and my writing, reading, and speaking skills are not at a collegiate level. During my time in school, I became more self-aware of my learning disabilities. Since then, I have been struggling to understand whether the problem is me or the educational systems I must adhere to.
Art is a language for me to speak when words cannot. My art is the strongest voice I have and the solution for my deepest problems. The current work describes my experiences as a person with a learning disability. It reflects two mindsets: a failure in the eyes of an education system and a student struggling with a learning disability. In my paintings, I use a combination of negative feedback and the use of words to demonstrate how a person with a disability may feel and learn in an environment that does not easily accept them. The creatures depicted in the paintings bring me back to childhood memories where I felt safe from my own insecurities. They are symbolic of happiness. The creatures appear cute and friendly, but inside, they have these problems. In the same way, I don’t appear to have any difficulties but inside, I have trouble with use of language. My works invoke a safe mindset where the cruel world and the harsh reality cannot get in. I am showing the multiple transitions in my life: Learning Disability to Disability, a Secret to Truth, and an Acceptance of my Identity.
* This statement has been through many drafts and revisions. It took at least four months to express my thoughts.