Deaf View Image Art

Deaf View Image Art
30 inch by 40 inch
oil on canvas
January 2013
NFS

This painting is about Deaf View Image Art as in De’VIA. It shows three themes: resistance art, affirmative art and liberation art. These images represent Audism, Second Wave of Oralism, Paternalism, Submissive, Mask of Benevolence, Subaltern resistance and Empowerment. The artist had painted these images over the year, to show our Deaf human rights and the struggles that are seen repeatedly. This is what Deaf View Image Art is about in the painting. The hidden image in the painting shows the artist. And in fact, the painting itself is a self-portrait, the artist is looking at all the images, thinking about what can be done in the Deaf world.

This painting was displayed at the International Art Exhibition, The World is Heard by the Soul in Saint Petersburg, Russia, inside the Smolny Institute/Lenin Museum on September 1, 2013. I was one of the four USA Deaf artists to whom were invited with honors by the Russian Federation, to attend the opening of the exhibition. Something happened during the exhibition, and one of the curators inside the Smolny Institute told the artists to leave the museum immediately. I asked to take the two of my paintings with me, because I had the feeling, I would never see the paintings again. They locked the museum and I could not take the paintings with me. The next morning, I told one of the curators, I must go back to the museum and get my paintings before I left for USA. They told me it was impossible.

I never got the paintings back until four years later. I learned that this painting was showcased in Moscow, Russia. So apparently, the paintings traveled to Moscow from St. Petersburg and were kept in a home. I was so happy to see it back in good condition. I learned that the coordinator of the exhibition got busted and later died in prison. Someone was able to return the paintings for me. Four years later, the painting was brought back to USA.