Drawing is the new activism
I'm used to working with words to tell stories that cast fresh light on old concerns. I'm increasingly working with images to find and tell my stories, and perhaps move people's hearts and minds in some way. I'm discovering that I'm loving the learning that arises from drawing: a "difficult pleasure" as one of my art teachers describes it!
Talking Back to Diane Arbus, "Untitled" (1971)
marks is the area where I am putting my scratchings, scribblings, shadings, daubings and splatters. My main media for now are charcoal, graphite, white chalk and ink (black and sepia). I've been quite surprised by how much I'm enjoying working with these media as I've always seen myself as a "colour and paint" sort of a girl.
Pieter Bruegel: The Beggars, 1568
Visual arts images of people with disability and disabling conditions can be potent for the stories they reveal about their times, society, cultural attitudes, and of course, themselves. However, finding images of disability - historically and contemporaneously - in the visual arts is difficult. What is the role of museums, galleries and other public spaces here? And why does this question matter?