Do you know what it’s like to be a creative artist with a hearing loss and be able to get through art school on your own, get published here and there, network with hearing artists and like-minded people in galleries throwing reception parties. . . .and doing digital art on storyboards, comics, flyers, posters and the like.. . .all the while you create and all the while you continue to learn the craft and find a way to find a full-time job in the field. . . .
something is amiss.
You look around and realize that you have not heard of any DEAF creator in the comic book field (and not just for fun but for professional authorship), not heard of any of them in the art exhibitions in your area nor any mention of them interviewed and/or showcased in magazines about their works, and things like that. Where are the deaf people involved in the film industry doing CGI/3-D animation or modelling works? Where are they involved in real advertising or commercial production? Where are they involved in magazine design or photography? I look at Juxtapoz magazine in contemporary/outsider art…where are the DEAF creatives? Are they AFRAID or just not interested?
Or they’re unsure of where to go?
But sometimes I wonder if the lack of deaf creative professionals out there resulted from creative firms/ad agencies or publishers in NOT hiring them out of fear that the deaf person(s) will not have the capacity to translate visuals from popular culture in an abstract point of view? I wonder if there is some discrimination out there towards the deaf that in which hearing people are the preferred choice for being able to take critiques well enough and communicate in the board room and/or discuss things intelligently with art directors?
Can’t companies such as Marvel Comics hire a deaf writer and put him/her in the role of writing a character that share the same disability traits? Or giving the writer a fighting chance to prove himself that he can conjure up stories as effectively as the other scribes can?
So far, one rarity I found is Sara E. She impressed me with her technical wizardry and familiarity with the digital realm and introduced me to her bloggery. Encouraging me to say something concrete and meaningful, I decided to do so. As you probably already know that I, myself, am hard of hearing to the point of being deaf thanks to german measles during birth. I read lips with little difficulty until of course, as age progresses turning it into a challenge.
Art is my secondary language to which I illustrate my stories, views, and interpret what the world may seem according to me and what society sees as well. My goal is to tantallize the sheep into thought and stir them to action. If art cannot move civilization, it has failed humanity and non-existent will civilization be.
Maybe, we are the few and rare deaf individuals who are truly illuminated by reality and the meta-physical realm that reaches us. Are we the evolved deaf OR just the fortunate ones that had the sense to hear some sound early in our lives to expose us to new ideas and things beyond the veil of silent darkness that we all name so crudely. . . .
deafness.
