David Lazaro
Deaf Children
This piece was inspired by a Youtube video a Deaf friend showed me.... the only clear sign in the video was "I love you"..she asked me to draw what i thought it was about.. I perceived it to be about a deaf child growing up to hearing parents, how the parents of an infant use great facial expressions to interact , and the parent child relationshipin takes place in a very visual way, but then as time passes the parents withdraw from using so much expression, expecting to transition over to an audio world ::hence the clock pulling the Alexander Graham Bell mask over the faces. But using Bell as this polarized icon through the dual view point of Deaf Culture, and Hearing Culture, the piece came to be about the relationship between Deaf culture and American society ... The plane image is the X1 rocket...it was the first plane to break the sound barrier. i thought it fitting since the hand shape in ASL for "i love you", and "plane" are the same.... the paper airplane image hints back at the rocket in the foreground, and means the American school system's many painful attempts to educate Deaf children... the parent figures are shown signing behind the back denoting the parents feelings towards Deafness, and reluctance to embrace Deaf culture. An alarming percentage of hearing parents who have Deaf children do not learn sign language ..and so i hope the drawing asks the question... "It it logical to strap an infant upon this plane as a method to break the sound barrier and launch the child into hearing culture without choice, when the parents could mearly learn to sign and become a part of Deaf culture with the child...?" the shadows of the parents and infant are connected, while actually the patents are shown not even touching the same ground as the child, emphasizing the ignorant concepts of a society that believes all Deaf learn to read lips perfectly and this makes them blend effortlessly into their hearing world.. the snail is a near identical image to the cochlea inside the human ear, so coming from the shadow of the x1 rocket it reminds that in reality, lip reading and the oral method are an enormously slow and grueling process...and also hints at the speed with which society has really taken the time to intelligently consider Deafness, and finally questions the latest modern scientific approach to Deafness the Cochlear implant..that the face of the snail hints at the "i love you" handshape, and is turning around suggests that a loving society might try a different approach. the ears of the parent figures are shown as closed eyes....meaning that from the deaf child's perspective, the parents hearing causes them to not pay attention with their eyes...the scuba divers show Deaf culture,, as the beautiful silent world it is.. since Deaf scuba divers can literally use sign language to communicate underwater, where hearing people just akwardly gesture, and have to wait to be above the surface to communicate.....i hope this image would be striking and urge hearing people to stop and think deeper about Deaf culture, and the many wonderful aspects of life hearing causes them to miss....
Deaf Children
This piece was inspired by a Youtube video a Deaf friend showed me.... the only clear sign in the video was "I love you"..she asked me to draw what i thought it was about.. I perceived it to be about a deaf child growing up to hearing parents, how the parents of an infant use great facial expressions to interact , and the parent child relationshipin takes place in a very visual way, but then as time passes the parents withdraw from using so much expression, expecting to transition over to an audio world ::hence the clock pulling the Alexander Graham Bell mask over the faces. But using Bell as this polarized icon through the dual view point of Deaf Culture, and Hearing Culture, the piece came to be about the relationship between Deaf culture and American society ... The plane image is the X1 rocket...it was the first plane to break the sound barrier. i thought it fitting since the hand shape in ASL for "i love you", and "plane" are the same.... the paper airplane image hints back at the rocket in the foreground, and means the American school system's many painful attempts to educate Deaf children... the parent figures are shown signing behind the back denoting the parents feelings towards Deafness, and reluctance to embrace Deaf culture. An alarming percentage of hearing parents who have Deaf children do not learn sign language ..and so i hope the drawing asks the question... "It it logical to strap an infant upon this plane as a method to break the sound barrier and launch the child into hearing culture without choice, when the parents could mearly learn to sign and become a part of Deaf culture with the child...?" the shadows of the parents and infant are connected, while actually the patents are shown not even touching the same ground as the child, emphasizing the ignorant concepts of a society that believes all Deaf learn to read lips perfectly and this makes them blend effortlessly into their hearing world.. the snail is a near identical image to the cochlea inside the human ear, so coming from the shadow of the x1 rocket it reminds that in reality, lip reading and the oral method are an enormously slow and grueling process...and also hints at the speed with which society has really taken the time to intelligently consider Deafness, and finally questions the latest modern scientific approach to Deafness the Cochlear implant..that the face of the snail hints at the "i love you" handshape, and is turning around suggests that a loving society might try a different approach. the ears of the parent figures are shown as closed eyes....meaning that from the deaf child's perspective, the parents hearing causes them to not pay attention with their eyes...the scuba divers show Deaf culture,, as the beautiful silent world it is.. since Deaf scuba divers can literally use sign language to communicate underwater, where hearing people just akwardly gesture, and have to wait to be above the surface to communicate.....i hope this image would be striking and urge hearing people to stop and think deeper about Deaf culture, and the many wonderful aspects of life hearing causes them to miss....