Disability in the Arts: Michael Monaco

           

            Our next artist, Michael Monaco did not develop his art skills until after a tragic accident changed his world.  Michael is considered a part of the disability in the arts community because he is a quadriplegic, which means he does not have the ability to use any of his limbs. He is considered a mouth painter and has been recognized all over the world for it.

            Well, Michael was not born with this disability, but found himself in a horrible car accident with several of his friends. When he was at the age of sixteen, his body from the neck down was paralyzed. He discovered that he had to learn to do everything with his mouth, so anything from operating his wheelchair to drawing. After mastering the pencil he quickly moved on to using paint brushes. 

Disability in the Arts: Keith Salmon

            Keith Salmon represents our fourth artist for the disability of the arts. He has made some remarkable journeys throughout his life, but it all began in 1959 when he was born. There is not much to say about his childhood, but things started to get interesting as he moves into his college years.

            When he goes off to Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology and the Falmouth School of Art, he is able to eventually obtain a bachelors of art. After training, he began his artist journey as a sculptor, but that did not work out for very long because his eye sight started to quickly deteriorate in his thirties, which made him visually impaired. Therefore, he had to come up with a new direction for his artwork to go in quickly. At this point, he still had some eyesight left, but not much.

            He put all his effort into finding new methods of creating artwork that did not require him to use much of his eyesight. He found that drawing and painting would be the best mediums to go into, so he dove right in to it. Overtime, he developed two different types of styles. One of his styles was organized scribbles that form a drawing and the other was bigger marks in oil of acrylic in paintings. He has now started to combine these two styles into one.

            Salmon’s inspiration comes from the Scottish Highlands. He uses the memories from his experiences to create beautiful artwork.  He is a mountain climber and has climbed over a hundred Munros, which are Scottish mountains. His just wants to convey to others on how he experiences these wonderful places. 

Disability in the Arts: Peter Longstaff

In this article, Benjamin Franklin is talking about Rev. George Whitefield. Benjamin Franklin did not like Whitefield at first, but they ended up forming an interesting friendship. Both of these men were powerful influences during their lifetime.

            Franklin describes Whitefield as all the clergy taking an instantaneous dislike to him, so it was hard to be able to preach which Whitefield was an evangelist of the Great Awakening. Even though this group did not care for him, many others admired and respected him. He would have hundreds of people come and hear him preach. He was a very likeable man among the crowd.

            Franklin soon attended one of his Sermons, and had a mindset that Whitefield would receive no money from him.  He ended up emptying all of his pockets into the collection. The reason being was that as Whitefield approached him expecting an offering, Franklin softened. He concluded that he felt ashamed because of his later friend’s oratory. Therefore, he gave it all.

            He notes about his friend’s integrity as well and gives him the upmost highest review. Some of the people believed that some of the collection taken would end up in Whitefield’s own private profit, but this according the Franklin would not happen. He was very acquainted with him and never once thought that he would do something like that. The reason for being so sure was that had been employed in printing some of his friend’s sermons and journals.

           

Disability in the Arts: Stephen Wiltshire

            

            The second artist that I have chosen to represent the disability in the arts community is Stephen Wiltshire. Wiltshire was born and raised in London by his West Indian parents. As a child he did not relate well to other children, so he drew instead. His favorite pastime was drawing. When he was around three years of age his family discovered that he had Autistic Savant.          

Something that occurs in children with Autism is that they cannot talk, but they tend to discover a hidden talent.  Wiltshire was not able to speak until around age eight. He was only able to talk because his teachers encouraged him to use his words by using certain methods. One of these methods was taking his art supplies away, so he would have to ask for them back. This worked and he eventually was able to speak normally, which has helped him in his art career.

Wiltshire’s art career took off when he was only seven years old. At this point, he began commissioning art for very important people such as the British Prime Minister. He continued drawing and eventually started painting, which led him to study Fine Arts at City and Guilds Art College. He graduated with a degree in drawing and printmaking. 

His theme is usually detailed landscapes. He draws lifelike and pretty accurate representations of cities, which sometimes he has only had a very limited amount of time to view the city before creating his masterpieces. The drawings are usually pretty large in scale and done in pen. The largest one measured ten meters long, which only took him eight day to complete using a pen. In his private sketchbook, he likes to draw portraits of people. He is a pretty amazing artist.

Stephen Wiltshire continues to make an impact on the art world. He has successfully shown us what it looks like to have a disability and also to be a great artist. I particularly like his motto which is “Do the best you can and never stop”. He certainly follows this as he continues to produce magnificent pieces of art for others to enjoy. 

Disability in the Arts: Chuck Close

           

The first artist that I have chosen to represent the disability in the arts community is Chuck Close. In my previous blog, I mention him as being disabled. He has not always been that way, so because of this his artwork has changed throughout his life. Close used to use his hands a lot when creating his masterpieces, but now he cannot rely on that.

            To begin, Close was born on the fifth of July in 1940 in Monroe, Washington, so he is an American citizen. He is still living which would put him in his seventies now, and continues to create portraits. When he was young, Close suffered from a learning disability in reading and struggled in his academics. He made up for that by having an exceptional talent for drawing and painting. Before his fifties, he was using a process called fingerpoint to create some of his portraits, but that would only be his style for a short while.

            In Close’s fifties, he suffered a severe spinal artery collapse, which damaged parts of his body. He can only partial use some of his arms and legs, and has to rely on a wheelchair now. When this happened, he stopped making artwork for a time, but eventually started back up with a new style. He continued to focus on portraits of people, which his models were his friends and family members. To be able to paint these massive portraits, he uses a motorized easel and a chair lift to get to his destination on the canvas. He has a special way of resting the paint brush on his hand, so he can make his marks. 

            Close has always been very interested in detail. Before his illness, he focused on every wrinkle, strand of hair, and other features on each person. Now he focuses more on color and each square he paints. His style is more abstract than it was beforehand, however his disability has helped in the long run. He is now shown in the world’s finest galleries around the world. 

Difference Between Disability in the Arts and Disability Art

           

In the art world, there are two types of art that describes disability. We see people who have done disability art or participate in disabilities in the arts. Both of these themes help promote awareness for those who are a part of the disabled world. Many artists have gone outside the norm in history to show that there are those out there who are different from the standard person. With the newer generations, we see more and more people engaging in these themes. That being said we need to know the difference between these two themes surrounding art and disabilities.

            The disability in the arts has not always been around. However, it refers to a more active participation or representation of disabled people in the arts rather than the actual context of the work being about disability. Also, art made by a disabled person does not automatically become disability art just because it was a disabled person produced the artwork. The content of the work could be anything the only requirement for it to qualify as disability in the arts is if the person qualifies as disabled.

            There are plenty of artists that fall under this category. We have Chuck Close that uses a powered wheel-chair and easel to complete his art. He is unable to walk or use some of his arm, but he still completes art. Then you have autistic and downs syndrome people who complete artwork to sell. There are so many different types of disabilities, but they all fall under this category.

            The disability art is the opposite of disability in the arts. The following theme can be any art, theatre, fine arts, film, writing, music as long as it takes disability as its theme or whose context relates to disability. The type of grouping does not require the maker to be disabled; however the maker can indeed be disabled. For example, Marc Quinn sculpted Alison Lapper pregnant which is another artist who does not have any arms, and is considered a mouth painter. However, Quinn does not have a disability, but if he did it would still be considered disability art because of the content.

            I have been able to join the disability art community because the majority of my artwork depicts those who have some kind of disability. My brother, who has Down syndrome, has been the main focus for my work. As I continued my work I started using his friends as models for my work as well. For my senior show, I incorporated several mediums to describe my brother and his friends to bring out the beautiful side of those with disabilities. Therefore, my artwork would be considered disability art.