The power of other art forms, a cartoon

Last week I attended National VSA Conference in Washington, DC. VSA Arts is an international Organization that works to promote experiences in the arts  with people with disabilities.  I really enjoyed meeting VSA artists from all over the world (including Japan!) and the presentations were great. I've been involved with the local VSA organization for some years now and love it.

I had a powerful experience in one workshop that I ended up going to at the last minute because the one I had planned for had been cancelled. It was one entitled, "Comics, Films & Language" which talked about overcoming stereotyping in the arts.  We were given a piece of paper with four empty quadrants in order to draw our own cartoon. Pictured above is mine--if you click on it, you can see it more closely.  The instructions were :

4-Frame Story Activity:

1. Think about a time when you were (dis)abled. ( for me this is about my cochlear implant journey)
2. Revisit from perspectives that decenter expectations of normal.
3. Show close-up through humor, parody, or metaphor your identity, experience, strengths, and capacities.
4. Deconstruct disabling social constructions.
I did this drawing on the train going home. I didn't really think too much about it, I just drew what I felt led to draw. I have my own interpretation of what i did but I thought i'd leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions. If you want to, you can comment below what comes to mind. Thanks!

Come on by my website sometime too! I have lots of music to listen to!
www.blueoconnell.com