Mirroring a crocodile's huge, fearsome jaws, a pair of arms lies directly beneath them, parodying their drawbridge motion. (DSP)
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Chuck Baird is a De'VIA (Deaf View / Image Art) artist, and he's got a lot of cool stuff that incorporates American Sign Language! I think this one, Tyger Tyger, and the whale one are my favorites. Check him out!
De'VIA art, standing for "Deaf View/Image Art," is a form of expressive visual art created by Deaf artists!!!
The term was coined in 1989 by nine Deaf artists (Miller [painter], Johnston [sculptor], Sonnenstrahl [art historian], Baird [painter], Wonder [sculptor], Wilhite [painter], Vasnick [fiber artist], Creighton [fiber artist], Lai-Yok Ho [video artist]) collaborating to create expressive artwork to unveil at the Deaf Way Festival and a word to accurately describe their artworks in relation to their deafness. These artists created a mural (below) acting as part of their signatures, serving as the first official artwork made under the De'VIA title.
(Patti Durr, HandEyes)
De'VIA follows a basic criteria of 4 elements:
Deaf/Deaf-Blind expression of affirmation, resistance, and/or liberation
View of the Deaf/Deaf-Blind experience in the world
Imagery/motifs/symbols of the Deaf Experience
Art, Activism, Aesthetics, and Authentic Expressions of the Deaf Experience
(Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture)
It can be identified through expression of the Deaf Experience or any variety of it, rather than by the deafness of the artist; in other words, all artwork created to communicate the Deaf Experience in any way is De'VIA, but not all artwork created by Deaf artists is. It can also be identified by Deaf artists' general tendencies to use bold colors with contrasting values, varied texturing, and exaggerated features in relation to hands and faces!!
(DeafArt.org)
some key De'ViA artworks by key Deaf artists!!
(i preface this with a slight body horror cw)
Bell School, Betty G. Miller
Ameslan Prohibited, Betty G. Miller
(part of the first show focused exclusively on art with Deaf Themes, 1972)
Family Dog, Susan Dupor
Art No. 2, Chuck Baird
(De'VIA exhibited at the 3rd and 4th Deaf Studies Conferences, 1993-1999)
Poetic Hand, Paul Johnston
(part of the first national touring exhibit on Deaf Culture Art, 1999)
(artwork timeline and events courtesy of DeafArt.org)
Above image: Elizabeth L. Baird, Who, where, from, your name, 1970. Courtesy Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture.
Description: Faces of four (4) younger people situated to form a diamond of sorts. It appears that two of them are signing the words who, where and from.
Deaf View/Image Art, also known as De’VIA, is art that examines and expresses the Deaf Experience from a cultural, linguistic, and intersectional point of view.
De = Deaf & Deaf-Blind Expression of Affirmation, Resistance, and Liberation
V = View of how Deaf & Deaf-Blind experience the world
I = Images/Motifs/Symbols of the Deaf Experience
A = Art, Activism, Aesthetics, and Authentic Expressions of the Deaf Experience
*Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture - https://www.museumofdeaf.org/de-via
Here’s the comic I made for Seven Days, a Vermont alternate weekly newspaper, about Austine deaf school and VCDHH. They’re now trying to get help from the legislature for money for a position of single entry service for the deaf / hard of hearing Vermonters.
((please click on the pics for better viewing. Thanks tumblr for heavily compressing my images.))
Click here for Image description.
Nancy Rourke, 2010, Just a Minute (Deaf person feels left out). Oil on canvas, 20 inches x 30 inches.
Website: https://www.nancyrourke.com/index.htm
Twitter: @nancyrourke
Nancy Rourke is exceptionally talented. She is a Deaf Artist, a Deaf advocate and an influential member of De'VIA (Deaf View/Image Art), an art movement that represents “Deaf artists and perceptions based on their Deaf experiences.” Influenced by the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jacob Lawrence, Rourke’s paintings possess this Neo-Expressionist je n'ais c'est quoi - the style is unique but identifiable; the themes unequivocal: Deaf Culture, Deafhood, Deaf Pride, American Sign Language (ASL) and Audism (to name a few).
My work has a centralized focus that makes a theme; resistance, affirmation and liberation art. I create words, images, colours and all of the construction that show blue tapes, yellow lights, hands, eyes, elephant, horse, strings, cracks, bandaids and so on. Primary colours are what I use. I also use monochrome for reinforcement. These elements make a big exposure to both Deaf and Hearing society. (Nancy Rourke’s Artist Statement)
