Biography:
My search for Deafhood began when I was born
into a family with hearing parents and two brothers. One of my brothers is Deaf. At very young
age, I went to Hearing Institute in Los Angeles for speech training, which had
absolutely no effect on me. Then I was
place in public school with a self contained class for the Deaf in Orange
country (Southern California). Oralism was used in the instruction of the
Deaf. Daydreaming was my normal activity
in the oralist classroom because I had no idea what my oralist teacher was saying. I used gestures and homemade signs to
communicate with my Deaf peers. My
teacher would punish me for using sign language by taping my hands to the table
and force me to use speech.
During the
playground recess, I got in trouble frequently with other hearing students
because they made fun of me for being Deaf.
They wouldn’t play with me, so my response to them was to steal their
bouncy red ball in the middle of their “four corner” game and kick it far away
or running into the jump rope and getting entangled in the rope. The yard duty
who caught me behaving badly often placed me in “time-out corner” in
their classroom away from my classroom.
During my time out, I usually snuck around and robbed milk money from
hearing students’ lunchboxes in the students’ closet. One time during a time out, I helped out a
class project pet lizard make a jailbreak out of the cage because I could feel
related very well to this caged lizard.
It was never found again.
As a result of
my burning Deafhood spirit yearning to be set free, the school wanted to expel
me. My mother intervened and agreed to
put me in another public school with oralist self contained classroom for the
Deaf. The nightmare began when I had a
strict oralist male teacher who used corporal punishment (paddling) to
discipline me frequently. I started to
get into fistfights with hearing students on the playground who made fun of me.
Due to my
frequent defiant behaviors, my mother decided to try something new for me…SIGN
LANGUAGE. My bullying days ended when I
learned to sign in Signing Exact English (SEE).
I went to another school with a self contained classroom for the Deaf
that usef SEE. At last I was able to communicate much better because
manual sign language met my visual needs to communicate. But I had great difficulty learning to write
and read. SEE did not help me learn to
write and read at all. I used a lot of
ASL-like signs in SEE to communicate with my Deaf peers. When I sign in
ASL-like SEE, my teacher would stop me and make me sign in pure SEE. Something inside me naturally told me to use
ASL and I didn’t know what it was.
At the age of
13, I went to California School for the Deaf, Riverside and a new world of
Deafhood suddenly opened to me when I met nearly everyone who signed in ASL. I learned to sign ASL extremely fast and
effortlessly. I dumped SEE for good
because it was very restrictive and awkward.
With ASL, I made leaps and bounds in academics. Five years later, I scored the highest SAT in
CSDR. With the vibrant Deaf community at
CSDR, I get involved in many activities that helped me grow personally. At last, I finally accepted my Deaf identity
after my difficult childhood in the world of audism.
After I
graduated from CSDR, I went to Gallaudet University. Gallaudet University is
truly a Deaf community paradise for me because it helped me live my life to the
fullest and I also met my wonderful wife there.
I got my BA in public education and history. Then I went to California
State University, Northridge to earn my MA in special education. Currently I am teaching Visual Arts at CSD,
Fremont. My wife and I have three
beautiful CODA kids.
My Art Inspiration
My love for art
began at age of 4 when I discovered that art is a medium that I can use to
communicate with my parents who didn’t know sign language. I loved to get reactions from my parents when
they saw my art work. It started a life
of art passion.
During my young
childhood, I always loved to look at pictures and images in books to get some
ideas to draw. At age of 7, I came upon
a beautiful, haunting image that affected me deeply. It was Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of
Earthly Delights. I started to draw
surrealist dream-like images with Bosch-like creatures in them. I continued to look through books to find more
images similar to Bosch, I found a disturbing image, The Maze, done by William
Kurelek. I felt related to this image
very well because of my difficult childhood.
This image continues to haunt me for the rest of my life. It is just a reminder of my past. It shaped
now I express myself in art.
My artistic
growth was pretty much limited to drawing until I took high school visual arts
class at CSDR. My visual arts teacher was impressed with my natural art talent
and decided to let me do a lot of advanced independent art projects. It gave me a chance to explore different art
mediums from ink drawing to stained glass to linocut.
When I was in
college, I did not do very much with my artistic skills except drew cartoons
and images for advertisements for different organizations. I fell in love with art literature when I
took a course in art history. I studied
and admired many art greats such as Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Matisse, and others
which shaped how I teach art at CSD.
After my graduation from college, my art passion went into deep
hibernation for nearly 20 years because I was teaching social studies, which
had little to do with art, and was very busy raising my three kids with my
wife. The 18 years of teaching social
studies started to wear me out and I started to explore other teaching
options. Fortunately, an opportunity
came knocking- a long time CSD art teacher had just retired. I took this chance to become an art teacher
to replace her. Because of my Deafhood
journey, I decided to teach Deaf-centered visual arts class with emphasis on
De’ VIA. My students study many De’VIA
artists such as Chuck Baird, Susan Dupor, Betty Miller, and Nancy Rourke. De’ VIA helped my students analyze and
explore their Deafhood experience and express themselves in art. It was a huge success. I have been teaching art at CSD for six
years.
The Emerging De’ VIA Artist
When I was
teaching art at CSD, someone approached to see if she could buy my De VIA art
pieces which I created to be used as the models for my students to study. I decided to sell several of my De’ VIA
creations to raise fund for my art classroom supplies. They all sold out immediately. After this, I have been selling art pieces
for several years for fundraising purposes.
People who own
several pieces of my artwork strongly encouraged me to start my own small art business at home so
they can buy more from me. Also, they
felt that was time for me to go out and join the De’ VIA community as one of
the newest and emerging De’ VIA artists.
With a pay cut, the rising cost of inflation, and my kids in college, I
decided to start a small online art business to meet my family need. This is the beginning of my De’VIA artist
career…
Abstracts:
Deafhood Unleashed
2011
12”x18”
linocut
The hands in
chains represent thousands of Deaf people in America being oppressed in the
world of audism. The hands in chains are signing “Desire” because they have
natural desire to be free from oppression. When the oppressed Deaf people
discover Deafhood, the chains of oppression start to dissolve and hands becomes
free as butterfly.
2011
12”x18” linocut
Alice Cogswell is shining brightly
among the stars in the night sky looking down on American School for the Deaf
with pride. She is signing in ASL , “Me
Your Mother” because she is the mother of all schools for the Deaf in America. She was the one who changed American Deaf
education history when she met Thomas Gallaudet. She left an everlasting legacy in America as
many schools for the Deaf across the nation were modeled after Alice Cogswell’s
school, American School for the Deaf. When you look up the night sky and see the
brightest star of all, you will know who is watching over us.
The Missing Jigsaw Pieces
2012
12”x18” linocut
This toddler is pleading to be a whole Deaf
person. She only need someone to simply
put the jigsaw pieces in the toddler’s head.
Unfortunately the audists everywhere knew that is the key to a complete
Deaf person but they refused to recognize it and keep on focusing on hearing and
speech. They clearly can see the solution
in the toddler’s hand but they CHOSE not to use it.
The Crucifixion of Sign Language
12”x18” linocut
2011
An “I really love you” hand shape
is being crucified upside down by the Milan Conference of 1880. However sign language is being resurrected as
ASL with strong Deaf identity in America after the Milan Conference. The Roman numeral, 1880, is being engraved in
Deaf history as the major turning point for the Deaf.
George and the Dragon
2012
12”x18” linocut
This linocut is based on famous St. George and
the Dragon legend. George Veditz is charging toward AG Bell dragon and slaying
him. He is on his way to rescue Deaf victims imprisoned in Volta building (top
of image). AG Bell’s forked tongue represent lies that
he is telling everyone, his ears symbolize his obsession with auditory approach
to Deaf education, and the tail between the legs depicts his cowardice. The
Volta Bureau building was made to looks like a crypt with a black cloud of
oppression looming over it. AG Bell’s diseased audist heart got pierced by
Verdit’s Deafhood lance. The border and
letters are done in medieval art style.
The Awakening
2005 (My first De’ VIA artwork)
9” sculpture
There
was a period of chaos for the Deaf community in our nation back in 1880 when
the Milan Conference passed a resolution that proclaimed oralism as the
official teaching method of the Deaf. It
literally started the “Dark Age” for the Deaf in America. Before the 1880’s, American Sign Language
(ASL) was widely accepted as the method of instruction for the Deaf everywhere
in America. Deaf people took ASL for
granted until the Milan conference when its decision shook the foundation of
Deaf instruction in the United States.
Out of
this chaos, the Deaf movement was born.
The National Association of the Deaf was formed in 1880 to defend
ASL. There was an awakening among the
Deaf community when their way of life was being threatened by the oralism
movement; they just had to wake up and fight back to preserve ASL. Since then, the Deaf community is still
fighting for their way of life in America.
Gratefully, ASL is steadily gaining in acceptance and popularity.
I
decided to do an artwork to reflect this.
The fingers, on their own accord, uncurled as if they were awakened by
something terrible happening. The eye
opened as if from a deep sleep and has remained alert ever since. The eye reminds me of the “All Seeing Eye” on
the top of the pyramid on our U.S. dollar.
The eye symbolizes eternity. Both
the hand and eye represent our way of life and the American Sign Language as
our main mode of communication.
Now the
hand and eye are one…
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