Monday, April 9, 2012

David Call

Artist: David Call

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.
 Me Your Mother
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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