‘I hope my art will make inroads in inspiring others into action, toward a better world for newer generations to come.’

Jamesport

“During infancy, my parents — having noticed my not responding to noise — consulted doctors until they could find one that agreed with their suspicions. It was recommended that I be tested and educated right away so that I could cope best with my newfound disability and learn to speak. I was enrolled at a school for the deaf at age 2, going on 3. My parents were taking music lessons then and I got included along. My music teacher being frustrated with my ability to play the piano right phoned my parents advising that I get art lessons instead. This move came as a great relief on my part as I was playing only by sight as opposed to ear.

“Challenge after challenge followed through elementary and high school. After school, I persisted through my art classes and speech therapy in between. Tutors helped fill any void in my education throughout the years, and for this, I am grateful! I received scholarships toward a master’s degree, including a fellowship in my junior year. During this period, hyperrealism happened to be a strong trend in NYC. I readily took upon this explosively large-scale type of realism in my work for its mastery of colorful detail.

Having taught and mentored deaf youth over previous years, it has been my strong intent to memorialize the plight of our world’s children, granting them public awareness through my art.

“Up to the present time, I had wished to create a theme; a story expressed as a portrait series. I wanted minority children to be memorialized and this deaf-blind infant from Texas named Orion caught my attention via Facebook. Both his parents being deaf, gladly honored my request to seek through their family album for some frames of Orion. I have so far completed six portraits of Orion, who, not unlike me as a child, exhibited a disheveled crop of white hair, lanky limbs, and was often barefoot in shorts. The only difference was that I had eyes to see and had much greater opportunity to run and play without getting injured.

“Having taught and mentored deaf youth over previous years, it has been my strong intent to memorialize the plight of our world’s children, granting them public awareness through my art. As a society, there is much room for improvement and reform in protecting our children and their future. I hope my art will make inroads in inspiring others into action, toward a better world for newer generations to come.”

Interviewed by Jay Max