The New Series

If you have been following my Instagram posts, you’ve seen that I am working on creating new series (serieses? seri? siri?), but I haven’t revealed what those are…until now. Today I’m thrilled to announce one of my new series: American Sign Language (ASL) paintings! I have quite a few paintings already in the works, and have plans for many more. I’ll be posting them to my shop as soon as each one passes my final inspections (See the first completed painting here). I’m sure you have lots of questions, so let me do my best to answer them.

Am I on drugs? No, I’m not on drugs. Artists are often thought to be crazy or on drugs when they introduce something that the world is unfamiliar with. In all areas of life, until you start to learn, your brain can only comprehend what it already knows. As an artist, it is my mission to help you learn–to help you see what once you couldn’t.

Do I know ASL? I have never really come into contact with ASL unless you count a few interpretive dances in elementary school, so no, I don’t know ASL. But I have taken such a liking to it that I’ve been practicing fingerspelling on my lunch breaks, and following several ASL teachers or pages on Instagram.

Where did my interest in ASL begin? To be honest, I have a hard time paying attention in church. I get distracted by people around me bobbing their knees; maybe the pastor’s collar is slightly flipped up on one side; or sometimes my eyes don’t know if they should focus on the speaker or the screen and in the process of switching from one to the other, they land on the stage where I start studying the interesting typeface of the sermon series. Anyway, there is always an ASL interpreter in the corner, and I found that if I study her I’m (1) captivated by the beautiful movements and (2) I’m able to more easily pay attention the pastor’s sermon because I’m trying to study what signs are what words.

Where did the idea for this series come from? My husband (who is the most wonderful man alive) loves to challenge me and get me to think outside of the box. So when I started really expressing interest in this language I know nothing about nor have any apparent need for, he questioned the purpose for the time and energy I put into trying to learn it. My answer was, “I don’t know; I just like it.” But that wasn’t good enough so I started to break down why I like it. The signs are often logical in relation to what they mean, there is little lack of communication between two signers because the emotions and facial expressions are clear, and the movements that the signs create (especially in worship) are stunning.

Are these related to my Synesthesia paintings? Yes and no, but mostly no. Synesthesia isn’t something I have control over. When I hear or touch something, I will see an image of what that noise or feeling looks like. (I talk more about synesthesia in this other blog). The concept behind this new series is slightly different. I do have control over what I put on the canvas. It’s a little more intimidating because it takes a lot more work than the synesthesia series. I have to come up with everything! The color palette, the design, the background, the style of brush strokes… But it is similar to the synesthesia paintings by way of an abstract concept; it’s stretching you to see and (hopefully) appreciate a new idea.

So…what is this series? ASL is a beautiful language. It is a rich form of communication that has the ability to display incredible passion and emotion through the power of movement. What I am doing in this new series is abstractly painting the shapes of each sign’s movement in the colors that the words evoke. All of the words will be positive, encouraging, or powerful. My hope is to create something that is unique to a community I have so much appreciation for, and to help you see the beauty of the language from my Perception (revisit last week’s blog for more on that). I’d love to know what words you think would be a good addition to the series!