artist statement

Samantha Wang

03/09/2021

Nothing About Us Without Us

The phrase, “Nothing about us without us”, is about how people with disabilities need their voices to be included when making decisions about disabled people. Representatives have been making decisions that are towards disabled people, without having a single disabled person put their thoughts on the decision. “Nothing about us without us” indicates that nothing’s going to be about disabled people if you aren’t to include their thoughts and opinions in it.

In my artwork, I drew a bunch of hands holding objects that fall into categories of things people assume disabled people aren’t capable of doing. For example, the hand holding a book and writing utensils refute the stereotype that disabled people aren’t capable of having an education. The hand holding a basketball disproves the stereotype that disabled people can’t play sports. In the center, a pair of hands are holding a banner that says the focus phrase, “Nothing about us without us”, and on the side are some statements like, “We’re able” and “Disable” with the “Dis” crossed out. On the top are just some other random designs that I added.

I feel pretty good about my drawing because I’m kind of proud of myself on the shading. I also like how I did something different on the designs like the arrows and the way I did the statements on the sides. This drawing/project is something different that I’ve never done before, so that’s cool as well.

Something I would do differently next time is to use a different idea than hands by maybe trying to draw the different disabilities. I would also possibly try to represent the phrase without writing it in my artwork.