14. Maine Inclusion Piece

Revised Artist Statement

The piece that you see to the top left is the revised version of my first 2019 Inclusion Awards piece (the old version can be viewed below). Going through another round of brainstorming and sketching, I looked back at my original piece extensively; picking out both my likes and dislikes about the piece while also reviewing my original art statement. In the end though, I was able to create a revised version of the original piece that I am much happier with.

As I mentioned above, the changes that I made correlated to what I said I wanted to change in my original artist statement. Incorporating color into this newest version, I’m happy with this decision. I think it makes the piece livelier and much cleaner compared to the plain graphite and ink in my older version. With the added color, I was also able to play around with my background. Flat graphite turning into something more complex and fitting for the competitions assigned prompt, the background shows the entrance to a community center; something that I will talk about more extensively later in this artist statement. Another major difference between the new and older version was my ability to include in a lot more examples of disabilities. My original three individuals now growing to six in the newer version, I knew this was an adjustment that I had to make to truly present a wide sense of inclusiveness. Besides that though, a lot of the same themes continued on from my original piece into my newer one. The sign that they hold (though I did modify the words) and the visually impaired boy are the two most noticeable ones.

I feel as though I was able to better express my thoughts and ideas of the inclusion awards prompt in my newest version. That prompt being: “What does the full inclusion of individuals with developmental disabilities mean to you?”, the themes that I wanted to include in my original piece are more broadly explored and expressed in my final one. A major one of those themes being community.

Something that has stuck with me from last years inclusion prompt, community is what ties so many of us together. No matter how diverse members in a community might be, there is always something that ties them together; a shared similarity that they can all bond over. From sports teams to shared hobbies, people that you would've assumed to have nothing in common with might be much more like you than you previously thought. But the only way to find these individuals is to open yourself up, look past the superficial, and really throw yourself into your community; and what better place to do that than at a space where the public regularly gathers, at a community center.

Now I know not all communities have a community center. But I felt the ideas of what a community center represents align much better with the inclusion awards themes compared to a town hall or religious space. So when I was brainstorming what I should include in the background for the newest version of my inclusion piece, I knew what it had to be. Communities centers are set up for you to interact with different people, some of which might have shared similarities to you. I can remember being young and going to my own community center. We had a big pool and I would often find myself spending what felt like hours swimming around. And with that time, it was impossible not to interact with other kids; some I was familiar with and others I wasn't. A lot of us came from different backgrounds, went to different schools, but we didn't care about that. No, all we cared about was swimming because that's what we thought was fun and that's what we bonded over. Marco Polo and ring diving were common pastimes during the time we spent together. And at the end of the day, we always waved goodbye to each other happily. My childhood birthday parties commonly taking place at this community center as well, besides my friends from school I’m sure you know who else I invited.

In my piece, by showing these individuals standing in front of a community center (holding up a sign that says: “Together we’re community”) I hope people are able to associate the themes of connection and friendship between these individuals; the same relationship that I was able to form with the kids at my community center. That is what full inclusion of individuals with developmental disabilities means to me. It's togetherness. It's about meeting at a place of interaction, building bonds and therefore also strengthening yourself and your community. It’s about meeting the people that have the possibility of contributing so much to your life.

Never limit yourself to only the people around you, the people you've grown familiar with. Explore, meet those that presume to have nothing in common with, and find your own community.

Pre-Revised Artist Statement

The Inclusion project, an award assignment that requests participants to brainstorm what they feel an inclusive community looks like, this is my second time doing a piece for this award. Focusing on physical disabilities and how they shouldn't divide communities but unite us, I returned to this same message for my piece this year. A group of very different individuals of different genders, ethnicity, and age, though they might also have disabilities; the one thing that holds them all together is the love for their community.

Using ink and graphite for this piece, I tried to incorporate a diverse range of disabilities. Loss of sight, hearing, and appendages divided between these three individuals, I drew their forms with ink before going over it and shading with graphite. I really like how their forms turned out, as I feel it has a story-book like touch to it, but overall I am going back to revise this. I'm not to upset with the lack of color, but I feel I should add more forms into the background; to get a bigger physical image of a community. I also feel like I might be retracing this all over again as the man's body on the right side is slightly crooked; making it look as though his torso and chest are separate things!

But overall, I like the style of this piece a little bit more to the one I did last year; though the composition of the one last year wins over this one.