COLLECTION:
“We Stay”
Painting
30 inch by 40 inch, Oil on stretched canvas.
This painting is about Deaf people and their tendency to stay and socialize at the end of a Deaf play, after the Deafhood workshop, when the restaurant is closing, in the hallway when the doors are closed, etc. They ignore the clock, which is broken in this painting.
“Thank You”
Painting
Oil on stretched canvas, 30 inch by 40 inch.
“Understanding Deaf Culture”
Painting
30 inch by 40 inch, Oil on stretched canvas.
This painting features people gathered around a table focusing on what they learned from Paddy Ladd’s book on the table, which reads, "Deaf Subaltern Elites and Rebels."
“The Public Lecture”
Painting
30 inch by 40 inch, Oil on stretched canvas.
In this painting there are nine people present who were presented at the Public Lectures. They are Abbe Sicard (long with white hair), Jean Massieu (sitting on a red chair with a slate, signing ‘Mind’), Laurent Clerc (signing, ‘L’education.’), Armand Goddard (young man aged between 18-21 sitting at the right end of the table), Duke of Orleans (standing next to Laurent Clerc), Duke of Kent (bald and standing next to Duke of Orleans), Duchess of Wellington (sitting next to Massieu), Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (holding the leaflet) and the mystery woman (sitting next to Goddard). There were about six lectures during the Summer of 1815, in the Argyle Room at the Old Ship Rooms, in Brighton, England. You can see the leaflet in Gallaudet’s hand. The actual leaflet is displayed at the American School for the Deaf Museum n Hartford, CT that belonged to Gallaudet. He found the leaflet in England and was curios to visit the public Lectures. He was in England to meet with the Braidwood family, not knowing that Sicard, Massieu, Clerc, and Goddard were there. This is how Gallaudet met Laurent Clerc for the first time at the Public Lectures. The sign language in the painting, is the Old French Sign Language (OFSL). I first contacted two people for specific French signs, and came to a total of six people with the right signings! I have received some copies of Lambert’s illustration of old French Sign Language in 1865. What an amazing illustration! There are two french fingerspellings with the mystery woman. What do they say? Who is the mystery woman? England was a strong supporter of oralism with the monopoly of the Braidwood family over deaf education there. The British people did not know much about the French manual method of education of the deaf. The information on deaf education was spread into England. The audience were the members of the House of Parliament, members of nobility, the clergy, and the other public. They were impressed with the lectures made by ‘deaf-mutes’ - an ability to learn to read and write and from Sicard’s skills in teaching the deaf. On a chalkboard and slate, there are Massieu and Clerc’s answers to questions shown by the audience. One from Clerc was about ‘Education’ and one from Massieu was about ‘Mind is the source of intellect,’ both are written in french language. The first encounter with Gallaudet and Sicard, Gallaudet was invited to travel to Paris a year after the Public Lectures, to learn the manual method of deaf education and sign language. That was what got Gallaudet bring Clerc to America and the rest became history. The ‘Public Lectures’ were somewhat - a lead towards ‘a milestone’ to deaf education in America. If Gallaudet had not met Sicard he would have never met Clerc. I learned an interesting fact during my research - the Duchess of Wellington was informed during the public lectures that her husband, the Duke of Wellington, defeated Napolean at the ‘Battle of Waterloo.’ I have been working on this painting for 8 weeks, researching, sketching and painting. The research is what took me the longest. Painting was a piece of cake. I enjoyed it -- tremendously. I got ‘into the painting,’ that is, I was at the Public Lecture. This painting is inspired by American artist (1688-1751) John Smibert ‘Bermuda Group.’ Overall, I feel that The Public Lecture, 1815 painting and the story behind it, could represent one of the most important parts of Deaf History that anyone can think of.
“Can You?”
Painting
30 inch by 40 inch, Oil on stretched canvas.