Disability Statement

From my first creative acts, repetition and pattern have been dominant features. This interest in pattern and repetition, as well as slowness, labor, craft, and material presence, are influenced by my neurodiverse experience (dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.), which complicates my relationship to symbolic language, especially text-based communication. One of the things I value most about the visual arts is the potential for communication on multiple levels simultaneously and poetically, without being bound by the logistics of language or the way meaning functions in word-based form. This allows for alternative modes of creative connection. In art-making, I can layer abstract ideas and webs of connection, which unfold visually as felt experience. Working with the ineffable and the liminal in this way enables me to draw from the full range of my ability, including my disability. This is life-sustaining.

*I want to acknowledge that, while text-based communication is a challenge for me, there are many people whose communication doesn’t include reading and writing at all, and potentially cannot access online communication either. At the same time, I understand that text-based communication provides crucial access for many people and is foundational to their participation. I envision an art world where we all have belonging and community.