More writing will be transferred to this website soon.
Athletes of the Spirit
Writing Contributions
Introduction
When I was a child, to be handicapped or crippled went hand-in-hand with being emotionally, physically, and spiritually untouchable. Those children didn't enter the same classroom as I did, nor did they appear
to play on the same playground because during the 1960s, children with disabilities were often put into special programs and segregated from the majority of students at their elementary schools. Interaction between the two groups was rare. Therefore, I grew up with the notion that people with disabilities were not at all like me. As an adult, I knew there was something extremely wrong with this equation. It was only after I injured my hand playing an excessive amount of guitar and had to live day to day with my own disability, called a repetitive stress injury, that I had better come to grips with my and others abilities and disabilities. I decided to develop the body of work, Athletes of the Spirit: An Exploration of Disability through Art
and Writing.
During the first phases of finding out about repetitive stress injury, I needed to ask questions and share
my fears. But soon, my search led me past my own concerns, to the disabled community I had feared
and ignored in the past. I was unable to play guitar or sometimes even lift the cup but I learned to accommodate my injured hand so I could still paint watercolors. Knowing I could paint I set a goal of interviewing 10 people with disabilities and then painting my perception of each. The people I met during this project donated their time to share their feelings about their lives. I interviewed writers
who lived with their own disabilities and abilities. I feared my temporary disability would turn into
a lifelong challenge. While I was slowly healing, I felt that I would heal more fully in heart,
mind and spirit if I understood the needs and concerns of those who have lived with disabilities all
of their lives. Many I spoke with enjoyed writing and joined me in the effort to express our feelings toward disability through journal entries, poetry, and prose. Through our candid conversations, I came to highly respect each individual and the disabled community as a whole.
Sustenance
My own Injury
Temporary Disability?
what I used to hold are
shadows from a youthful sun
the grip of a tight jar lid
the twist of a revolving toothbrush
the pulling of rope, turning a doorknob
inventing guitar chords, cutting fruit
days in mourning for the former life
a hand drawn in and silent
never moving, always knowing
never touching, always watching
sometimes wondering, can you hear my agony?
useful, useless, useful, pained
relapse, anger, time, less strain
faint images of a child's limber hand
slow changes, to lift a cup, a pan
a feeble hand now writing steadily
a break through the sun's shadow,
strength again
-Julie Cohn
Even though I could hardly lift a cup, knowing I could paint, I set a goal of interviewing
ten people with disabilities and then painting what moved me after each interaction. The people I
met during this project donated their time to share their feelings about their lives. The majority of people
I spoke with enjoy writing and joined me in the effort to express our feelings toward disability through
Journal entries, poetry, and prose. Through our candid conversations, I came to highly respect each individual and the disabled community as a whole. Each person's viewpoint influenced me to change
stereotypical ideas toward people who have disabilities, and led me to the belief that one's attitude
toward one's disabilities and abilities can make life more difficult or more joyous.
Yet there is a need for not only a change in approach to inner attitudes, but also for social attitude; the implementation of housing and city planning so that the disabled community can more easily take advantage of all that is available to other communities. Although many people with disabilities lead full and enriching lives now, as the public's understanding changes, their lives and ours will be even more enriched.
My temporary disability has forced me to focus on the things I can you best while coping with my injury. I used to spread myself too thinly, but because I cannot pursue all of my past interests, my life is less scattered these days. And now I am able to appreciate the strength and wisdom of people whose
disabilities are similar to or more debilitating than mine. Many of us have disabilities that are not physically noticeable; we too need to be acknowledged. We are all athletes of the spirit as we cope with our challenges, large and small, and strive to fulfill our highest expectations of ourselves.
Even though many people consider it natural to interact with people who have limited abilities, there is still
a great need for full integration of the disabled into our communities, requiring the implementation of
housing and city planning that enables the disabled community to easily take advantage of activities
available to the fully able-bodied citizen. Although many people with disabilities lead full and enriching lives now, as the public's understanding changes, all of our lives will be more enriched. Many of us have disabilities that are not physically noticeable; we too need to be acknowledged. We are all
Athletes of the Spirit as we cope with our challenges, large and small, and strive to fulfill our highest expectations of ourselves.
Tactile Timeline
Featuring Kathy Martinez
Kathy led me to a private conference room in the world Institute on Disability, where she works. She
knows the pathways through this building by heart. Also her workload was tremendous, she was more
than happy to take some time off work to tell me about her life. My immediate impression was that her
life has been a good one.
Kathy was born blind. She was treated by her family as though there was nothing different about her.
Only when she turned five and started school did she become aware of being a blind person in a
primarily sighted world. Suddenly there was a bicycle she could not ride alone or a ball someone asked
her to fetch that she couldn't find. She would have to address some things differently from her friends,
like reading or crossing the street. Many of the children Kathy grew up with were extremely supportive.
Their view of people with disabilities was quite positive because of their experiences with her. Many of
them are still her friends. Kathy could have chosen to feel either needy or independent. She chose to be
as independent as possible, because, for her, manipulating people for sympathy was the worst thing she could possibly due to herself or others.
Throughout her life, Kathy has developed skill in many areas, and she seems to have had a lot of fun
along the way. While in school, Kathy was so good at gymnastics, that films were made about her. She
loves to cook, ride bikes in tandem, ride horses and drum. She started drumming at age twelve. Eventually
she studied drumming in Cuba and learned rhythms and ultimately jazz standards, using her own trap set. Her band includes a group of sighted men who play dance music with her. Often the others in the band
close their eyes to feel the music fully and to focus directly on the emotion of the music in the same way Kathy does. Their sensitivity increased the better they listen, which strongly unites the band. the band
elects one person to give verbal cues if or when Kathy needs them. This way she doesn't get confused
with more than one voice's cues.
Although she loves the mountains, one of the things Kathy likes to do least is camping. She prefers to be
in places where she is familiar with the pathways and doesn't need to rely heavily on others for assistance.
At the World Institute on Disability, Kathy plays a very crucial role. She manages international projects which includes worldwide traveling to teach advocacy techniques to people with disabilities. She also
coaches people who provide rehabilitation services. Her travels often take her to El Salvador and Honduras where there is limited access for people with disabilities and their struggles for independent living are
just beginning. Her latest journey will bring her to the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Kathy's view on disability has aspects that are both unique and shared by many. It's unique because, for
her, a layer of judgment between people is eliminated from the start. When she talks with someone, she
can feel when a person is being real, honest, dishonest, or deceiving. What the person looks like were swearing is not judged. Her view on disability, shared by many, is that one should neither be revered
because of or in spite of a disability. Anyone can become disabled; therefore, those who aren't disabled should realize the importance of addressing the needs of people with disabilities. The media needs to combat the image of the totally helpless person or the Super Hero. Therefore, disability in art should
be neither too spotlighted nor too ignored. The word disability doesn't appeal to Kathy. She latches onto
the "dis" and wishes that there were no labels of all.
Kathy recommended that I speak with Paul Longmore, Professor of History at San Francisco State University, to gain a historical perspective on people with disabilities. According to Professor Longmore, during the early Middle Ages, children with disabilities were often brought to monasteries, where many eventually became leaders, though they were often still excluded from the broader society. Louis Braille, French inventor of Braille for books and sheet music, was one of the first undecided people to enter an institution where he learned and lived during the 17 and 1800s. Treatment was often uncivil and his revision
of an archaic reading system for people who were blind was not accepted until a few years after his death.
Today, the provision of social services to people with disabilities is more advanced in Western Europe than in the United States. However, in the United States, greater attention is paid to the accessibility and
autonomy of people with disabilities. With all our advances, however, the judicial system in the US and abroad often still gives far too much advantage to people who have abused their disabled children, giving
there testimonies and preferences more weight in court then that of their children. Also, some doctors still tell parents of newborns with certain disabilities, like cerebral palsy, that they needn't give them the
necessary medication for survival.
Because Kathy was knowledgeable about the history of people with disabilities, including those who are blind, I chose to make a point of this evolution in a sculptural timeline. It is meant to be touched with eyes closed if you are sighted. Although each layer represents a growing independence among people who are blind, it is representative of all people with disabilities. With all this in mind we climb the sculpture with our hands and reach for the autonomy and community interdependence of people with disabilities.
Kathy Martinez's Prose
Victim, Superhuman, or Just Part of the Crowd
Very often blindness is imagined as a condition of perpetual darkness.
Assumptions about our condition as a people have been much less than
positive.
Historically, two very distinct images of blind people have been perpe-
tuated: the recluse living in a miserable state of darkness, or the
superhuman blind person. Both images are based on myths and stereotypes
which allow society to believe that a person with limited or nonexistent
visual ability cannot be responsible for her/himself, much less play a
contributing role in society.
Before the Common Era, disabled children were often killed or left to
die. Up until the 1700s, our role was often relegated to begging. We
were then locked away in sanctioned segregation, e.g., institutions
and/or asylums. With the advent of braille in the early 1800s, we began
to be educated, and schools for the blind sprang up all over the
industrial world. We were able to organize because we could communicate
with each other as well as with the dominant culture or power structure.
We subsequently began to prove to society that we were capable of
contributing, whether it be by managing vending stands, memorizing
the Koran, giving musical performances or Shiatsu massage.
After mastering tasks which had been assigned to us by society, we began
to realize that we were capable of choosing our own paths based on
interest and ability rather than society's perception of what our careers
should be.
Today, Blind people participate in all facets of society. More than ever
before, we are productive and empowered. we have made our movement
stronger by collaborating with other disability groups as well as prov-
ing to our communities that we too can effectively participate.
Breakthrough
Featuring Lois Smiley
I enjoyed watching Lois Smiley signing American Sigh Language (ASL) to tell me her life story. Her daughter, Nanette, translated for her. Lois was raised with six siblings on a farm in Georgia, USA. When
she was five years old, she tried to make a toy house out of lit matches. Not realizing the danger of fire,
Lois moved the flames too close, and, except for her face, most of her body was badly burned. The
doctor who treated her was a veterinarian, the only doctor nearby who could treat an emergency. He treated her burns with a drug that kept her alive; that same drug caused her to become deaf. This drug is no longer used in the medical profession.
Children were cruel to Lois when she was growing up. She had no way to defend herself from their teasing. From the age of five to eight or nine years old, she communicated very little with others. Because she
went to public school during the 1950s when the needs of people who were deaf were often ignored, she sat in her chair at school either staring at the board or crying as children taunted her. Neither the teachers at school nor her family and friends realized her desperate need to learn a language with which she could communicate her emotions, desires, and acquired knowledge.
Finally, by fourth grade, Lois was sent to a private school for the deaf. there she learned ASL. At last she could defend herself against the cruel children who teased her about her burns. She lived away from
her family, and missed their love and support. Her family didn't learn ASL, but even those at the school who did use sign language, often didn't provide adequate emotional support. She had to tough it out on
her own most of the time, except for a few friends who stood by her. The one major consolation was a teacher who believed in her. He let her know she should go to college and that her contribution to society
was going to be great. Lois held onto this dream and entered Gallaudet, the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the United States. There she received her degree in math.
Despite her tough childhood, Lois made many breakthroughs in her life. After college she worked with the disabled community, including those who were deaf, helping them to live and work independently. She came
out to California for a conference of people with disabilities and learned to express fears and doubts about her burns and deafness. She found acceptance from others, and most importantly of herself. Staying
in California, Lois broke through her fear of communicating in front of an audience by taking advice from those she met at the conference. She covered relevant issues in front of large audiences at future
disability conferences. She taught sign to her children when they were still in their cribs so that they could communicate well together. Lois believes the elementary tools of sign language should be taught
to all children.
Lois spoke with a wisdom that inspired me about people who are deaf. She believes that if someone is deaf, he or she will be happiest at an all deaf school, where the students mature naturally as they struggle
with growing-up issues without having to also contend with teachers who don't speak their primary language. Children with all hearing faculties have enough difficulty maturing while communicating in a
language they know well. She also dispelled my belief that ASL is a universal language. Sign languages are as varied as spoken languages; also, lip reading among people who are deaf is quite rare. Typically
only those who have some limited hearing can determine accurately the often slurred, colloquial words people speak rapidly.
In my painting, Breakthrough, Lois is a glass bird, shedding a closed-in introverted childhood by pushing past a hard unforgiving wall and taking flight to an expanded view of herself. The fists represent the
sign "break" as they click together and then move apart. The open hand with the index fingers parted receives the other hand (in this case a bird) going through it and indicates the word "through." Lois's
breakthrough, or should I say many breakthroughs, are continually leading to future flights. The painting also represents my breakthrough in understanding the deaf community as a thriving culture.
Ten Hats,Ten decades
Featuring Elsie Cohn
One day, while a friend was giving me a facial massage, she placed all of her fingers in front of my
face very much like you see in this painting of my grandmother. Through the darkness, an image of 10
hats placed on 10 fingers came to me. But my face was no longer looking through my friend's hands; instead, the eyes of my grandmother, Oma, were looking at me through her own hands. Immediately,
the idea took shape as a representation of the grandmother's life. Each hat would represent a decade of
her life, and she would be viewing each decade through the transparent veil of her hands. Oma and I have been very close all my life. I learned a lot about her while asking her about each decade of her life. The German Holocaust, in particular, was the hardest subject for me to confront, but I want to applaud Oma's courage. She made a wonderful life for herself and her family in California, overcoming the trauma of leaving a homeland where people turned against her.
Painting Sequence starting on the left:
0 - 10 years old: Tante (aunt) Geanette's hat. Tante Geanette was
a very flamboyant woman who was loved by everyone. She taught Oma
how to recite poetry and how to love.
10 - 20 years old: Oma went to Catholic school, the best school in
Meppin, Germany. During these years she also learned about Judaism
through the synagogue and her family.
20 - 30 years old: Oma married Ludwig Cohn (Opa).
30 - 40 years old: Oma and her immediate family were fortunate to
be able to flee from Germany just before there would have been no
chance of their surviving.
40 - 50 years old: Oma worked long hours every day as a caterer's
assistant in the Bay Area. She and Opa bought a home.
50 - 60 years old: Oma formed her own catering company and was so
successful that she never had to advertise for business.(My
family and I have been fortunate to enjoy Oma's superb cooking).
60 - 70 years old: Oma and Opa took lots of trips together. At last
there was some time for leisure! Opa died when Oma was 69.
70 - 80 years old: Oma moved to an apartment and played canasta
many times a month with her good friends.
80 - 90 years old: Oma has always enjoyed reading, but this was a
time when she devoted many hours to books.
90 - 93 and on her way to 100 years old: Oma is now living very
comfortably in Millbrae, California. One of her favorite pastimes
is listening to classical music.
Athletes of the Spirit
Writing Contributions
Introduction
When I was a child, to be handicapped or crippled went hand-in-hand with being emotionally, physically, and spiritually untouchable. Those children didn't enter the same classroom as I did, nor did they appear
to play on the same playground because during the 1960s, children with disabilities were often put into special programs and segregated from the majority of students at their elementary schools. Interaction between the two groups was rare. Therefore, I grew up with the notion that people with disabilities were not at all like me. As an adult, I knew there was something extremely wrong with this equation. It was only after I injured my hand playing an excessive amount of guitar and had to live day to day with my own disability, called a repetitive stress injury, that I had better come to grips with my and others abilities and disabilities. I decided to develop the body of work, Athletes of the Spirit: An Exploration of Disability through Art
and Writing.
During the first phases of finding out about repetitive stress injury, I needed to ask questions and share
my fears. But soon, my search led me past my own concerns, to the disabled community I had feared
and ignored in the past. I was unable to play guitar or sometimes even lift the cup but I learned to accommodate my injured hand so I could still paint watercolors. Knowing I could paint I set a goal of interviewing 10 people with disabilities and then painting my perception of each. The people I met during this project donated their time to share their feelings about their lives. I interviewed writers
who lived with their own disabilities and abilities. I feared my temporary disability would turn into
a lifelong challenge. While I was slowly healing, I felt that I would heal more fully in heart,
mind and spirit if I understood the needs and concerns of those who have lived with disabilities all
of their lives. Many I spoke with enjoyed writing and joined me in the effort to express our feelings toward disability through journal entries, poetry, and prose. Through our candid conversations, I came to highly respect each individual and the disabled community as a whole.
Sustenance
My own Injury
Temporary Disability?
what I used to hold are
shadows from a youthful sun
the grip of a tight jar lid
the twist of a revolving toothbrush
the pulling of rope, turning a doorknob
inventing guitar chords, cutting fruit
days in mourning for the former life
a hand drawn in and silent
never moving, always knowing
never touching, always watching
sometimes wondering, can you hear my agony?
useful, useless, useful, pained
relapse, anger, time, less strain
faint images of a child's limber hand
slow changes, to lift a cup, a pan
a feeble hand now writing steadily
a break through the sun's shadow,
strength again
-Julie Cohn
Even though I could hardly lift a cup, knowing I could paint, I set a goal of interviewing
ten people with disabilities and then painting what moved me after each interaction. The people I
met during this project donated their time to share their feelings about their lives. The majority of people
I spoke with enjoy writing and joined me in the effort to express our feelings toward disability through
Journal entries, poetry, and prose. Through our candid conversations, I came to highly respect each individual and the disabled community as a whole. Each person's viewpoint influenced me to change
stereotypical ideas toward people who have disabilities, and led me to the belief that one's attitude
toward one's disabilities and abilities can make life more difficult or more joyous.
Yet there is a need for not only a change in approach to inner attitudes, but also for social attitude; the implementation of housing and city planning so that the disabled community can more easily take advantage of all that is available to other communities. Although many people with disabilities lead full and enriching lives now, as the public's understanding changes, their lives and ours will be even more enriched.
My temporary disability has forced me to focus on the things I can you best while coping with my injury. I used to spread myself too thinly, but because I cannot pursue all of my past interests, my life is less scattered these days. And now I am able to appreciate the strength and wisdom of people whose
disabilities are similar to or more debilitating than mine. Many of us have disabilities that are not physically noticeable; we too need to be acknowledged. We are all athletes of the spirit as we cope with our challenges, large and small, and strive to fulfill our highest expectations of ourselves.
Even though many people consider it natural to interact with people who have limited abilities, there is still
a great need for full integration of the disabled into our communities, requiring the implementation of
housing and city planning that enables the disabled community to easily take advantage of activities
available to the fully able-bodied citizen. Although many people with disabilities lead full and enriching lives now, as the public's understanding changes, all of our lives will be more enriched. Many of us have disabilities that are not physically noticeable; we too need to be acknowledged. We are all
Athletes of the Spirit as we cope with our challenges, large and small, and strive to fulfill our highest expectations of ourselves.
Tactile Timeline
Featuring Kathy Martinez
Kathy led me to a private conference room in the world Institute on Disability, where she works. She
knows the pathways through this building by heart. Also her workload was tremendous, she was more
than happy to take some time off work to tell me about her life. My immediate impression was that her
life has been a good one.
Kathy was born blind. She was treated by her family as though there was nothing different about her.
Only when she turned five and started school did she become aware of being a blind person in a
primarily sighted world. Suddenly there was a bicycle she could not ride alone or a ball someone asked
her to fetch that she couldn't find. She would have to address some things differently from her friends,
like reading or crossing the street. Many of the children Kathy grew up with were extremely supportive.
Their view of people with disabilities was quite positive because of their experiences with her. Many of
them are still her friends. Kathy could have chosen to feel either needy or independent. She chose to be
as independent as possible, because, for her, manipulating people for sympathy was the worst thing she could possibly due to herself or others.
Throughout her life, Kathy has developed skill in many areas, and she seems to have had a lot of fun
along the way. While in school, Kathy was so good at gymnastics, that films were made about her. She
loves to cook, ride bikes in tandem, ride horses and drum. She started drumming at age twelve. Eventually
she studied drumming in Cuba and learned rhythms and ultimately jazz standards, using her own trap set. Her band includes a group of sighted men who play dance music with her. Often the others in the band
close their eyes to feel the music fully and to focus directly on the emotion of the music in the same way Kathy does. Their sensitivity increased the better they listen, which strongly unites the band. the band
elects one person to give verbal cues if or when Kathy needs them. This way she doesn't get confused
with more than one voice's cues.
Although she loves the mountains, one of the things Kathy likes to do least is camping. She prefers to be
in places where she is familiar with the pathways and doesn't need to rely heavily on others for assistance.
At the World Institute on Disability, Kathy plays a very crucial role. She manages international projects which includes worldwide traveling to teach advocacy techniques to people with disabilities. She also
coaches people who provide rehabilitation services. Her travels often take her to El Salvador and Honduras where there is limited access for people with disabilities and their struggles for independent living are
just beginning. Her latest journey will bring her to the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Kathy's view on disability has aspects that are both unique and shared by many. It's unique because, for
her, a layer of judgment between people is eliminated from the start. When she talks with someone, she
can feel when a person is being real, honest, dishonest, or deceiving. What the person looks like were swearing is not judged. Her view on disability, shared by many, is that one should neither be revered
because of or in spite of a disability. Anyone can become disabled; therefore, those who aren't disabled should realize the importance of addressing the needs of people with disabilities. The media needs to combat the image of the totally helpless person or the Super Hero. Therefore, disability in art should
be neither too spotlighted nor too ignored. The word disability doesn't appeal to Kathy. She latches onto
the "dis" and wishes that there were no labels of all.
Kathy recommended that I speak with Paul Longmore, Professor of History at San Francisco State University, to gain a historical perspective on people with disabilities. According to Professor Longmore, during the early Middle Ages, children with disabilities were often brought to monasteries, where many eventually became leaders, though they were often still excluded from the broader society. Louis Braille, French inventor of Braille for books and sheet music, was one of the first undecided people to enter an institution where he learned and lived during the 17 and 1800s. Treatment was often uncivil and his revision
of an archaic reading system for people who were blind was not accepted until a few years after his death.
Today, the provision of social services to people with disabilities is more advanced in Western Europe than in the United States. However, in the United States, greater attention is paid to the accessibility and
autonomy of people with disabilities. With all our advances, however, the judicial system in the US and abroad often still gives far too much advantage to people who have abused their disabled children, giving
there testimonies and preferences more weight in court then that of their children. Also, some doctors still tell parents of newborns with certain disabilities, like cerebral palsy, that they needn't give them the
necessary medication for survival.
Because Kathy was knowledgeable about the history of people with disabilities, including those who are blind, I chose to make a point of this evolution in a sculptural timeline. It is meant to be touched with eyes closed if you are sighted. Although each layer represents a growing independence among people who are blind, it is representative of all people with disabilities. With all this in mind we climb the sculpture with our hands and reach for the autonomy and community interdependence of people with disabilities.
Kathy Martinez's Prose
Victim, Superhuman, or Just Part of the Crowd
Very often blindness is imagined as a condition of perpetual darkness.
Assumptions about our condition as a people have been much less than
positive.
Historically, two very distinct images of blind people have been perpe-
tuated: the recluse living in a miserable state of darkness, or the
superhuman blind person. Both images are based on myths and stereotypes
which allow society to believe that a person with limited or nonexistent
visual ability cannot be responsible for her/himself, much less play a
contributing role in society.
Before the Common Era, disabled children were often killed or left to
die. Up until the 1700s, our role was often relegated to begging. We
were then locked away in sanctioned segregation, e.g., institutions
and/or asylums. With the advent of braille in the early 1800s, we began
to be educated, and schools for the blind sprang up all over the
industrial world. We were able to organize because we could communicate
with each other as well as with the dominant culture or power structure.
We subsequently began to prove to society that we were capable of
contributing, whether it be by managing vending stands, memorizing
the Koran, giving musical performances or Shiatsu massage.
After mastering tasks which had been assigned to us by society, we began
to realize that we were capable of choosing our own paths based on
interest and ability rather than society's perception of what our careers
should be.
Today, Blind people participate in all facets of society. More than ever
before, we are productive and empowered. we have made our movement
stronger by collaborating with other disability groups as well as prov-
ing to our communities that we too can effectively participate.
Breakthrough
Featuring Lois Smiley
I enjoyed watching Lois Smiley signing American Sigh Language (ASL) to tell me her life story. Her daughter, Nanette, translated for her. Lois was raised with six siblings on a farm in Georgia, USA. When
she was five years old, she tried to make a toy house out of lit matches. Not realizing the danger of fire,
Lois moved the flames too close, and, except for her face, most of her body was badly burned. The
doctor who treated her was a veterinarian, the only doctor nearby who could treat an emergency. He treated her burns with a drug that kept her alive; that same drug caused her to become deaf. This drug is no longer used in the medical profession.
Children were cruel to Lois when she was growing up. She had no way to defend herself from their teasing. From the age of five to eight or nine years old, she communicated very little with others. Because she
went to public school during the 1950s when the needs of people who were deaf were often ignored, she sat in her chair at school either staring at the board or crying as children taunted her. Neither the teachers at school nor her family and friends realized her desperate need to learn a language with which she could communicate her emotions, desires, and acquired knowledge.
Finally, by fourth grade, Lois was sent to a private school for the deaf. there she learned ASL. At last she could defend herself against the cruel children who teased her about her burns. She lived away from
her family, and missed their love and support. Her family didn't learn ASL, but even those at the school who did use sign language, often didn't provide adequate emotional support. She had to tough it out on
her own most of the time, except for a few friends who stood by her. The one major consolation was a teacher who believed in her. He let her know she should go to college and that her contribution to society
was going to be great. Lois held onto this dream and entered Gallaudet, the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the United States. There she received her degree in math.
Despite her tough childhood, Lois made many breakthroughs in her life. After college she worked with the disabled community, including those who were deaf, helping them to live and work independently. She came
out to California for a conference of people with disabilities and learned to express fears and doubts about her burns and deafness. She found acceptance from others, and most importantly of herself. Staying
in California, Lois broke through her fear of communicating in front of an audience by taking advice from those she met at the conference. She covered relevant issues in front of large audiences at future
disability conferences. She taught sign to her children when they were still in their cribs so that they could communicate well together. Lois believes the elementary tools of sign language should be taught
to all children.
Lois spoke with a wisdom that inspired me about people who are deaf. She believes that if someone is deaf, he or she will be happiest at an all deaf school, where the students mature naturally as they struggle
with growing-up issues without having to also contend with teachers who don't speak their primary language. Children with all hearing faculties have enough difficulty maturing while communicating in a
language they know well. She also dispelled my belief that ASL is a universal language. Sign languages are as varied as spoken languages; also, lip reading among people who are deaf is quite rare. Typically
only those who have some limited hearing can determine accurately the often slurred, colloquial words people speak rapidly.
In my painting, Breakthrough, Lois is a glass bird, shedding a closed-in introverted childhood by pushing past a hard unforgiving wall and taking flight to an expanded view of herself. The fists represent the
sign "break" as they click together and then move apart. The open hand with the index fingers parted receives the other hand (in this case a bird) going through it and indicates the word "through." Lois's
breakthrough, or should I say many breakthroughs, are continually leading to future flights. The painting also represents my breakthrough in understanding the deaf community as a thriving culture.
Ten Hats,Ten decades
Featuring Elsie Cohn
One day, while a friend was giving me a facial massage, she placed all of her fingers in front of my
face very much like you see in this painting of my grandmother. Through the darkness, an image of 10
hats placed on 10 fingers came to me. But my face was no longer looking through my friend's hands; instead, the eyes of my grandmother, Oma, were looking at me through her own hands. Immediately,
the idea took shape as a representation of the grandmother's life. Each hat would represent a decade of
her life, and she would be viewing each decade through the transparent veil of her hands. Oma and I have been very close all my life. I learned a lot about her while asking her about each decade of her life. The German Holocaust, in particular, was the hardest subject for me to confront, but I want to applaud Oma's courage. She made a wonderful life for herself and her family in California, overcoming the trauma of leaving a homeland where people turned against her.
Painting Sequence starting on the left:
0 - 10 years old: Tante (aunt) Geanette's hat. Tante Geanette was
a very flamboyant woman who was loved by everyone. She taught Oma
how to recite poetry and how to love.
10 - 20 years old: Oma went to Catholic school, the best school in
Meppin, Germany. During these years she also learned about Judaism
through the synagogue and her family.
20 - 30 years old: Oma married Ludwig Cohn (Opa).
30 - 40 years old: Oma and her immediate family were fortunate to
be able to flee from Germany just before there would have been no
chance of their surviving.
40 - 50 years old: Oma worked long hours every day as a caterer's
assistant in the Bay Area. She and Opa bought a home.
50 - 60 years old: Oma formed her own catering company and was so
successful that she never had to advertise for business.(My
family and I have been fortunate to enjoy Oma's superb cooking).
60 - 70 years old: Oma and Opa took lots of trips together. At last
there was some time for leisure! Opa died when Oma was 69.
70 - 80 years old: Oma moved to an apartment and played canasta
many times a month with her good friends.
80 - 90 years old: Oma has always enjoyed reading, but this was a
time when she devoted many hours to books.
90 - 93 and on her way to 100 years old: Oma is now living very
comfortably in Millbrae, California. One of her favorite pastimes
is listening to classical music.