meh. For those folks who aren’t crazy about Christmas

meh. When I came out with my line of t-shirts with its tongue sticking out, meh was a new word to me. It’s been one of the most popular items we sell. Meh is an adjective meaning apathetic, unenthusiastic, mediocre, lackluster, unexceptional, uninspiring. And since I”m a lipreader, the image came to me immediately.

This year, I came up with a Christmas card.

Christmas is a difficult time for many people, for a wide variety of reasons. Maybe they’re not Christians. Or maybe they’re poor or newly broke. Perhaps they grew up in an alcoholic home where the expectations of the holiday made the drinking and fighting worse than usual.

Once I did the image, I started thinking about the words for a greeting inside. And I came up with so many variations, both positive and negative, that I decided to leave it blank so you can write it yourself. This card works whether you or the recipient feel apathetic about Christmas. Here are some of the ideas I came up with to get you started.

Yeah, I know, you’re Jewish.

Crass materialism, meh.

meh, humbug

That’s how I used to feel about Christmas, until I had Christmas with you.

The card is available in two of our shops, Zazzle and Cafepress.

http://www.zazzle.com/purpleswirlarts*

http://www.cafepress.com/purpleswirlarts

The two shops have different pricing structures. On Zazzle, a single card is $2.95, 10 cards are $22.50, and 20 cards are $35, but you can choose whatever amount you want. On Cafepress, a single card is $3.95, a box of ten cards is $16.75 and a box of 20 is $27.75, and you can only get those quantities, or multiples of those quantities (such as 5 cards, or 2 boxes of 20). On Cafepress you can also get t-shirts. On Zazzle, you can get a tie. So keep an eye on specials, and shipping dates and costs to get the deal you want.

 

Art comes first

“Art comes first.” That was the reminder I received from an unexpected source. Yesterday, my friend Julie and her husband, Ralph were doing me a favor, turning on our furnace and teaching me how to bleed the radiators in our house so they’d work more efficiently (and hopefully more cheaply).

We had worked our way, with some mishaps such as water spurting out of the furnace because of too much pressure, through all the radiators on the first floor, and all the artwork lining the walls. Upstairs, Ralph wanted to start at the front of the house, so we walked into the art studio. I don’t remember now what the question was, but my answer was, “well, this is mostly Betty’s studio, and I have some things I work on over there if I ever get the time.” “Oh, art comes first,” Ralph said very declaratively. My answer? “Right now, money comes first.” Then we continued working on the radiators, finishing up with green tea and conversation before they left for their son’s soccer game.

But I haven’t gotten his comment out of my mind. I’m a creative person, but there are many ways to express creativity, and I do. When I work on the layout for the NADmag, choosing an elephant (who never forgets) for the background of an article called “Lest We Forget;” or when I work to “harden up” my colors to fit my client’s aesthetics, when my own colors are softer; or when I write this blog or other articles; or when I cook; or when I work on presenting Betty’s art to the world; or when I come up with a new idea to put on a t-shirt or other products for my online stores, never knowing if anyone else will ever like them, or ever buy anything. All of those are my creative endeavors.

But art is different. It’s not just creative and challenging and engaging, it’s healing. For me, art isn’t painting or drawing. It’s pulling together disparate pieces and creating a new wholeness, a new unity from them. The end result may be a card, or a piece of jewelry, or something to hang on the wall. But the end result isn’t the point for me. It’s the process of bringing these different things together visually that heals me.

But the responsibilities of life, the need to earn money, to take care of business gets in the way. Maybe I think my artwork isn’t good enough and no one will buy it. Or maybe I’m afraid they will buy it and I’ll be doomed to repeat it to earn money. Then art will stop being about creating and healing, but about earning a living.

“Fear is the mind-killer,” wrote Frank Herbert in Dune. But some fears are so ingrained in our beings that we don’t know they are there, manipulating us all the time. Art should come first, for so many reasons. Maybe soon, it will.

Nancy Creighton
@purpleswirl

 

Clerc Scar and Wordgathering articles

Betty G. Miller's painting of a woman signing "birth."

There are two postings to share with you. First, In August, Patti Durr featured a painting by Betty G. Miller in an article she wrote for Clerc Scar, an “email publication of the signing community.” From the same people [John Lee Clark (ASL Deaf-Blind 2nd generation) & Adrean Clark (ASL Deaf)] who produced the popular “Tactile Mind Weekly,” Clerc Scar publishes essays, poetry, fiction, and artwork that, as we sign it in ASL slang, “scar” your minds! Instead of multiple pieces in one long email message, each item appears in its own email message, allowing you to keep, delete, and forward exactly what you want to keep, delete, or forward. Everything is archived online as well.

Thanks to those archives, you can read Patti’s article about “Birth of a Deaf Woman,” the painting she bought last fall at the art show at NTID. Patti Durr teaches in the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

If you’re not yet getting Clerc Scar in your inbox, just send an email to subscribe@clercscar.com with the message “Subscribe me.”

Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.clercscar.com/archives/20090803b.html

"Blossom" shows the sign for blossom intertwined with a growing flower.

The second article is one I wrote for Wordgathering, an online journal of disability poetry. I’m not sure who followed whom first, but Michael Northen, editor of Wordgathering, and I developed a relationship on Twitter. Michael told me that they’ve begun covering visual arts as well, and asked that I write an article about Betty’s work. I did, and it’s online:

http://www.wordgathering.com/issue11/art/creighton.html

Also in this issue, under “Essays” is work from two other deaf people: “Letter to Sean Penn” by Raymond Luczak, and “Response to Dialogue on Disability” by Curtis Robbins.

http://www.wordgathering.com/issue11/essays/essays11.html

Hope you enjoy these articles, and I look forward to any comments you have on them.

Nancy Creighton  @purpleswirl

 

One Item a Day— a New Marketing Strategy

Following in the ideas behind woot.com* and other one sale a day sites, I’m going to advertise one item a day, using twitter to schedule 3 or 4 tweets a day. Why? We’re all busy folks. We might be curious and click on one link, but if we see a whole page of links, we often won’t bother because of the time involved. Note I say “we”— I do this, too. So rather than send you to a page where you have a lot of choices, I’m going to pick one product/design a day.

Here’s a preview of my tweet for tomorrow:

“To Reach Out” Greeting Card, illustration by #Bettigee. Purple Swirl Arts shop on Cafepress. http://www.cafepress.com/purpleswirlarts.187423976 #deaf #DeVIA

A note: just because I’m scheduling these tweets ahead of time doesn’t mean I’m a robot. Just a real person with real products that people like, and trying to reach out and let people know while still having a life, both online and off.

—Nancy C.
@purpleswirl

*Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. … We sell one item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced.

Not following me on twitter yet? Follow me here: https://twitter.com/purpleswirl

 

Hearing (mis)Understandings

I happened upon a twitter conversation today. The only reason I saw it was that I was scanning a search on #deaf and came across a tweet by ZenMonkey. Made me curious, so I opened her page and also the pages of Hermantmetha and Jbrtva (who, as far as I can tell by their bios, are all hearing people).

Here are the tweets, put into time order, from the beginning to the end of the conversation.

http://twitter.com/hemantmehta

I just learned the sign language signs for Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and Jew. I’ve concluded that all deaf people are racist.

8:40 PM Aug 1st from web

http://twitter.com/jbrtva

@hemantmehta did you learn the “new” signs or the “old” ones?

11:50 PM Aug 1st from web in reply to hemantmehta

http://twitter.com/hemantmehta

@jbrtva totally the old ones.

9:32 AM Aug 2nd from Tweetie in reply to jbrtva

http://twitter.com/jbrtva

@hemantmehta deaf people don’t mean to be offensive…just very blunt…

about 21 hours ago from web

http://twitter.com/hemantmehta

@jbrtva Someone explained to me an example of Old sign language vs. New. You’re right: Old is more blunt, even if offensive at times

about 21 hours ago from web in reply to jbrtva

http://twitter.com/ZenMonkey

@hemantmehta But there was still no public retraction of that comment about #deaf people. Coming from you, I am really surprised.

about 18 hours ago from web in reply to hemantmehta

http://twitter.com/hemantmehta

http://twitter.com/hemantmehta

@ZenMonkey I think most people who follow me understand when I’m being sarcastic.. the bit comes from a comedy routine, referring to old ASL

about 18 hours ago from web in reply to ZenMonkey

http://twitter.com/ZenMonkey

@hemantmehta Totally get that about your followers. Unfortunately many of them likely don’t know why it’s a joke, & why it’s not cool.

about 18 hours ago from twhirl in reply to hemantmehta

http://twitter.com/ZenMonkey

@hemantmehta Not a slam on your followers at all; just generally Deaf culture and ASL linguistics aren’t widely known.

about 18 hours ago from twhirl in reply to hemantmehta

http://twitter.com/ZenMonkey

The “it’s just a joke” argument for casually offensive remarks only works if your audience is in on the joke. If not, it’s just offensive.

about 18 hours ago from twhirl

I think this is a great conversation and I’m not offended by it. For me it comes under the category of “oh, that’s how hearies think about us.” It helps that ZenMonkey spoke up in a respectful way, instead of slamming Hermantmehta (thanks for being an advocate!).

First, let me say that I’m deaf, but was raised hard of hearing, isolated in the hearing world. I didn’t start signing until I was 24, so I understand where the hearing people’s attitudes come from, since I made the same mistakes as a newcomer to the deaf community. But I learned, changed, evolved.

Deaf people are VISUAL. This should be an obvious fact, but it’s not. In fact, one old friend of mine even did a Ph.D. dissertation on this topic. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest ones to get through to people. So I say it again, deaf people are visual.

Because they are visual, deaf people use their faces and their bodies differently from hearing people. For example, hearing folks use their faces for emotion; deaf people use their faces for grammar and emphasis. This is a very deep, and for hearies, a difficult thing to learn. So many hearing people misread deaf expressions as anger, when we’re simply using ASL and being emphatic.

In the context of the twitter conversation above, the fact that deaf people are visual is the basis for labels such as “racist” (even as a joke), “offensive” and “blunt”— no, we’re just visual. The “old” signs are obvious: “Chinese = slanted eyes,” “Indian = painted cheeks” (assuming that’s American Indian, East Asian Indians are dot on the forehead), and so on.

Political correctness hit the deaf world, however, so the new signs generally focus on culture, rather than visual differences, and deaf people try to use the signs that people develop for themselves, rather than give them one from our culture. “Chinese” is now a sweeping sign across the chest and down, following the buttons of traditional Chinese dress. American “Indian” is now a sign signifying “of the land.” The old signs can be hard to give up, though, just because they are so visual and clear to the deaf eye. To be honest, I slip, and sometimes use the old signs. And, I don’t even know the politically correct signs for Mexican and Jewish (I’ve seen a new sign for Mexican, but don’t remember it; and I don’t know any sign for Jewish or Hebrew other than “beard”).*

The point, again, is that deaf people are visual. And it’s difficult for someone who comes from one culture, particularly a dominant one, to avoid imposing the assumptions of their culture onto others. Respectful discussions such as this help us all to understand and appreciate others better.

—Nancy Creighton

@purpleswirl

*I just looked it up in “Signs in Judaism,” 1986 by Adele Kronick Shuart— one of the first books I worked on (I did the typing on a word processor, not a computer). The alternate sign for Jew is “people” plus “Torah” but I’ve never seen anyone use that sign in casual conversation.

PS: Comments on this post welcome. Let’s use hashtag #DfHr (for deaf/hearing) and/or #deaf if commenting on Twitter, okay?

 

“The ASL Flag” by Betty G. Miller

"The ASL Flag" by Betty G. Miller

“The ASL Flag” is one of a series of paintings Betty did featuring the American flag. For this one, Betty rewrote the words to our national anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner,” to show both the beauty of ASL, and the oppression deaf people still face:

“Oh can’t you seeee…. by dawn’s early light
what proudly…. we Deaf wave at visual beauty
we see in sign language burst in air…
no matter people hearing stare…
show proof that… Deaf and ASL still here…
oh why why Deaf people opressed?
over the land of the free…. and the home of the brave…??”

This is a diptych— one image on two canvases. The painting also embraces duality in other ways. For example, while the real flag is red, white and blue, this one is pink, off white and light blue— pleasing and eye catching. But the faded colors show that deaf people aren’t considered full members of American society. Recent controversies arising about the rights and abilities of deaf and hard of hearing people to sit on juries is a case in point. Another duality is the reference to sign language and people staring. While some are staring because they are interested, others stare because they see it as strange, or think that the deaf people are angry when what they are really seeing is emphasis.

So, is this a negative or a positive painting? Just like life, it’s both.

Do you have other interpretations for this painting? Go ahead and add a comment.

The original painting is for sale on our Etsy shop: http://purpleswirl.etsy.com and in honor of Betty’s 75th birthday this month, we are giving $75 rebates and free shipping with insurance.

*** Just finished putting this image on products in our Cafepress shop: http://www.cafepress.com/purpleswirlarts/6823437. There’s one tote bag and a lot of different t-shirts listed, so you’ve got some choices! ***

 

In Celebration: $75 for 75!

Happy Birthday, Bettigee! In celebration of Betty G. Miller’s 75th birthday later this month,we’re offering $75 REBATE for any original painting by Betty (or by her father, Ralph R. Miller) purchased through our Etsy site, and FREE SHIPPING with INSURANCE.

There are nine paintings currently available on Etsy, seven by Betty: The ASL Flag; Deaf Dancers; Frazzled; Read My Lips; Dealing with the Contrast Inside Me; Mommy, I am Deaf! Broken— and two by her father, Ralph: Lipreader; The Phone Call, Seven O’Clock. Follow me on twitter for announcements of new listings of Betty’s paintings as I post more of them this month.

Screenshot of our Etsy site - purpleswirl.etsy.com

 

Mommy, I am Deaf!

I had wondered why no one’s bought the poster of “Mommy, I am Deaf!”  for awhile. I checked the site, and the poster had somehow gotten cattywampus. So I took off all the old items and re-did them. This time, I used a good photo taken by a terrific, professional photographer– Mark Benjamin– after the show at NTID in Fall, 2008.

Mommy, I am Deaf! by Betty G. Miller, 1995

This painting, ”Mommy, I am Deaf!” came out of Betty’s personal experience. Even though her parents were Deaf, she had two older brothers who were both hearing, and their first language was American Sign Language. Betty came along, the youngest child (and the only girl) and it was assumed — expected, even– that she was hearing the same as her brothers. Betty’s parents were not aware of her hearing loss until a few years later when she started school.

The news affected the whole family– brothers and grandparents, as well as her parents. Everyone was upset. Remember, this was in the late 1930s, and deaf people wanted hearing children (unlike today when deaf people welcome deaf children). Betty’s mom and dad didn’t want her to suffer from discrimination and lack of access to the world, as they had.

Actually hard of hearing until losing what was left due to a fever in her 50s, Betty struggled through much of her young life balancing between the Deaf World and the hearing one. This struggle, as well as what she observed of the lives of her parents and friends, became a recurring theme of her paintings.

Original For Sale: $2,750; posters for sale for much less!

This painting was shown twice, and the small art show in Manayunk, Philadelphia in 2006, and in the recent large retrospective at the Dyer Gallery at NTID, Rochester. Matted in purple and framed in black, the dimensions of this piece are 20 in. wide by 16 in. high; acrylic paint and collage on black posterboard. The original is for sale on our Etsy site: purpleswirl.etsy.com.

This image is also available as a poster (three different sizes) our Cafepress site: cafepress.com/purpleswirlarts.

 

Zoom into trouble— Mac trouble

Here’s an edited version of what I wrote my friend, Larry, last night after spending three days of a holiday weekend trying to fix my computer:

My Mac is making me nuts. I can’t work with it this way. The display grows past the size of the screen is the best way I can explain it— when I move the mouse, the entire desktop moves. Doesn’t matter what program I’m using, or what resolution I set for the display. Also the fonts change. On some lines they are bigger than others and as the lines scroll where it gets bigger stays in place and the lines change. Like keeping a magnifying glass in place while scrolling the text behind it.

I’ve already stripped most of the login progams, so that’s not the problem, and I’ve first repaired permissions, then got out my install disk and repaired the disk (something was repaired, but it still didn’t solve the problem.) Then I reinstalled the system from my disk, taking system 10.4.11 back to 10.4.3 and THAT didn’t do it either. Have updated back to 10.4.11 and it’s still crazy-making. Can you help?

Now, I normally don’t have simple problems. I’m pretty good at troubleshooting Macs, and am one of the go-to people for my Mac-loving friends, just as Larry is. And I’d never seen this before (in hindsight I may have, but it was so long ago and part of exploration— not a problem— that I don’t remember).

Larry said he had seen it before, and fixed it before, but couldn’t remember how. Both of us spent time on the Apple Knowledgebase site looking for answers and didn’t find it. I know I was using the word “expand” as a search term. Perhaps if I’d used “zoom” the answer would have shown up.

Luckily for me, Larry’s son Gary is a Mac-fix-it-pro and when he saw the email, he said:

Sounds like she’s got the Universal Access option(s) enabled. If so, then she needs to go to the System Preferences, select Universal Access, and turn off the Zoom option under the Seeing tab.

Really? Could it be that simple? Yeah, it was. Gary was right, and Larry remembered having done that before. I finally realized, too, why this happened— because I know that I didn’t turn on the zoom:

I figured out how I turned on zoom by mistake. It has a 3-key shortcut and I was trying to either, do a bullet mark with option-8 and included the shift key by mistake, or was trying to figure out how to do a true em dash in a new-to-me program, and hit the 8 instead of the hyphen-minus key.

So now, I’ve run “Software Update” repeatedly until it told me there’s nothing left to update and will be getting back to work, to the twitterverse, and all things computer— tomorrow. Merci beaucoup to both Larry and Gary for helping me out!

Apologies to my PC friends who may be thinking this post doesn’t make much sense; and to my Mac-loving friends, here’s hoping that if you get into similar trouble with a Mac that expands, or zooms, past the size of the monitor frame, that you’ll remember reading this and know how to fix the problem.

 

SAVE now on Deaf Quotations t-shirts

“As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs…”

The “Deaf Guy” t-shirt

Between the time you read this, and Sunday, June 21st, you can save on T-shirts at Deaf Quotations! Cover Your Nakedness! That’s what Printfection, the store that hosts Deaf Quotations is saying. Save on “Veditz Quote” tees (one version shown below) and “Deaf Guys are…” and “Deaf Gals are…” tees (one modeled by Larry, above).

I love the Deaf Guy T-shirts. I wear them every time when I travel: long sleeves for cold weather and short sleeves for warm weather. I get a lot of attention and laughs from people who enjoy reading them. And I have about a half-dozen of them. —Larry B.

SAVE — use one of the following coupon codes at checkout:

COVERYOURNAKEDNESS – SAVE $5 on orders over $25

COVERYOURFRIENDS – SAVE $10 on orders over $50

COVERTHEWHOLEFAMILY – SAVE $20 on orders over $100

"As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs..."

To SAVE, just go to: http://www.printfection.com/deafquotations