Disability Expressed and Redefined

Through the Medium of Art

Sketching to Express

For me, sketching became the media that allowed me the space to see what I could not express. It helped me visualize where I was, what I needed and then to sit with it all. From there, I could begin to understand growth, my own fears and apprehending thoughts about my own disability. After that, I could begin to allow yoga to be my own Spirits Art while my body sought peace.

- Erica Cooper

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Painting to Redefine Disability

I love Riva Lehrer’s series Circle Stories. These paintings are portraits of disabled artists and academics who are working to redefine disability. Each painting evokes something of the subject’s personality or something of the focus in their work.

Lehrer centers disability in these portraits. The people and their bodies feel glorious to me. Bold disability beauty.

Looking at the collection makes me feel more alive in my body. The colors and shapes are vibrant; their vibrancy echoes in me.

The portraits also feel like connection. The people Lehrer depicts often look directly out at the viewer. When I look at them, I feel like I am both seeing and being seen. There is kinship between us, even if we never meet. Disability community across time and space.

- Liz Weber

Rebecca Maskos, 2001, acrylic on panel, 24" x 18"

Rebecca Maskos is a scholar and activist working to create a more vibrant disability culture in Bremen, Germany. howwegettonext.com/@rebecca.maskos

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