Video Description: Against a dark background, white finger-like things appear at the top. As the music plays, the finger-like things crawl down the screen.
BiPolar to me feels like someone is reaching in my mind with their fingers and messing with my emotions, motivations, and behaviors. The dark represents my depression, and the light represents my mania.
The base of the Processing code was written by Dan Shiffman, http://patreon.com/codingtrain, in his forward kinematics lesson. The music “Dark Trailer” was downloaded with a free licence from Adobe Stock. The rest was written in Java, Processing, by me, Jayson Powers.
About the Author: Jayson Powers is a mathematician at heart who enjoys computer programming. He lives in Muncie, IN, where he is the primary caregiver of his wife with cerebral palsy.
Using Art to Bring Awareness to Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence
Three roses in front of a bigger flower that is difficult to see because of the black back ground. The black background remains, but the flowers are in full bloom. The previously hard to see bigger flower is now a brilliant blue. The word, HOPE” is written above the blue flower.
*Please Note: IDJ does not align with any one religion, faith, or belief system. Instead, we offer a platform where people with disabilities can express their diverse experiences. Content contains Gina’s story about what happened to her when she was trafficked. Please take care when you read about what happened to Gina.
About the Artist: Gina Hope
I’m a survivor of human trafficking. During that time my spinal cord was injured (leading to constant severe pain & 17 surgeries involving my cervical & thoracic spinal cord causing a whole host of obstacles) and domestic violence (leading to rods & screws in my lower back). But despite how difficult each day & sometimes each minute is God has & continues helping me see good that can come of my circumstances & He’s never allowed me to give up. Around 7yrs ago, a friend met me every week for a year encouraging me to follow my dreams – he convinced me that I was not only capable but that I could accomplish amazing feats others could not because of the insights my experiences have given me. So, I set out to begin the sea of paperwork to start a 501c3 which is Living Legacy Of Hope. I’ve wanted to be an artist my entire life; but I’ve never been able to get on canvas anything close to what I envision.
However, I sought out to learn to paint as I had the idea of painting a Hope Card Collection. God helps me overcome obstacles such as difficulty holding onto the paintbrush because much of my hand is numb. This is the first painting I’ve been able to complete that actually looks like what I envisioned.
This particular painting came out of a very dark time as I had just been viciously attacked (enter rods & screws). The front of this Hope card is the Silhouette of Hope with the Silhouette of the opening Rose while the back is in full color with the Rose & HOPE brightly shining.
I’ve given this as a Sympathy or Inspiration card to remind the hurting there is always Hope = one of the most important things I say when speaking is that we can overcome no matter what we endure on this earth – although there might be dark times we are never without HOPE.
Art by Ashley McDaniel from Florida. Ashley is a person with schizophrenia and art keeps Ashley safe.
This is a drawing of a castle in the sky where God lives. There is a pathway with grass on each side leading from the front door off into the distance. There are three suns shining in the sky, one fluffy blue cloud and three blue dots.This is a drawing of Shadow Man in black, gray and red. There is a gray and red spiral in the middle of the page under the writing and under the spiral is a red fire with black outline and Ashley’s name. The text written in black ink reads “Shadow Man is talking to me but I don’t see him though so I ignor him.”
A one panel cartoon in black ink with a plain white background featuring a cerebral palsy man holding a picket sign that reads “DIS – MONSTERIZE DISABILITY ” The man is looking straight forward standing on the sidewalk. At the right of the panel is written “DANIEL AARON HARRIS” in the far right bottom corner is written “ (C) 2021 Daniel Aaron Harris
Dis – Monsterize Disability
Monsterize is defined as
To make something or another into a monster or the appearance of
Or
To give another very bad reputation, demonize, vilify.
As a cerebral palsy man I have experienced monsterization along with a lot of people with disabilities. As an artist and children book author my mission is to change the narrative of people with disabilities are viewed and betrayed in media outlets. I chose “Dis instead of De” for a impactful a word play. Bobby Blue is a cerebral palsy character created by me to help people big and small see the value within the disability community.
Photo of Daniel Aaron: a white man siting in a chair in front of bookselves. He has brown hair with a beard. He has a serious expression. He is wearing a yellow t-shirt that says “Fallen Walls”. He has a tattoo of a lion on his left arm.
Daniel Aaron Harris as an artist, actor and author aims to change the narrative of disability. He lives in Memphis TN, where he runs a ministry called Fallen Walls. Daniel has written 7 children’s books and is currently working on his doctorate of ministry at Western Theological Seminary.
Website- www.fallenwalls901.org Facebook- Daniel Aaron Harris Instagram and Twitter- danielfw901 YouTube – Daniel Aaron Harris
