Artwork

Disability Without Limits

By Johnson Simons

This painting depicts someone with a disability, jumping from brick to brick defying their physical limitations, and overcoming the odds that life throws at them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Johnson Simon

I have always been interested in body movement and when an opportunity was presented to me to attend a dance recital exhibition nine years ago on the Western Michigan University campus, I was excited to attend. Viewing the dancers and their freedom of movement inspired me to display movement in my painting. I was stimulated to create my first dance focused expressionistic painting. Dancing is to me, the art of moving lightly and quickly with the skill of communicating my emotion. As someone with a disability, movement impacts me on a daily basis. In order to help gain more knowledge of motion and movement, I used several sources of movement for research and to enhance ideas. I watch several videos of dancing to help in determining the type of movement I wanted to present in my painting. I studied the movement of people: walking, running, swimming, and sky diving. I then had my own walking and stepping up and down stairways videotaped. I discovered that my walking has a rhythm to it. To further enhance my study of movement I attended several dancing classes to sketch the dancer’s movements for effect. My painting is a representation of me dancing. I am able to make broad and sweeping motions with my paint brush and transfer that motion and feeling of movement onto the canvas to express myself. In my artistic work, I am able to move freely about without limitations. I use bright colors to represent the body movement throughout the surface.

My artwork is a way for me to express or transfer how I would move freely and uninterrupted. I can run, walk, jump, and I can dance without being bound to limitations when I paint. Zm and draw. I believe the paint brush is an extension of me and represents my idea of movement on canvas.

www.artbyjohnsonsimon.com

A man with medium brown skin, with short black hair, wearing glasses, and smiling broadly in front of a white background.

Expressing Through Tattoos

Hello my Name is Alejandro Nuñez (Alex)

I work at the Courtyard By Marriott in downtown Muncie, and I’m a Volunteer Firefighter

I want to share my tattoos with everyone and tell you what they mean to me.

The first tattoo is a firefighter tattoo. The tattoo is a fire shield with an American flag. It’s outlined with a thin red line.

The next tattoo is another firefighter tattoo. This tattoo is what I call my 9/11 tattoo because every year I go to a firefighter conference in Indy, and i take part in a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at Lucas Oil Stadium. I climb 110 stories/2,200 step, which is the same number of steps and stories that the firefighters had climbed on that day. The tattoo displays a firefighter praying on one knee with an axe and a helmet. The American flag is behind him. The number 343, which is on the helmet, is how many firefighters died in the trade center on 9/11.

My next tattoo is my cerebral palsy tattoo, which is a green ribbon with wings and the word hope underneath the ribbon. I have cerebral palsy. I’m unable to use my right hand, and i wear an AFO on my right leg. I decided to get the word hope because hopefully someday there will be a cure for cerebral palsy.

My next 3 tattoos are on my left arm:

The first one is of a roman numeral, which represents my sister’s birthday- 09-07-92. This was my very first tattoo. My sister and I are close so we decided to get our birthdays tattooed on each other. She got my birthday (10-28-95) tattooed on her arm as well.

The second one is a heart with headphones around it with a heartbeat rhythm in the middle, I got this one because I listen to music wherever i go. It keeps me calm when I feel like I’m getting frustrated about things.

The third one is my semicolon tattoo. I got this one because i deal with depression and suicidal thoughts. I decided to get this one to remind myself that everything is going be okay. The text i got with it is “when we suffer we find the will to live.”

The next tattoo is a diamond shape tattoo with is one half is in the day time and the other half is in the night time. I got this one because sometimes I’m up all night, and sometimes I’m up all day. .

The next tattoo is my Johnny Cash tattoo. I got this one because I’m a Johnny cash fan. The tattoo is his face, and in the middle is him with his guitar walking down the road.

The next tatto is also musical. This one has the play, paused, stop and replay Buttons like on an Ipod or Mp3 player. Play the moments. Paused the memories. Stop the pain. Replay the happiness.

The last tattoo is another music tattoo. The tattoo says “Words fail, Music speaks.”. I got this one because sometimes we listen to songs that just know how we feel.

That’s all of my tattoos. Thank you for letting me share with you the meaning of my tattoos.

This is a picture of Alex. He’s wearing a tan and yellow firefighter suit with black gloves. He has short dark hair and a confident expression on his face. Alex is standing next to a fire truck.

Unknown Cause

The artwork is a line drawing in marker with colored pencils for emphasis. The piece shows the merging of health, struggles with addiction, pain and diagnosis with visuals of a bloodstream flowing through pills, flowers, plants, quotes, medical bills, and diagnoses, some from doctors and some from friends, family, or acquaintances. Text: Live and Let Live; "fight flight and freeze behaviors are unconsciously reflexive"; Robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy; emotional abuse; Disorder, Unspecified 300.02; Insurance Denial; "What story are you telling yourself"; This, too, shall pass; to remove the uterus (womb); patient balance- $29,886.61, insurance balance; "When pain becomes chronic, the nervous system naturally becomes overactive"; pain 1-5 (worst); Depressive Disorder; "There is so much we don't know, and to write truthfully about your life, your own or your mother's... is to engage repeatedly with those patches of darkness, those nights of history, those places of unknown...(R.Solnit); post traumatic stress disorder. — The artwork is a line drawing in marker with colored pencils for emphasis. The piece shows the merging of health, struggles with addiction, pain and diagnosis with visuals of a bloodstream flowing through pills, flowers, plants, quotes, medical bills, and diagnoses, some from doctors and some from friends, family, or acquaintances. Text: Live and Let Live; “fight flight and freeze behaviors are unconsciously reflexive”; Robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy; emotional abuse; Disorder, Unspecified 300.02; Insurance Denial; “What story are you telling yourself”; This, too, shall pass; to remove the uterus (womb); patient balance- $29,886.61, insurance balance; “When pain becomes chronic, the nervous system naturally becomes overactive”; pain 1-5 (worst); Depressive Disorder; “There is so much we don’t know, and to write truthfully about your life, your own or your mother’s… is to engage repeatedly with those patches of darkness, those nights of history, those places of unknown…(R. Solnit); post traumatic stress disorder.

Meet the artist

Solomon, she/her, an artist — Solomon, she/her, artist

About the artist:

Stephanie Solomon (she/her) is the new Youth Program Coordinator with the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She spent over 3 years as Prevention Coordinator with the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, with a focus on promoting healthy relationships and environments for youth and families. She is a graduate of Indiana University with 19 years of experience in the social service sector and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at Indiana University. Stephanie is an adult ally with the Kaleidoscope Youth Community. She is passionate about primary prevention and building spaces that promote belonging for youth and families. She enjoys karaoking to Barbara Streisand songs.

About the art:

The artwork is a line drawing in marker with colored pencils for emphasis. The piece shows the merging of health, struggles with addiction, pain and diagnosis with visuals of a bloodstream flowing through pills, flowers, plants, quotes, medical bills, and diagnoses, some from doctors and some from friends, family, or acquaintances. Text: Live and Let Live; “fight flight and freeze behaviors are unconsciously reflexive”; Robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy; emotional abuse; Disorder, Unspecified 300.02; Insurance Denial; “What story are you telling yourself”; This, too, shall pass; to remove the uterus (womb); patient balance- $29,886.61, insurance balance; “When pain becomes chronic, the nervous system naturally becomes overactive”; pain 1-5 (worst); Depressive Disorder; “There is so much we don’t know, and to write truthfully about your life, your own or your mother’s… is to engage repeatedly with those patches of darkness, those nights of history, those places of unknown…(R.Solnit); post traumatic stress disorder.

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Arms Up for Blessings and Breath

Arms up for blessings and breath

This is my reflection of how nature is able to rejuvenate the spirit and the senses in many forms. These photos were all taken on my cell phone as I am traveling to many places with a fresh outlook on life.

By Christina Marie Martin