Joan Tysinger

As an artist with a disability, my personal journey towards self-acceptance is ongoing. While I know this is no doubt true for everyone, it is particularly true for those of us who are different. I have dealt with disability all of my life.  Until now I have studiously avoided focusing on any aspect of the difficulties entailed in living with disability in my work.  I do not see myself as a disabled artist, but rather an artist dealing with physical limitations.

Exoskeleton is the first drawing in which I self identify as a person with a disability.  This is my brace and these are my shoes.  With this brace and these shoes I can walk, not well, but non-the-less move independently and at my own will from one place to another.  With this brace and these shoes I come closer to functioning as normal – whatever that is.