Understanding Disabilities :: Personal Narrative Writing

You don't have to work too hard to find places where your awareness of disabilities helps you see things clearly and understand more about your own world. I'm interested in art and I'm working at the Museum in town this summer. I'm helping develop an education program that will interest younger kids in the museum's collection. I have been looking everywhere to find out how to get kids to look at paintings that otherwise might not interest them at all. I saw something on the Internet which I thought would give me some ideas. It is a Web site created by Tom March called "2 Views 4 U." He uses questions to get the viewer to compare sets of interestingly matched paintings. I especially liked his combination of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and VanGogh's "Corridor in the Asylum." March tries to get the viewer to define mental illness by comparing the two painters' interpretations of it. He starts out by asking us to think about the two titles of the paintings and he draws us into examining how each of the painters uses repetitions, shapes, lines, color, and patterns to represent his view of mental illness. I think he does something positive for art and disability by insisting that we look for "cool things" that attract us to each painting. March asks us if it is more disturbing for us to see a person who is mentally ill or to see through the eyes of someone who is disabled. What he is really asking is whether Munch or Van Gogh communicates the feelings of mental illness best. My experience with the Disabilities Awareness Newsletter has given me a good perspective on this question. Getting to know kids with disabilities through my connection with this Newsletter has increased my respect for letting people with disabilities tell their own story. I have understood more about disabilities by just listening than I could ever have imagined. It has been like looking at a piece of art work painted by a person with a disability.