Animal Series
According to Coyote
Since "Njamala," I decided to search for more ideas with multi-cultural people. I came up with a Navajo signing Coyote, also known as the Trickster, from books with collections of folklore about the coyote, how the world was created and so forth. There are often thunderstorms in the southwest region of the USA during the summer, creating sudden washes at the bottom of canyons. With his animal instinct, Coyote knew it was coming, climbed to the top for safety and sensed a person in the clouds calling him "the pointy nose." It is poetic license I am using here but that is how one signs coyote or wolf.
Crocodile Dundee
After the first painting of the cat, one of the next two in the Animal series was the one of the crocodile. I wanted to find a clever way to play with the sign of the image of an animal. It was like squeezing toothpaste for an idea to come out of my dry creative mind, "Here it is!" You can see the arms in scissor motion in the reflection of the jaw on the surface of the water. Our sign for the crocodile carries the spirit of an Aussie, known as Dundee, as it appears playfully in the water underneath the creature.
Double Nive Lives
When I was at DawnSignPress in San Diego '92-'93, the Deaf owner of the publishing company assigned me to paint anything related to the Deaf for the six-month period. That really challenged me. I hadn't painted a particular theme based on Deaf experience except for a few experiments inspired by Dr. Betty G. Miller back in the early 70's during my college painting classes. The painting of the cat was the first of the series. I first thought of creating an image of an animal while showing the reason for its sign. In reality, not one cat in the world would allow its master to pull taut one strand of his whiskers on both sides, which is the sign for "feline," except for this imaginated pet. The handshapes for cat is the same as for number 9, so I picked the title"Double Nine Lives," for this painting. The rest is history; I got involved in the movement called De'via, a term for Deaf Art. The publisher, Joe Dannis, must be proud as the one who sparked the idea. The credit is owed to him. He later made a book about me, "Chuck Baird, 35 Plates." Thanks to him.
Njamala
This is another in the Animal series. After I picked the giraffe for the next painting with a sign in it, the process brought quite a stirring emotion. I first thought of finding a Deaf African American to pose with the sign of giraffe for me. There was guy named John Reid willing to be pictured for my preparation of the painting. I wanted him in the painting right in front of a cool creature standing magically without running away scared. What would he wear? I looked into a thick pictorial book of African Art at a library and I spotted the perfect outfit for him, a robe with a specific color pattern that was only worn by a king in Ghana. I hanged it in my first art show of Deaf related paintings. When John Reid showed up, we all stood still and watched him as he looked at the painting alone. He seemed to be in a trance with a tear in his eye. Who knows... where in Africa he could he be from? It might be a royal family. Njamala is the Ghanaian word for 'giraffe.'
Tyger Tyger
The original painting is now hanging in the office of Dr. Albert Simone, the president of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. A high quality, framed, copy of it is also hanging in the Dyer Art Center at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on the same campus. Dr. Simone told the me that he was very proud of the painting, which was a gift from NTID, for three reasons:
the college mascot is Tiger; the person sitting in the painting is a Indian which represents multi-cultural sensitivity; and lastly, the artist is an alumni of RIT and NTID.
Fingershell
I thought of the sign for turtle as the popular one for the hearings folk to learn a few signs. So I created the image with the sign incorporated with the animal. A man’s hands, in playful and gentle mimicry, joins a brood of turtles as they amble onto a pebbled path.
Since "Njamala," I decided to search for more ideas with multi-cultural people. I came up with a Navajo signing Coyote, also known as the Trickster, from books with collections of folklore about the coyote, how the world was created and so forth. There are often thunderstorms in the southwest region of the USA during the summer, creating sudden washes at the bottom of canyons. With his animal instinct, Coyote knew it was coming, climbed to the top for safety and sensed a person in the clouds calling him "the pointy nose." It is poetic license I am using here but that is how one signs coyote or wolf.
Crocodile Dundee
After the first painting of the cat, one of the next two in the Animal series was the one of the crocodile. I wanted to find a clever way to play with the sign of the image of an animal. It was like squeezing toothpaste for an idea to come out of my dry creative mind, "Here it is!" You can see the arms in scissor motion in the reflection of the jaw on the surface of the water. Our sign for the crocodile carries the spirit of an Aussie, known as Dundee, as it appears playfully in the water underneath the creature.
Double Nive Lives
When I was at DawnSignPress in San Diego '92-'93, the Deaf owner of the publishing company assigned me to paint anything related to the Deaf for the six-month period. That really challenged me. I hadn't painted a particular theme based on Deaf experience except for a few experiments inspired by Dr. Betty G. Miller back in the early 70's during my college painting classes. The painting of the cat was the first of the series. I first thought of creating an image of an animal while showing the reason for its sign. In reality, not one cat in the world would allow its master to pull taut one strand of his whiskers on both sides, which is the sign for "feline," except for this imaginated pet. The handshapes for cat is the same as for number 9, so I picked the title"Double Nine Lives," for this painting. The rest is history; I got involved in the movement called De'via, a term for Deaf Art. The publisher, Joe Dannis, must be proud as the one who sparked the idea. The credit is owed to him. He later made a book about me, "Chuck Baird, 35 Plates." Thanks to him.
Njamala
This is another in the Animal series. After I picked the giraffe for the next painting with a sign in it, the process brought quite a stirring emotion. I first thought of finding a Deaf African American to pose with the sign of giraffe for me. There was guy named John Reid willing to be pictured for my preparation of the painting. I wanted him in the painting right in front of a cool creature standing magically without running away scared. What would he wear? I looked into a thick pictorial book of African Art at a library and I spotted the perfect outfit for him, a robe with a specific color pattern that was only worn by a king in Ghana. I hanged it in my first art show of Deaf related paintings. When John Reid showed up, we all stood still and watched him as he looked at the painting alone. He seemed to be in a trance with a tear in his eye. Who knows... where in Africa he could he be from? It might be a royal family. Njamala is the Ghanaian word for 'giraffe.'
Tyger Tyger
The original painting is now hanging in the office of Dr. Albert Simone, the president of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. A high quality, framed, copy of it is also hanging in the Dyer Art Center at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on the same campus. Dr. Simone told the me that he was very proud of the painting, which was a gift from NTID, for three reasons:
the college mascot is Tiger; the person sitting in the painting is a Indian which represents multi-cultural sensitivity; and lastly, the artist is an alumni of RIT and NTID.
Fingershell
I thought of the sign for turtle as the popular one for the hearings folk to learn a few signs. So I created the image with the sign incorporated with the animal. A man’s hands, in playful and gentle mimicry, joins a brood of turtles as they amble onto a pebbled path.
