2004 - Vol. 1, Issue 4

To say that Brenda Schertz is busy is to say that ice is cold. Working at the University of Southern Maine (USM) as an American Sign Language instructor and a guest lecturer on Deaf Art is just a taste of what keeps Brenda active. Brenda is also the lead organizer of the National Conference of Interpreter Trainers Convention this September at Gallaudet and a board member of the Baxter Compensation Authority. But Brenda's passion, and the topic of our conversation below, is her work in promoting Deaf Art and in making other types of art accessible to Deaf people. I caught up with Brenda on a hectic weekday afternoon in March, and, between her meetings and appointments, we had a lively chat via Internet instant message on what Deaf Art is, how Brenda became a leader in this field, and what she is planning for the future.

Sharon Wachsler: You curated a touring group exhibit, "Elements of a Culture: Visions by Deaf Artists," back in 1999. Can you tell me what was in that exhibit?

Brenda Schertz : The exhibit incorporated 48 pieces of artwork from twelve Deaf artists around the country. All of the artworks expressed the Deaf experience. There is a long history of oppression and Deaf artists have expressed that concept through images. Many of the images expressed oppression from the hearing majority, pride in ASL/Deaf Culture, communication barriers that we experience when interacting with hearing people, and finally some images showed how Deaf artists imagined sound. Sound is not as unfamiliar to us as most hearing people would assume it to be. We can visualize sound or make auditory images into visual images. Some worked in the figurative style, while others were more expressionist or abstract in a wide range of mediums.

The exhibit traveled to seven cities in the US: Seattle, Rochester, Boston, Miami, Brooklyn, and cities in Michigan, Kentucky, and Colorado. At each exhibit site, volunteers were recruited to help hang and pack the artworks, and local Deaf people volunteered as docents. When groups came to see the exhibit, the local docent was scheduled to give tours of the exhibit so that visitors would understand the history and intent behind each work.

I trained the docents beforehand when I came to each exhibit for the opening reception. The work involved in coordinating and organizing the exhibit was exhausting! It was the experience of a lifetime.

SW: Did you see that exhibit as a form of activism — or the work that you're doing to promote Deaf Art as activism?

BS: I never viewed myself as an activist, but because of the political message Deaf artists are sending to viewers I suppose you would call that activism. The more I think about it, Deaf Art and activism are closely related. Most Deaf artists are not political activists in their Deaf communities, but they are in a way through their art works. When I organized the touring exhibit, I saw myself as a Deaf Culture ambassador rather than as an activist.

SW: Did all the artists travel with the exhibit?

BS: Not all artists traveled with the exhibit. I did not have funding to cover artists' expenses. It depended on the local exhibit site being able to cover artists' expenses. The local site was responsible for local costs, including reception, artists' travel expenses, and other local costs.

SW: What kinds of reactions did you get from the audiences?

BS: Response from visitors was amazing. Many Deaf visitors would say, "That was my experience, too," especially with The Family Dog by Susan Dupor. Deaf Art was a way for Deaf people to share their experiences in a visual medium.

Other visitors not familiar with Deaf history would be amazed that sign language was oppressed for so long. Some of these people are sign language students, and they were stunned to find out that sign language was prohibited in schools for the deaf.

SW: What does Family Dog depict?

BS: The work is expressive of feelings typical to isolated Deaf children living in non-signing hearing families. The faces of the other members of the family are blurred, likening the experience of lipreading to the experience of viewing a TV program disrupted by static. In the foreground, the Deaf child, who wears hearing aids, is portrayed as a family pet to be patted on the head while being told, "Good girl, good girl." This experience is universal; most parents of Deaf children do not learn sign language to communicate with their Deaf children. The yellow coffee table in the middle of the picture is symbolic because it shows the communication barrier between the Deaf child and the family.

[To view Family Dog, go to http://www.geocities.com/duporart/html/
gallery/availableprints/familydog.html]

SW: Brenda, is there a Deaf Art aesthetic or sensibility? How would you define that?

BS: (Musing) Deaf Art sensibility, . . . Deaf Art aesthetic, . . . hmm, it covers a wide range of tastes, but sensibility, yes.

In 1989, a group of Deaf artists got together and decided to put together a manifesto. They had noticed there were many similarities between several Deaf artists. And they felt there were some tendencies that Deaf artists gravitate towards. When Deaf artists saw the manifesto for the first time they said, "Wow. Many of these points apply to my work, too."

One point mentioned in the manifesto was the tendency to exaggerate one body part and show other body parts much smaller. For example, the mouth is exaggerated while other parts of the face are underemphasized. Many artists who had not read the manifesto had that tendency already. That's one example of a sensibility that is created by a shared experience . . . and shared experience includes communication barriers, language oppression, and becoming connected to the Deaf community. Many Deaf people had grown up without much connection to the Deaf community. When they do finally meet other Deaf people and become involved in the Deaf community, that process of being acculturated to the Deaf community often appears in their work.

SW: So, there's a "before" and "after" effect in the work of Deaf artists — in terms of before they connect to other Deaf people and become acculturated in Deaf Culture versus after?

BS: One example of that is Susan Dupor's Family Dog which she painted early in her career. When she finally developed a social network in the Deaf community, she painted I Interesting Hamster, which is a reflection of her experience at a mainstream program. She realized she was not alone in this experience that was needlessly imposed on her. It is an image of seven students with a cross-section of their heads. The diagrams in their heads only include the mouth and the ear — not the brain, the eyes, or the nose. This is a social and political commentary trying to pass the message to educators and parents: "Teaching us to speak and to listen was not time well spent; we should be using sign language (using our eyes) to learn visually."

SW: I read in the manifesto also that Deaf Culture Art "can be identified by formal elements such as Deaf artists' possible tendency to use contrasting colors and values, intense colors, contrasting textures." Why do you suppose that intensity and contrast are so important in a Deaf Art sensibility?

BS: Other Deaf artists have mentioned that there is a strong need to shout out their message, to make that message more powerful.

SW: Because of being denied communication and value in society, being invisibilized?

BS: You could say we felt invisible. It is not always that way, but there is a strong need by the Deaf artists to pass on their message that these things that happened to them shouldn't have.

SW: Is there a difference between Deaf Culture Art and art that simply was created by a Deaf person?

BS: Yes, there is a difference. Art created by a Deaf person does not mean it is has Deaf themes. Most Deaf artists do not work with Deaf-related themes; they paint portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. That is not Deaf Art. When a Deaf artist shares his/her experience as a Deaf person that is called Deaf Art.

SW: How did you become interested in Deaf Art?

BS: My initial involvement with the field of Deaf Art came about as part of an independent study project I undertook at the Art Institute of Boston under the guidance of Geoffrey Koetsch. What happened was that all art students were required to take a course called Cultural History. Because the school was small enough, they had advised me not to take the course because a large part of the course would involve studying music. To take the place of that course, I was encouraged to do an independent study. I had the freedom to choose my topic. I decided I would do my research on Deaf Art. I gathered slides, wrote a paper, and gave a presentation with the slides. After the research, I decided I was interested in Deaf Art and started mounting exhibits at Deaf Studies exhibits. That led to the touring exhibit of Deaf Culture Art.

SW: What year was that that you did the independent study?

BS: I did my independent study I think in 1991 and mounted my first exhibit in 1993 at Northern Essex Community College.

SW: Did you find that there was a lot of Deaf Art readily available to study? Or did you really have to search for it? I ask because often people from marginalized groups try to find "their" work in the cannon and it's not there. So, I was wondering if you had that experience, or if you felt like you had ready access to Deaf Culture Art?

BS: No, I did not have ready access to Deaf Culture Art in the beginning. You could say I cultivated the field of Deaf Art. I asked Deaf people who were involved with Deaf artists if they knew of contacts. From the Art Department at Gallaudet and from an organization called Deaf Artists of America, based in Rochester, New York, I had my first list of Deaf artists.

Deaf Artists of America had slide libraries. I looked through these slides and identified Deaf artists who expressed the Deaf experience. Then I contacted these artists about shipping artwork for an exhibit. Most did not have the experience of shipping artwork and especially not exhibiting their work. They considered their Deaf experience art works private pieces not to be viewed by the public. I had to convince the Deaf artists that these were extremely significant pieces that the public would enjoy viewing.

SW: That's amazing. So often artists are dying to get their work seen, to get public exhibits.

BS: The first exhibit had 32 pieces, I think, and I had to beg the artists for each and every piece.

SW: It's really something else to hear that the first artists felt their work was private. Where do you think that feeling came from?

BS: I am not sure actually. Deaf artists really put their souls on their paintings. I think perhaps they felt they were exposing themselves by exhibiting these pieces. This experience does not apply to all Deaf artists. Some Deaf artists are quite seasoned in exhibiting their works, but there are many others that are not.

SW: I know that for many artists with disabilities — writers, visual artists, etc. — there is a lot of shame in writing/talking/painting the disability experience, the disabled body. . . . We have been told that who we are is disgusting or bizarre and should be hidden away. I wonder if that experience of shaming also had an effect on Deaf artists who wanted to keep their work private? Fear of the public (hearing) world's censure?

BS: Perhaps for a long time Deaf artists were ashamed that they had gone through these experiences — again that applies to only some Deaf artists — and when they discovered that there were many others who shared their experience, I believe they felt it was important that they share that, too, in a visual medium.

Now I think Deaf artists have become empowered by that first exhibit. With consecutive exhibits, I was able to get out a "Call for Entries" and we did get more entries than we could accept for the exhibit.

SW: You turned the field around! You refer to yourself as an ambassador, but I would say you've also really been a pioneer.

BS: It appears that I did put together the very first exhibit that exclusively deals with the Deaf experience. While there were other exhibits that had included works that dealt with the Deaf experience, they were always mixed with those that were not. I felt it distracted viewers from the fact that there are specific messages Deaf artists are trying to express about their Deaf experience.

SW: Yes, I know what you mean about wanting to keep the exhibit focused. It seems like so often Deaf or disabled people are added in — maybe at the last minute — so our work is tokenized and taken to represent the whole group, when it's just one or two pieces, and it distorts the view of what the actual aesthetic or shared experience of that group is.

BS: That is exactly right! Sometimes I feel like the token Deaf person. That does not happen often but it does still happen.

SW: Where does it happen?

BS: On boards, when they need a Deaf person to sit on the board...

SW: Oh yes. . . . (rolling eyes).

BS: You share that feeling too? (Laughing.)

SW: Well, often I feel like it's a step up for me if I'm lucky enough to be tokenized. Usually I'm excluded altogether. But then when I am included it definitely feels like, "Look at us. We included the crippled girl!" That's why doing Breath & Shadow has been so important to me, and I think why we've gotten such an amazing response: because it is written and controlled/edited 100 percent by people with disabilities.

BS: I share that same feeling: if you really want to express the disability experience it has to come from a person with a disability. For too long hearing professionals had written about the Deaf. When Deaf people finally published works that were really from their perspective, it came out very differently from the hearing perspective.

SW: Exactly. Speaking of which, what do you think Deaf Culture activists have to learn from disability culture activists, and vice-versa?

BS: Slowly, Deaf people are realizing that they can benefit from working with people with disabilities. I think there haven't been many opportunities where Deaf Culture activists could examine the possibility of working with disability culture activists. I know that it happens on the national level with National Association of the Deaf, but on the local level it is happening very slowly. One example would be VSA Massachusetts. At VSA Mass. they supported the concept of Deaf Culture Art; they were the local sponsor for the Boston site of the touring exhibit. And at the same time they introduced me to websites that were created for or by artists with disabilities. I realized that VSA had changed. Gone was the patronizing view, and in had come the empowered view. They realize that artists with disabilities and Deaf artists have similar goals: they want opportunities to exhibit their work.

SW: I'd heard through the grapevine that VSA Mass. is really focused on access now, almost entirely. That seems pretty different from VSAs in other states.

BS: VSA Mass. is focused on access because many people with disabilities are interested in mainstream experiences. They want to be able to go to the theater and attend other arts events that other people attend. VSA Mass. does have special programs for people with disabilities. They often help with funding so that people with disabilities can do the programs they think should be done. Rather than organizing special arts programming, they allow people with disabilities to organize the programs themselves, which we like very much. That's empowering.

SW: In my opinion, the disability community could learn something about cultural pride from Deaf Culture. It seems like disability culture is a much newer concept among people with disabilities than Deaf Culture is among Deaf people.

BS: I would agree with you. Deaf people have a long history of teaching leadership skills to young Deaf people because there were many places where they would gather and discuss the meaning of leadership. That is happening with disability activists, but it seems to be happening more recently. For example, when I was young, I had an opportunity to attend a leadership camp exclusively for Deaf students — four weeks of intense leadership skills. Is there a such camp for children with disabilities in the US?

SW: I don't know. But ADAPT is trying to do that — has been doing that for the last 10 to 15 years, I believe — to teach youth to be activists. Some people I know have grown up in ADAPT, starting with being recruited when they were 13 or 14 years old...

BS: We have Deaf Outward Bound now. Do students with disabilities attend Outward Bound?

SW: I'm not sure if Outward Bound has a disability program, but I wouldn't be surprised. There is a lot of camp stuff for kids with disabilities — that can be a big acculturation experience for kids with disabilities.

BS: Yes, yes! This leadership camp was established in 1968. For more on Deaf history and leadership, Deaf Heritage by Jack Gannon would be the source.

SW: Let's switch gears and talk about what's happening in Maine. What does Maine have to offer in terms of Deaf Art and Deaf Culture?

BS: Governor Baxter School for the Deaf hosts the annual Deaf Culture Festival with storytellers and performances. That usually happens during Deaf Awareness week in September. Also, there are exhibits. ASL Club Maine at USM is very active in bringing together Deaf people and hearing people in Deaf Culture events. For example, ASL Club Maine hosted a bowling event inviting both Deaf and hearing people. Maine Deaf seniors have their bimonthly gatherings, and there's the Gallaudet Alumni Organization. There's also the Maine Recreational Association of the Deaf.

I continue to give lectures on Deaf Art. I will be going to St. Paul next month and Chicago in May. I give Deaf Art lectures on campus at USM as often as I can. For example, I was a guest lecturer at our Introduction to Deaf World course at USM. I am somewhat sitting on the sidelines in terms of researching and organizing Deaf Art exhibits. The touring exhibit was exhausting and having a breather was something I needed. I hope to start working on a Ph.D. in the field of Deaf Art. Deaf Art is my passion.

SW: I can tell! (Laughing)

BS: I recently made a proposal to add a new course to our ASL/English interpreting major, and that course is called Deaf Art, Film, and Theater. We are offering the course this summer.

SW: That sounds neat. This would be a good time to talk about the Deaf Film Festival you organized.

BS: I helped to get the Deaf Film Festival started, but there was a committee of people working with me, so it was not just me. ASL Club Maine members and a few members of the Deaf community were involved. There were Deaf film festivals elsewhere in the US, and we figured we had to have it in Maine, too! This year we will have the Deaf film festival on Saturday, May 22, at USM!

We depended on the web for resources on Deaf films, and I already had a few sources myself, as some Deaf visual artists are also filmmakers. In one of my early exhibits I had included Deaf films but did not during the touring exhibit of Deaf Culture Art. Setting up a Deaf film festival was a natural progression of what I did.

SW: What makes something a "Deaf film"? Deaf characters or actors or a Deaf filmmaker? Can you talk about what films were in the festival? Were these feature-length films or shorts or a combination?

BS: The concept of Deaf film is still new. No, I correct myself: The concept of Deaf film is not new. There were many Deaf films made in the past, but many were not distributed — they were kept locally. Anyway, we showed both feature length and shorts at the film festival. All the films at the festival last year had Deaf characters. We chose films based on their entertainment value. Some were documentaries. Some films were made by hearing filmmakers and that was painfully obvious.

SW: Like the Children of a Lesser God phenomenon? I know a lot of people were very upset about the way the play was changed to make it into a mainstream movie.

BS: Yes, there were too many like Children of a Lesser God, and we were not interested. This year we are working on acquiring films that were made by Deaf people featuring Deaf actors. We have also added many more shorts that look at our interaction with Deaf people as humorous. All the misunderstandings that can occur — that makes for great film material.

SW: Misunderstandings in communication between hearing and Deaf people?

BS: Right. Lots of laughs right there. Also, we have a film that is about a boy getting a hearing aid and rejecting it. That is a touching movie. There are shorts that parody hearing people and hearing aids. And one film deals with "What if?" What if I could take a pill and become a hearing person? Would I take that pill?

SW: That is a popular theme among oppressed groups, it seems. When I was doing education about being gay, people would ask, "If you could take a pill to become straight, would you?" What was the film's answer?

BS: The answer was NO!

SW: (Laughing) That was my answer, too!

BS: That film was a bit predictable . . . but still, it is an affirming experience. We do deal with identity issues. Another film we hope to show is about a Deaf couple struggling with domestic violence. People can see some of these Deaf films at the ASL Lab at USM, on 68 High Street, in Portland.

SW: In addition to creating exhibits and festivals, you also like to give tours (such as at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston or Victoria Mansion in Portland, Maine). Why does that appeal to you?

BS: I enjoy giving tours at the MFA and at the Victoria Mansion because I love sharing art with Deaf people. I know that the quality of the information is not as good when we have to get it through sign language interpreters. Getting information directly from a Deaf person is almost always better.

Many Deaf people had told me they felt awkward walking through art museums — thinking they needed information to appreciate art. It does help to have some background information when viewing art, and I make that experience positive for Deaf people. That they could ask questions from ASL to ASL rather than from ASL to English and vice versa was key. Otherwise things can get lost in translation. MFA still has tours designed for the Deaf community. I've passed the torch to the new Deaf tour guide there!

SW: I think it is a common experience to feel like you don't know what you're looking at in a museum — that you should have a degree in art history or else you shouldn't be there...

BS: I agree with this statement. The thing is that many Deaf people do not realize that their experience is common and that hearing people are experiencing the same thing.

SW: Before we wrap up, I'd like to talk about your own artwork. You do all this organizing and promotion and lecturing, but you are an artist yourself; you have a degree in graphic art.

BS: My degree is in graphic design, yes. When I was living in Boston, I often designed flyers and other promotional materials. I designed all materials for the touring exhibit of Deaf Culture Art. But I do not really create my own work in other mediums. I painted when I was in college, but I haven't painted in years. I hope to get back to it. People have asked me if any of my pieces are in the exhibit and I say, "No, I am not expressing my Deaf Art experience. I just paint cute landscapes!"

SW: I saw you listed as a featured artist at Hannaford Lighthouses on Parade in Portland...

BS: The lighthouse project was a fluke. I shared my concept with other Deaf artists and we just went with it... I wouldn't consider the lighthouse my art work; it was a group project, and I did only a small part of the hands-on work. Other Deaf artists took the photos and pieced together the collage. I much prefer to promote and interpret other Deaf artists' work. I feel it is where I am at my best. Teaching American Sign Language is what I do well, too, and I enjoy that very much.

Organizing is another one of my passions. For example, I've just organized the first state-wide Maine ASL teachers meeting. If I see something that needs doing, I tend to get to it.

SW: I'm that way, too. OK, here's my last question: What would you like to see change in Maine — or around the country — in terms of Deaf Art? What do you want to do to affect the course of Deaf Art in America?

BS: I am already seeing tremendous changes. Many more states are organizing their own Deaf Art exhibits, and I have been getting many inquiries about how to organize a Deaf Art exhibit. There is a chain reaction happening: once people have seen or heard about a Deaf Art exhibit they want to see that happening in their communities. Seeing that other states had set up a Deaf film festival had that effect on me, too. I wanted that happening here in Maine!

I hope to see Deaf Art being offered as part of Deaf Studies more often in universities where the major is being offered. I hope to set up a video course on Deaf Art one day. I hope to be able to teach the course from Portland with video links in other parts of the country.

Debbie Sonnenstrahl published a book called Deaf Artists in America . Deaf artists are gaining much more visibility right now. The next step would be to incorporate Deaf Culture Art as a minority art in art history books. African Americans have examples of what they consider African-American Art in art history books. We need to include Deaf artists and artists with disabilities as well. . . .

SW: Brenda, I want to thank you for a fascinating interview. And a good time! You are always doing so much, it's a blast just to hear about it all. And I appreciate you taking so much time to talk to me.

BS: I enjoyed chatting with you, too (smiling). You're very welcome.