When we asked for nominations last month, your response helped us give $500 awards to 6 Black and Indigenous community organizers and carers. Our first-ever Community Care awardees include LaQuida Landford, Leila Haile, Natasha Marin, and Simona Bearcub.
“Having deafness and diabetes makes me feel unique and more vital than ever; I make sure I keep myself positive and healthy. With this mindset, it changed my art from hidden politics into beauty. I see beauty in everything, and I share that with my art.”
“The most important thing I want people to understand about disability and accessibility is the fact that we only want to live an easier life just like everyone else. It’s not crazy to believe everyone wants a simple and enjoyable life free from frustration.”
“...art and writing became a way for me to process the things I couldn’t or didn’t know how to talk about, and now I use it to imagine what futures without oppression might feel like. If ableism, racism and transphobia didn’t exist—how might we get there together?”
“I live a lot inside my head - sometimes too much - so I feel like a lot of emotion bleeds into my work, though I can’t really say a lot of my work is introspective. I create art to escape. It’s only really recently that I feel like I’ve put more of myself in my work.”
“Public transportation that goes all over! Free fare! Transit centers with amenities like food vendors, bathrooms, and lots of seating. Super wide sidewalks and streets made for pedestrians. Absolutely everything: color coded. Androids are also a necessity.”
“Of course, as much as my art is a place to process trauma and subvert marginalization, it’s also a place to avoid all of that and just draw meaningless shit to make me happy. Sometimes it’s not about making a statement — sometimes it’s just about coping.”
“I want to work on a project that I needed when I was younger. Whether it’s comic work or illustration series or something completely different...I want to work in diverse stories and put my true self in them to reach out to those who have always felt like they didn’t quite fit in.”
“...sometimes if I’m down, but I still want to draw, the expressions of the colors won’t be as vibrant. When I’m in a good mood, I love to use bright vibrant colors and give my character big smiles and bright eyes to match.”
With photoshoots on hold for the time being, Disabled And Here is expanding the free stock collection to include digital illustrations.