"Ameslan Prohibited"

By Betty Miller

1972

20" x 18"

Ink on Paper

       Betty G. Miller is a deaf artist who began painting in 1971. This piece was included in the National Touring Exhibit of Deaf Culture Art that visited seven American cities between 1999 and 2001. Her reason for creating this picture was because she said that in older schools for deaf children they were prohibited from using sign language. Her thoughts on this piece were, " I present both the suppression, and the beauty of Deaf Culture and American Sign Language as I see it; in the past, and in the present." 

       The reason I chose this drawing was not only because of her hearing disability but because she was showing us a struggle she faced by not being able to hear and being restricted to communicate that we would not understand if we have not been through it ourselves. 

(http://www.deafart.org/Artworks/Selected_Touring_Works/selected_touring_works.html, http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=46369)