Deaf Artist Combines Sign Language with Art

Deaf Artist Combines Sign Language with Art

Hello, my name is Brittany Castle. I am a Deaf artist. ASL is always in my heart. I have a deaf sister and deaf grandparents. My family uses ASL. So, currently I focus on art that incorporates ASL, my primary language. I want to share several of my artworks. I am still working on new artworks to add to this series. It is digital art.

I’ll show you my first original artwork It is called “Inspire”. You can see ‘inspiration’ is the influence. The liquid color affects you. The inspiration is applied to you by art, work, and so on. I interpreted what I see in the word “Inspire.” ASL becomes the visual image… Cool. Next is “Love.” Feel the vibe… Love is… Emotional. Love is action. The next artwork is “Imagine.” Next is “Brave!” Brave. Bold. Passion. The energy of Brave itself to face a challenge. Prepared to be brave. Feel the emotional connection from the sign for “Brave.” Next is “Third Eye.”

Now, this next one is “Spread Your Good Vibe.” You can see the sign “spread”, but no sign for “vibe”. I used classifiers to show the positive message. If I want to use sign the phrase “good vibes”, I use feeling and facial expression, while producing the sign “spread.” So if you sign “Spread your good vibes” like this, it shows the “good vibes” part in that sign. You portray the “good vibes” element through your facial expression.

You might have noticed in my artworks – they are based on my emotional connection and are expanded from the sign language. Word become visual art. They aren’t “realistic” in terms of what you see, for example, the sign “bird” is different to an art representation of a bird. They’re a new perspective in ASL Art. I focus on ASL Art. Enjoy! If you want to see more my artworks, you can follow me.