Ina Mar “Art and The Earth” Blog

Today I read about a disability right issue, the story of a teenage girl from Billericay, Katie Thorpe, 15, with cerebral palsy whose parents wished an hysterectomy for her (this means have her womb removed). The parents insisted that a hysterectomy could improve the girl’s life quality, that it would “protect her from the pain, discomfort and indignity of menstruation”; that if she gets her periods, this would “confuse her and cause her indignity” and that for these reasons there was “a real need for Katie to have this necessary evil taken away”. The disabled girl is unable to give or refuse her consent because she cannot talk! Fortunately, the hospital refused to carry out the operation (The Guardian Article, BBC News Article) and said that there was no adequate clinical reason for a hysterectomy.

A young girl with cerebral palsy, Emma or “Wheelchair Princess“, writes in her blog: “I am pleased by this development but saddened that it’s not made more of a splash in the news – it’s HUGE. I also want to note that I think this equality issue becomes more and more of a feminist issue too as the stories come out. We’ve still heard nothing about boys having their growth halted prematurely or puberty prevented due to disability – but I’m sure we will someday and that they’ll be more of an outcry than there has been for Katie and for Ashley. Cos they aren’t just disabled, they are girls too.”

Short note: “Ashley” (or “Ashley X”) is a young Seattle girl with physical and learning disabilities who illegally underwent a hysteroctomy, mastectomy and appendectomy in 2004 (her uterus, breast buds and appendix were removed), because her parents wished to prevent her from growing up sexually; they kept their daughter immature, so they can continue to care for her at home – “for her benefit”. The operation is known as the “Ashley Treatment”. More information in Wikipedia.

I agree that being a woman is far above disability and Katie, Ashley and every other disabled WOMAN, should have the right to decide things that concern their own sexuality, their body, their future life, their future happiness. They should retain the possibility of having sexual relations and bearing children, of taking the pill if they do not wish or if they (for any other reasons) should not have a child. What is “indignity” and “necessary evil” – menstruation / sexuality? or rather hysteroctomy? And for who is it causing indignity – for Katie or for her parents? Aren’t the parents projecting their OWN needs and their OWN wishes in thoses phrases?

I am an “abled-bodied” woman, but above all I am a woman, and I can imagine what it could mean to have your uterus removed and to lose the possibility of having a child! I’ve also read that hysteroctomy can cause lowered sexual desire and decreased pleasure. This is really scary, it’s an irreversible operation with irreversible psychological pain and irreversible results! If doctors had agreed to carry out the Katie hysterectomy, this would have been a human rights infringement and at the same time a women’s rights infringement.

Some reactions and comments I read about this issue show how ignorant the majority of able-bodied people are; disabled women CAN have children and can be great parents; the right to have a family cannot be taken away from them just because they were born disabled! They should be given more support to achieve it! A mentally ill woman has the right to bear children because she is physically healthy – then some of those mentally ill mothers kill their kids, abuse them or abandon them – but they still have the right to have children! Nobody came to the idea of removing the wombs of a mentally ill mother! A physically disabled woman who is caring and mentally healthy should have every right to have children and to receive every possible support to overwhelm the every-day difficulties that her disability is causing her.

I knew that many women have to undergo hysterectomy because they have cancer, or chronic pelvic pain, or fibroids, but I didn’t know that hysterectomy is now used to treat … disability! I didn’t even know disability was a disease! Hear, hear!

A true friend knows our weakness but shows you your strenghts
feels your fears but fortifies your faith
sees your anxieties but frees your spirit
recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities

~ William Arthur Ward

I discovered this inspirational saying. William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994) was an American author and educator. I used the last part of the quote to create a couple of disability awareness t-shirts:

What I see from my window today (I am granted the luxury to view a pleasant landscape with a river):

And through the other window….:

A couple of days ago, an article about my designs and online shop was published in the Athens (Greece) culture and city life magazine “Athinorama” – but I discovered it just today!

Here’s the article (in Greek):

And here the translation:

Surfing in the English-language web site www.cafepress.com, we discovered one of our girls, a creative one.  Ina Mar studied the History of Arts in Paris, then settled down in Munich and designs witty, approachable objects for all: posters with “manipulated” sculpture photos, t-shirts, cloth bags, calendars, little magnets, with “moral” messages about peace, ecology, special needs, but also more provocative designs for those who wish to showcase their humour on a t-shirt or wall clock. This “Sorry honey, I recycled our wedding rings! Believe me I did it for the environment” is just perfect! – J. Gomouza

I am really happy about it, but what bothers me is the fact they didn’t mention the URL or name of my web site. So if someone wants to learn more about my activities, they’ll have to google me…

In October 2007 I initiated a series of disability awareness designs. It was inspired by a friend, Anke, who is disabled due to a genetic disease, FA – Friedreich ataxia (this is also called FRDA or “Hereditary spinal ataxia”). “Ataxia” means disorder, lack of order in Greek. The Friedreich Ataxia is a rare genetic disease that damages nerve tissue, causing a loss of muscle coordination, muscle weakness, scoliosis, impaired speech, and sometimes even cardiomyopathy and diabetes – not all affected people have the same symptoms. This disease only worsens over time. When I met Anke for the first time, I saw an attractive, young girl with an enormous smile on her face, positive life philosophy, beautiful eyes, witty, with an active social and love life, and all this being confined to wheelchair. Imagine how I felt when she told me with her big smile and sparkling eyes that her disease is getting worse every year and that she can do nothing else than accept the shitty situation. I could just not accept this, how could life be so unfair?

Anke got a copy of the defective gene from both her mom and her dad, but none of them and nobody else in the family has the disease: this is called in genetics an “autosomal recessive genetic disorder”. Both parents have to carry the defective gene so that it is transmitted to the child, but the parents don’t necessarily have the disease. The first symptoms appeared when Anke was five years old and started getting really bad when she was about 10. She is in wheelchair since she is 15. She says that the disease is very related to her psychology: if she is doing well, if she’s happy and cheerful, then the symptoms of the disease stop getting worse - she even says that the symptoms recede if she’s in a good mood – to return when she’s psychologically down.

Anke wished to become a nursery-school teacher and finally received a training post four years ago. She started her training, but during all her training time, her disability seemed to be an obstacle (not for her, but for all others!). Children loved her and had a very good relation to their teacher in training, but Anke’s trainers and colleagues could just not accept her, they put her in psychological pressure and “advised” her to stop her training – well at the end they achieved it! Anke was not given the opportunity to follow her dream. Last time I talked to her, she had a new job in the social sector – helping and advising other disabled persons. She has her way of bringing “sun” into people’s life…

So why did I start creating these disability awareness designs? I think because disability is one of my big fears and I just wanted to get a bit closer to the wheelchair lifestyle and understand it, I wanted to fight my fear. I wanted to be integrated to the wheelchair community – people normally talk of integration of the disabled in the “normal” community, but why not the opposite? I could not deal with her disability and I told her, I wanted – and still want some times – to avoid it. This fucking disease is too harsh for me – more than for her I think, because she’s just used to live with it, it’s not a question for her any more.

Anke invited me to protests and activities related to disability rights and wheelchair lifestyle – it was like a new world was opening to me. Wheelchair jokes, a mother in wheelchair with a baby in her arms, a non-disabled boy sitting on a wheelchair girl’s lap and kissing her… I learned that disabled women sometimes have trouble being accepted as “women”, with love needs, sexuality, sex appeal, motherhood need etc… Non-disabled men mostly consider them as asexual objects. Those questions made me think a lot and i started creating some designs related to the disabled women rights and to the community acceptance of disabled women’s role as women. I think that Anke does not like my designs, anyway she would never wear them. She never said this directly but that was my impression. But anyway I continue creating them – you can say I’m doing this for me, not for her, but it’s true the fact I met her inspired me all this.

The first design I created was in pink-red, showing a mother in wheelchair with her infant in her hands with the slogan “100% woman” and the “feminine” sign attached to her wheelchair. Raising a child must be very challenging because simple tasks are time consuming or difficult for parents with a disability. I wish disabled parents could write here some of their experiences. It might seem unbelievable to most of my “non disabled” readers, but women in wheelchair can and have the right to give birth to and raise children and they do it very well; society could make this a bit more accessible to them, but they already do it very successfully.

Another variation of this design is “My mom has wheels! Yours?” – I put it mostly on baby clothing and it’s the exactly same woman+child design with the new slogan. I read that kids of disabled parents use their mom or dad as a “private taxi” at home and love “taking a ride” on the wheelchair, that’s where I got the idea. I also created the same for disabled dads, with the slogan “Take me for a ride, Daddy!” – I even put a small flame on the wheelchair! I am sorry if sometimes I make more designs for girls and women – I have nothing against you boys, it’s just that my inspiration (Anke) is … a woman!

Then this week I created a couple of new designs – I was looking for new, funny slogans. I believe that humour helps people get together. A person in wheelchair “breaks the ice” by wearing a funny t-shirt. At least I see it that way. The shirt results in comments, discussions… It’s an easy way to start a conversation with people you don’t know so well. A person in wheelchair wearing a funny tee shows a positive life attitude and people don’t dare to feel “pity” towards him. I’ll mention the words of a mom in wheelchair, Lorraine Hershon from Northumberland, UK: “When you become disabled you think your life is over. Believe me the interesting bit has only just begun!”.

I put this sexy girl silhouette in red on a wheelchair and added the slogan “Physically Challenged and Sexually Challenging” – a word play. The accent here is in questions like beauty + disability, body perfection + disability, sensuality + disability, sexuality + disability, love + disability, romance + disability, relationships + disability… Same with the next shirt, this is my favourite one, “I’m too sexy for my wheels” – I came up with this funny slogan yesterday and wanted this time to depict the girl not sitted on the wheelchair. So I used the silhouette of a sexy girl on the floor and put the empty wheelchair in the background.

If you are a disabled person reading my blog, please leave me your comments: let me know what you think about these designs. Do you find them funny? insulting? stupid? indifferent? Do you think they could make nice gifts for wheelchair girls? or for disability advocates? for disabled parents? for kids of disabled parents? I need your help to improve them, because I am not myself in the situation and I can just see the surface of your everyday life…

• Gene Review: Friedreich Ataxia
• MedlinePlus Encyclopedia: Friedreich’s Ataxia
• Genetics Home Reference
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Friedreich Ataxia Fact Sheet

Each night my mother tucked me into bed, trapped tightly between the sheets. “Don’t forget the corners,” I would say. “That’s where the bad dreams creep in.”

A kid wishes to get rid of his bad dreams. He asks everywhere for help and tries one method after another, until he finds his own.

I’d say it’s all about art therapy… Read the story: http://www.bookofbaddreams.com – I love this guys writings…

I print my artworks in an art gallery / photo studio specialized in artwork reproductions and large scale prints. I always print them myself because I prefer having total control on my final artwork: Who said digital art prints are not “hand made”? I use one of my two favourite EPSON printers: Stylus Pro 9800 or Stylus Pro 10600, using the 8-color Epson UltraChrome K3™ ink technology that produces very high print quality. This printer can handle paper up to 44-inch wide – the length is illimited. Here’s Epson Stylus Pro 9800 – First step: I choose the appropriate kind of paper, in this case a watercolour 24 inch paper roll (24″ is the width of the roll), because I wish to plot a 24×18 inch art print:

The next step is opening my digital file and making some printing tests. We call those printing tests “test stripes”. This means printing a small portion of the picture, like for example 2 inches x 24 inches – this is just to test how the paper reacts to the file, on several areas of the image. For example, canvas absorbs more ink than fine art paper. Or watercolour paper absorbs more ink than glossy paper. A print on glossy paper looks completely different than a print on canvas or on matte paper, even if you are using the same digital file. So I have to adjust the colours, in order to have them on paper exactly or almost exactly as I created them on screen. I print a test stripe and compare to the screen. If I don’t like the result, I modify my file or modify the printing options, then print another test stripe. And this goes on until I am satisfied with the printing result – as soon as the result is satisfying, I print the complete artwork. In case you are asking yourself what “colour management” means: It’s all about trying to make sure that the colours of the artwork I created on screen match with the colours of the print as best as they can.

Yes I know, I create a mess on any desk I use… As you see on the picture below, the test stripe on the right is a little “orange toned”, the one in the middle is a little dark and the one on the left is actually a succeeded one – light sepia / brown tones, like on my digital file. I juxtapose them and compare…

And here is my digital file – it’s a tribune to Auguste Rodin’s “Eternal Idol”. The artwork name is “The Kiss #7 – Variation Sepia”:

The printing stripe was OK, so I proceed to the actual printing of the artwork.

I favourite watercolour paper for this kind of digital artworks, because it has a rough surface structure that gives my works a “drawing” aspect. It’s luxurious, thick, soft and resistant. And here is the final print. It has a white border that can be used instead of matting: the surface of the watercolour paper makes a very nice mat.

Like this print? If you wish to buy a print, just leave me a comment here – your e-mail address will be visible to me but invisible to all other visitors of the blog. You can also buy this print at Imagekind.com.

Thanks for your feedback or questions!

Have you heard of Aleksey Igudesman and Richard Hyung-ki Joo? They were pupils of the Yehudi Menuhin School, now they are presenting a genious show, the “Little Nightmare Music”, marrying lots of humour with lots of musical talent. They have already performed all around the world, so if you’ve never heard of them, just watch these youtube videos. In the first one, the pianist is using wood blocks to play the difficult Rachmaninov chords; in the second, the violonist is playing with a milk forther! The third video shows some interesting piano teaching techniques and how-to’s for music teachers…

Here’s their web site for more hilarious videos and information:

http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com

I published this human rights calendar today, I thought it could be a nice gift idea for activists, for human rights advocates or for all those who care about what’s happening around us and would like to make a difference.
It contains 12 inspirational designs/slogans related to every month’s human rights’ alert.

• January 8: World Literacy Day
  Slogan: “I dream of a world where all children go to school”
• February 6: International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Cutting
  Slogan: “Human Rites? No! Human Rights! Stop female genital mutilation (FGM)”
• March 8: International Women’s Day
  Slogan: “I stand for women’s rights”
• April 22: International Earth Day
  Slogan: “Live Green, Think Green, Dream Green, Love Green”
• May 3: World Press Freedom Day
  Slogan: “We must dare to invent the future” (Thomas Sankara)
• June 4: International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
  Slogan: “No more child soldiers”
• July 11: World Population Day
  Slogan: “No woman should die giving birth”
• August 6: Remembering victims of Hiroshima Day
  Slogan: “Don’t forget Hiroshima”
• September 21: International Day of Peace
  Slogan: “Make peace, restore peace, preserve peace, love peace”
• October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
  Slogan: “Fair trade. Help Africa acquire economic self-sufficiency. Food aid dependency is not a solution”
• November 20: Universal Children’s Day
  Slogan: “Help children, protect children, educate children, love children”
• December 3: International Day of Disabled Persons
  Slogan: “Disabled woman, 100% woman”

In fact you can choose between three different sizes:

• Oversized Human Rights Wall Calendar (Measures 17″ x 22″ when hung on wall)
• Vertical Human Rights Wall Calendar (Measures 11″ x 17″ when hung on wall, image measures 11″ x 11″)
• Big Human Rights Wall Calendar (Measures 17″ x 11″ when hung on wall)

The designs included in the calendar are also sold separately in my shop, on a variety of products (clothing, home decoration etc…).

Thanks for your feedback and comments. If you buy the calendar, please send us a note!

Green slogan “Relax in nature, enjoy nature, explore nature, appreciate nature”.

This design is part of a series of ecological and human rights designs I started creating in September 2007: