Invisible Disabilities Through Art 

JUSTIFICATION FOR RESEARCH PLAN

People with disabilities are rarely represented in their discipline as they should be. Being an artist, it can be discouraging to make work because you feel unable to create at times because of your sickness. It’s easy to fall behind and lose your connection to the work. No one ever sees the heartache and pain behind invisible illnesses. We are conditioned to keep it private, but as artists who deal with disabilities, we pull through and we must in order to create. The proposed project, titled Invisible Disabilities Through Art, will show what we often hide because it seems too private or embarrassing. This will help open the door for artists with visually hidden disabilities. People like myself will identify with this work, the feeling of being alone will be lessen because this project will photographically document a normally private personal experience of health and disability, and experience many share in silence. As a student studying art have had access to camera equipment from our department that has allowed me to start to think about how to use photography in away to document parts of my life. This grant will allow vital investment in my own equipment to complete this important project, without support, it will be difficult to complete the research. Invisible Disabilities Through Art will answer the question, how does one person with a disease like this create, work, make friends, and have a good quality of life? This question and more will be answered in this project research.