[Applause]
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about
our influences
we’ve all had influences guide us at
some point decades of guidance from our
parents maybe the momentary insight from
visitors I’m at a point in my career
where I find myself surrounded by people
I find inspirational an activist from
Mexico an artist from New York City a
philosopher from Holland I’d like to
share with you more about their
inspirations but first I’d like to go
back a bit – my initial inspirations
19th century explorers when I was a
teenager I copied journeys by way of
Xerox and I provided myself with light
tones and dark tones and from this
palette of maps I would create portraits
of the explorers who gave us these maps
David Livingstone North Pole Explorer
commander Perry South Pole Explorer
Robert Falcon Scott in total I had eight
explorers and when my undergraduate show
came down they all folded up neatly and
fit in the glove compartment of my VW
Microbus
it was the power of the person in the
pathways they took that drew me in and
so I have to talk about two more people
two pioneers from this earlier era
before I move on
scientists George Charles Guillen and
Jane Alexander at Ballet in 1916 they
diagnosed two soldiers who had similar
key syndromes involving Albu Saito
excuse me alla beYOU psychological
disassociation let me explain to you
what that means by way of my own
experiences years ago I was talking to
someone and I had trouble snapping my
fingers
I couldn’t produce enough grip strength
to create tension to create a snap and
strike my fingers against each other so
if you’ll do this with me I’m going to
count three one two three and we’ll snap
three times as loud as you can
one two three now once see if you can do
that softly without making a sound that
sensation is the sensation I had at
maximum strength and the next day I had
that same sensation in my legs I
couldn’t walk well the next step was to
be taken to the emergency room
I had Gyan brace syndrome what happens
in guillain-barre syndrome is your brain
is trying to communicate signals to your
major muscle groups but because of an
inflammation and neural tissue the
signals don’t come quite through and you
have diminished function I was becoming
paralyzed in essence first your limbs go
and then the muscles around your lungs
and ultimately the heart now I plateaued
before getting to that spot in fact
after five days of being in the
emergency room I was declared good
enough to be an outpatient and I could
go home for the next few months remember
when I got out of that hospital stepping
down the steps and I just remember
bending down and clutching grass and
ripping it out of the ground and the
feeling of those blades of grass going
through my fingers it was an incredible
feeling and I realized right then that
to be able to grip something to be able
to grasp or grab anything an object I
knew that if I could grab an object and
if I could grab an opportunity and I
just got out of the hospital so I could
do anything
things are different now I knew that I
can make some impact in the world on
some level some small level of fur
perhaps so this became my determination
the doctors did say that the more I
pushed myself the speedier my recovery
would be so I decided to enter a frisbee
golf competition after all I’ve been a
professional at the time for a quarter
of a century so I know that I can throw
a frisbee 400 feet and then I know I
could measure my rate of improvement now
in the tournament I could let go at sort
of a strategic time but it wasn’t really
throwing it wasn’t really like as we say
in the industry I couldn’t grip it and
rip it so it taught me a lot about what
I can’t do and what I can do I decided
that I would embark on working with
medical institutions to make artwork
about my experiences I worked with
prosthetics and orthotics centers I
worked with bio nano engineering centers
and through a lot of research and
collaboration I mounted a solo
exhibition in New York called cloning
zoning and the shared tiara and of all
27 works that spoke about body ability
and enhancement I’m just going to share
with you two one that involves an arm
and an armadillo and one that involves a
curious skeleton the armadillo who only
gives birth to quadruplets every single
time references cloning it also fits in
nicely with an arbor like constructed
arm I made for work discussing Henrietta
Lacks who sells founded an immortal line
of cells that are found all over this
armor-like constructed arm purely
durable it was so secret that I had to
sign a nondisclosure agreement just to
use in fact I literally had to wear a
black bag over my head when they drove
me to the lab the delicate yin to this
durable gang was a sweet smelling
chocolate skeleton that referenced how
precious our
our selves are but also the same time
not as of the fact that one day our very
bones might be constructed ordered and
sold in vending machines now the entire
show spoke of the science but it didn’t
speak of the scientists and I grew to be
more intrigued by highlighting and
celebrating personalities as fate would
have it I was invited to mount an
exhibition that was a retrospective of
the original 19th century explorers and
as luck would have it at the opening
right on my phone I showed someone next
to me a brand new body of work that I
was working on it turned out that they
loved the work and they offered me to
reproduce one of these works on a scale
of a hundred and thirty feet wide on the
side of a building a mural this is what
led me to local resident and
international sensation page.you Shen
Pot the preliminary shoot proved that
mere documentary of this mural as she
was jumping in the air should quickly go
to something more dynamic and distinct I
knew that I was in the presence of true
genius so I popped my camera off of the
tripod and I quickly moved in and I
started taking portraits of her as she
was dancing it was if I was dancing with
her because I had to get that close and
I was firing away this stuff held nicely
with a side project that I was working
on that was now coming to the fore when
I was highlighting individuals who I
find inspiring by direct portraiture and
handheld objects these are some of the
inspirations I spoke of at the top I
photographed a teenage activist who Good
Morning America covered for her work
with the gay lesbian straight educators
Network I photographed a career
illustrator whose original colored
pencil drawing of the Pegasus is seen
all over the entertainment industry I
photographed nationally syndicated radio
show program hosts I photographed
internationally recognized
artists and filmmakers and philosophers
and craftspeople and I photographed
former tallest teen girl in the world
people whose presence and voice and
actions positively impacted the world
now I’ve been in green rooms and I’ve
been in grey rooms and I’ve been working
with people who have worked in the Oval
Office and corner offices and people
from different backgrounds and different
ethnicities and different origins all
seem to tell me the same story at least
I feel there’s a threat of consistency
in their stories where it seems that
anyone from any age any size and in any
skin if they can grab an object any
object and they can grab an opportunity
and have an idea and have a passion then
they can make a change and impact in a
positive way in the world I’ve seen it
happen this seed of greatness as a
portraitist I’ve seen it in the eyes of
people that have dedicated their lives
to realizing successfully their dreams
and goals and as an educator I’ve seen
it in the spark of a young student who
just realized something brand-new it can
happen with anyone and it can happen as
quickly as this thank you
[Applause]
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about
our influences
we’ve all had influences guide us at
some point decades of guidance from our
parents maybe the momentary insight from
visitors I’m at a point in my career
where I find myself surrounded by people
I find inspirational an activist from
Mexico an artist from New York City a
philosopher from Holland I’d like to
share with you more about their
inspirations but first I’d like to go
back a bit – my initial inspirations
19th century explorers when I was a
teenager I copied journeys by way of
Xerox and I provided myself with light
tones and dark tones and from this
palette of maps I would create portraits
of the explorers who gave us these maps
David Livingstone North Pole Explorer
commander Perry South Pole Explorer
Robert Falcon Scott in total I had eight
explorers and when my undergraduate show
came down they all folded up neatly and
fit in the glove compartment of my VW
Microbus
it was the power of the person in the
pathways they took that drew me in and
so I have to talk about two more people
two pioneers from this earlier era
before I move on
scientists George Charles Guillen and
Jane Alexander at Ballet in 1916 they
diagnosed two soldiers who had similar
key syndromes involving Albu Saito
excuse me alla beYOU psychological
disassociation let me explain to you
what that means by way of my own
experiences years ago I was talking to
someone and I had trouble snapping my
fingers
I couldn’t produce enough grip strength
to create tension to create a snap and
strike my fingers against each other so
if you’ll do this with me I’m going to
count three one two three and we’ll snap
three times as loud as you can
one two three now once see if you can do
that softly without making a sound that
sensation is the sensation I had at
maximum strength and the next day I had
that same sensation in my legs I
couldn’t walk well the next step was to
be taken to the emergency room
I had Gyan brace syndrome what happens
in guillain-barre syndrome is your brain
is trying to communicate signals to your
major muscle groups but because of an
inflammation and neural tissue the
signals don’t come quite through and you
have diminished function I was becoming
paralyzed in essence first your limbs go
and then the muscles around your lungs
and ultimately the heart now I plateaued
before getting to that spot in fact
after five days of being in the
emergency room I was declared good
enough to be an outpatient and I could
go home for the next few months remember
when I got out of that hospital stepping
down the steps and I just remember
bending down and clutching grass and
ripping it out of the ground and the
feeling of those blades of grass going
through my fingers it was an incredible
feeling and I realized right then that
to be able to grip something to be able
to grasp or grab anything an object I
knew that if I could grab an object and
if I could grab an opportunity and I
just got out of the hospital so I could
do anything
things are different now I knew that I
can make some impact in the world on
some level some small level of fur
perhaps so this became my determination
the doctors did say that the more I
pushed myself the speedier my recovery
would be so I decided to enter a frisbee
golf competition after all I’ve been a
professional at the time for a quarter
of a century so I know that I can throw
a frisbee 400 feet and then I know I
could measure my rate of improvement now
in the tournament I could let go at sort
of a strategic time but it wasn’t really
throwing it wasn’t really like as we say
in the industry I couldn’t grip it and
rip it so it taught me a lot about what
I can’t do and what I can do I decided
that I would embark on working with
medical institutions to make artwork
about my experiences I worked with
prosthetics and orthotics centers I
worked with bio nano engineering centers
and through a lot of research and
collaboration I mounted a solo
exhibition in New York called cloning
zoning and the shared tiara and of all
27 works that spoke about body ability
and enhancement I’m just going to share
with you two one that involves an arm
and an armadillo and one that involves a
curious skeleton the armadillo who only
gives birth to quadruplets every single
time references cloning it also fits in
nicely with an arbor like constructed
arm I made for work discussing Henrietta
Lacks who sells founded an immortal line
of cells that are found all over this
armor-like constructed arm purely
durable it was so secret that I had to
sign a nondisclosure agreement just to
use in fact I literally had to wear a
black bag over my head when they drove
me to the lab the delicate yin to this
durable gang was a sweet smelling
chocolate skeleton that referenced how
precious our
our selves are but also the same time
not as of the fact that one day our very
bones might be constructed ordered and
sold in vending machines now the entire
show spoke of the science but it didn’t
speak of the scientists and I grew to be
more intrigued by highlighting and
celebrating personalities as fate would
have it I was invited to mount an
exhibition that was a retrospective of
the original 19th century explorers and
as luck would have it at the opening
right on my phone I showed someone next
to me a brand new body of work that I
was working on it turned out that they
loved the work and they offered me to
reproduce one of these works on a scale
of a hundred and thirty feet wide on the
side of a building a mural this is what
led me to local resident and
international sensation page.you Shen
Pot the preliminary shoot proved that
mere documentary of this mural as she
was jumping in the air should quickly go
to something more dynamic and distinct I
knew that I was in the presence of true
genius so I popped my camera off of the
tripod and I quickly moved in and I
started taking portraits of her as she
was dancing it was if I was dancing with
her because I had to get that close and
I was firing away this stuff held nicely
with a side project that I was working
on that was now coming to the fore when
I was highlighting individuals who I
find inspiring by direct portraiture and
handheld objects these are some of the
inspirations I spoke of at the top I
photographed a teenage activist who Good
Morning America covered for her work
with the gay lesbian straight educators
Network I photographed a career
illustrator whose original colored
pencil drawing of the Pegasus is seen
all over the entertainment industry I
photographed nationally syndicated radio
show program hosts I photographed
internationally recognized
artists and filmmakers and philosophers
and craftspeople and I photographed
former tallest teen girl in the world
people whose presence and voice and
actions positively impacted the world
now I’ve been in green rooms and I’ve
been in grey rooms and I’ve been working
with people who have worked in the Oval
Office and corner offices and people
from different backgrounds and different
ethnicities and different origins all
seem to tell me the same story at least
I feel there’s a threat of consistency
in their stories where it seems that
anyone from any age any size and in any
skin if they can grab an object any
object and they can grab an opportunity
and have an idea and have a passion then
they can make a change and impact in a
positive way in the world I’ve seen it
happen this seed of greatness as a
portraitist I’ve seen it in the eyes of
people that have dedicated their lives
to realizing successfully their dreams
and goals and as an educator I’ve seen
it in the spark of a young student who
just realized something brand-new it can
happen with anyone and it can happen as
quickly as this thank you
[Applause]
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