today's na'art

[capri0mni]

Another cross-post from naarmamo:

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Two, today, to start catching up on my missed days -- both done free-hand in ballpoint, because I couldn't quickly find a pencil that wasn't a stub.
And today's theme is "Disability Pride."

Ever since Na'Ar'Ma'Mo '10, I've adopted monsters as my personal metaphor for disability -- as I explain in this post from February of last year: On Monsters: Stigma, Shame, and the Medical Model of Disability. But the problem with making any and all monsters a symbol of disability, is that it still reduces "Disability" to a symbolic lesson for the "normals" (Irony quotes).

And then I remembered an aphorism in Disability Culture: "If you're lucky to live long enough, sooner or later, you will be disabled." And, remembering all those stories where dragons defeat hundreds of knights before finally being defeated, themselves (only the dragons that get killed make it into the human stories), it occurred to me that it would be very unlikely that they live their entire lives unscathed. So I give you "Survivor" -- the one-eyed, amputee, dragon:


(not exactly happy with the empty eye socket)

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ETA: Oooh! Just had an idea: When a Fire-breathing dragon "licks its wounds," would that instantly sterilize and cauterize said wounds -- thus making it less likely to die from infection and blood loss? Thus, making it more likely that a dragon could survive in a prolonged, disabled, state, than, say, a wounded stag (or even human)?
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This second one is a sketch for how I wish pitchers and jugs where designed, to make them easier to pour out of with greater control, and less strain on the wrist and forearm:


(I drew the side view twice, because I wasn't happy with my first attempt at the handle -- the dots are where the ink bled through from yesterday's heart)

Comments

[paigeturner]

Hey, honey, could you sling me a link to your article about Hans My Hedgehog? I mentioned it to a friend and he'd like to read it :-)

Sure thing -- catch!

[capri0mni]

Here ya go!

http://platosnightmare-aesopsdream.blogspot.com/2011/09/hans-my-hedgehog-when-disabled-children.html

[jesse_the_k]

Oh the side spout would be so wonderful!

I also like your monstrous monster.

[capri0mni]

I know, right?! I mean, when we drink from our mugs, we do not hold our hands directly in front of our mouths and try to pour our beverages the way we're expected to pour from measuring cups...

And thanks, re: my old dragon...

[butterflydreaming]

Maybe like this pitcher that improves on restaurant-style water pitchers, or like this beautiful old one? It's interesting that these pitcher types are called "side spout" instead of "side handle." You don't by any chance remember the plastic holders for milk cartons that were around in the 70's? Since paper milk cartons have a square base, the handle/spout orientation could be positioned either way.

Have you seen the style of Japanese tea pot with side handle?

[capri0mni]

Well, the double spout design makes total sense, if you want one pitcher that can be used by either left- or right-handed people. I'd love that design on a smaller scale for things like measuring cups. And yes! definitely like that old pewter one (Too bad pewter leaches lead into the food-- and is not microwave safe).

And yes, I have seen those tea pots. They're beautiful.

[dharma_slut]

It totally makes sense that there would be a disabled dragon around somewhere-- or two of a dozen.

years ago there was a special showing of Tyrannosaurus Rex, with dozens of skeletons, all gathered in one spot. The differences between them were remarkable, and you could see where someone had a broken bone that had healed, or gum decay, or other injury that the critter lived with for a very long time.

Not what we think when we think of the Thunder King!

[capri0mni]

Not what we think when we think of the Thunder King

No, it's not; there's this meme in our culture that "Disability" is a totally modern (and human/e) concept: that in the wild, healthy animals will universally turn on a weaker one and gang up and kill them, or that humans in past centuries, would expose malformed infants to the wilderness to let them die... So aren't we so enlightened and modern and scientific that we've created Special Institutions and "Asylums" for the cripples, instead? So why all this whining about "social justice" and "equal rights"? You should just be grateful that you're here...

Only: go back and actually study the historical/anthropological/natural history evidence, and you realize that meme is little more than political bunk.

...what? me? "Bitter"? Pshaw!

[raze]

LOVE your amputee dragon, and your cup/pitcher model makes so much more sense.

[capri0mni]

LOVE your amputee dragon

^___^ Thank you! I was hoping you'd approve (considering all the mini-dragons in your family).

Also, re: the cup/pitcher/jug thing, butterflydreaming replied up-thread with several links proving that I'm not the first person with this problem, who hit upon this solution... But it's one of those things, that once I thought of it, it's left me wondering why that design isn't the default, instead of the exception.

Well, I've made that picture public, so maybe a housewares engineer will find it, and go: "Oh.... yeah!"

[spiralsheep]

If I suggest the dragon should have an eyepatch... jewelled, obv, cos it's a dragon! Ooo... or maybe the dragon would decorate any concave scar with an inset gem?

I like the three drawings of the jug together because they describe a 3D item in 2D in a way that's more useful to my eyes/brain than photorealism. :-)

[capri0mni]

That's more useful to my eyes/brain than photorealism

\o/ Oh, good!

Eye-Gem patch: That, of course, raises the question of whether the practice of covering scars is a primarily human one, or whether it has usefulness that extends beyond cultural norms...

[spiralsheep]

I dunno. Most of the eyepatch wearers I know aren't covering/disguising so much as bejewelling/adorning (like you decorating your wheelchair but with less practical/aid context), but then I tend to know people at the less conventional and more Bolshie end of the disfigured/disabled spectrum.

Gabrielle is still famous for her jewelled eyepatches even 20 years on:

http://www.gabrielle.co.uk/eye-patch/

[smw]

I love Survivor, and the idea of a dragon's ability to cauterize a wound by licking it.

[capri0mni]

Thank you... You know, now that the idea's come to me, I am extremely pleased with it, as a motif. And if I had the space of an art studio, and the materials and lighting, I could easily see myself painting several canvasses with only subtle variations for many, many years,* of

Survivor Dragon comfortably asleep and at peace in hir cave, old wounds causing no distress (if I could paint a purr, I would), surrounded by the old and rusting armor of those ze has vanquished, just to make a point.

'Cause really? in my mind, all disabilities, whether acquired or congenital, are badges of surviving something that would, and has, killed many before you. The fact that you are alive to deal with whatever it is, is a point of pride, as far as I'm concerned.

*much like Edward Hicks did, painting 61 versions of "The Peaceable Kingdom" (Page of Google image hits) This is the version that was hanging in my room when I still slept in a cradle, and is now hanging in my current room as an adult.