Merging Disability, Diversity and Inclusion Through Art

I am Amy Lee-Julian, a young contemporary artist who lives in Cornwall. My work is pertinent, having a vital role to play, as I exhibit diverse forms of art pieces. It shows my disability, strengths and vulnerabilities. The work I produce depicts experiences through the lens of being disabled within contemporary society. 

My artwork is inspired by merging disability, diversity and inclusion. This reflects my core values and motivation as an artist, all embedded in the noumenon of my experience. By conveying a narrative presented in my art work through self portraits, I cover themes of stigma challenging society’s misperception of disability. I use the method of a ‘direct gaze’ and ‘indirect gaze’, exploring different compositions to express emotions, by capturing movement and action.  By using photography to study my own body form and expression, I continuously develop my technical skills to incorporate my powerchair and strikeforce powerchair. Many images are captured and studied to achieve this. This process allows me to develop drawing, study perspectives and experimentation with mediums using a limited colour palette, monochrome, willow charcoal, soft pastels, and gouache paints.

It is a challenge to present works of art in the form of a self-portrait successfully. It can be demanding to clearly communicate visually with audiences, and confront ableists’ views of disability. These factors motivate me to produce artwork. I intend to participate in the cultural production of the arts. The phenomenon of disability should be celebrated for diversity and inclusion. Hopefully my work shines a light on the experiences of everyday life as a powerchair user, inspiring other artists to visually display their experiences. I challenge the viewer through self-portraits to look at me; to pose the question “what do you see?” and “how do you view disability?”. The upper and lower sections of my body represent my embodied experience. 

Previously I used wooden panels to portray my body in two divisions; the upper and lower sections. The upper half presents me as I am; the lower half portrays my disability as a provocative approach to raising awareness that I am a human being. Within these works, I took risks showing the depth of my being, something I never thought I would do. As a result, I show myself sitting in my powerchair. My latest painting is of an empty powerchair with my shoes on the floor. This hopefully leaves one to speculate as to its meaning. My intention is to allow the viewer to formulate their own opinion of disability.  

My skills and ideas are constantly developing as I experiment to refine my concepts, and impact the audience and to provoke emotional responses. I want to offer an alternative viewpoint of disability through invoking the audience’s senses. By doing this the audience can hear and see my visual voice as I attempt to show my unashamed self-identity. This is achieved through the power of the gaze and indirect gaze that is looking at you – the audience to challenge how you see through your senses.