This months Bio is about Amy Jane Brown aka "AJ"
A.J. Brown started to explore various arts in 1999, as a way to overcome personal fears. One of these was a nightmare she had as a child. This dream is a parable of her life: “I’m at the bottom of a well, looking up. I see the Sesame Street puppets with their mouths opening and closing. I have a feeling of no way out. I can’t yell for help, because no one understands my speech. This is such a feeling of helplessness, and powerlessness!”
A.J. Brown had a brain injury during birth. This brain injury caused her to become Deaf and to have something that looks like Cerebral Palsy. As a result, she has difficulty speaking and using sign language coherently. However, she uses a portable communication device which speaks for her, when she types out her words in written English. She uses email and sign language interpreters to communicate as well.
Creating allows A.J. to express her soul-voice in a way that others can hear and respond to. When she creates, it feels as if something spiritual guides her. She needs to continue on her spiritual path. Self expression is one way to do this. Art connects her to her Spiritual Self. Her art flows from her Spiritual Self.
A.J. is self taught. She works with acrylics, pencil, charcoal, pen, pastels, felt pen, collage, scratch art, and her cat. She is also a potter, writer, poet, actress, dancer, music composer, and musician. She has also created, written, produced, directed, and edited a video. She sometimes mixes these media to create something. Each piece of her art is unique. She paints slowly and meticulously for one, and fast and impatient for another. Each has its own ‘personality’: One will have vibrant, wild, lush colours, and another will have shy, withdrawn, tame, muted colours. Some are whimsical, and others are serious. Her work shows how she feels right at the moment of creation. To borrow a quote from her aunt, “A.J.’s art has a childlike naiveté - and not contrived. I think it was Picasso who said the most wondrous art is that done by children - bold, courageous and honest.”
A.J. has different inspirations: a memory, a movie, an image, another piece of art, visions, words, herself, an event, and her cat! What will come out, she never knows. Her preferred subjects include nature, magic and her cat.
A.J. was involved with an art experience group from 2002 until 2004. This enabled her to explore her creativity in a supportive environment with other Deaf women artists. This weekly group acted as a springboard to encourage her to take professional classes and to show her art publicly.
Since 2002, A.J.’s work has been exhibited in several galleries, including the CityScape Art Space, the Artists Helping Artists in Burnaby, a Deaf art show at the Vancouver Community College, and the Harmony Arts Festival, with their ‘Art Beat’. She is excited with the growing interest in her work and her evolution as an artist. She contributed a chapter to a book about alternative and augmented ways of communicating. She won awards for academic study and for composition in music. In 2004, A.J. published a book that she wrote and illustrated. She is the recipient of the 2005 Judy Dennis Emerging Artist Training Award.
A.J. is a member of the Society for Disability Arts and Culture, MediaEyes Production Society, Famous Open Door Studio Society, and the North Vancouver Arts Commission. A.J. is self taught, but she takes courses to improve her skill. She has taken classes from Vancouver School Board, Kwantlen College, North Vancouver Continuing Education, and Video In Studios. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Gallaudet University, the world’s only liberal arts university for the Deaf.
With her arts and through her images, she can be heard. A.J. believes this is her way to freedom and spirituality. Most importantly, art empowered her to find her way out of that well. She resides in West Vancouver, with her gorgeous cat, Rumbles.
Her art website is: www.handsandpurrs.ca