Connie Clanton

MARIA GUTIERREZ

Background

Born in Boonesville, MS in 1947

Pre-lingually deaf at the age of 9 months

Side effect of medicine to relive her high fever

Attended Tennessee School for the Deaf (graduated 1967)

She knew she wanted to be an artist at the age of 9

Studied at Merideth College

Artwork (painter)

Interesting facts

Studied with artist Charles Kapsner during 1990-1992

Her paintings are on display at Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson

Illustrated and ASL Tales childrens book

Cultural Comparison

Connie Clanton has an old style of painting her artwork. It is very

traditional with it being black and white most of her paintings and
giving weird shapes to the people she draws. She also emphasizes
hands and shadows of things to demonstrate depth in her paintings and
give deeper meaning of what she is trying to convey through her
artwork. I think she could possibly compare herself to Picasso simply
because she named a painting after him and does many of the weird
and odd shapes as he does but of course adds her own twisted with the
contribution of her deaf culture/pride and her view of womens
strength.

Artwork analysis

Connie Clantons artwork is very much inspired by her deaf pride

always involving her hands and the importance that her hands have on
her life and her perspective on everything. Although I was not able to
look at all of her artwork, I did read her opinion on the works that she
has done. Many of them involve the value of hands and how that really
brings out her view on the world around her. She also reflects her view
on deaf woman and showing through her artwork how much they have
achieved and changed deaf culture and hearing culture in general.
Connie Clanton shows through her artwork her view of her world in
which she could never imagine without talking hands.