NADC Awardees
The UCLA National Arts and Disability Center (NADC) Announces: Artist Achievement Awardees
The NADC Artists Achievement Award celebrates the achievements of 15 California artists with disabilities for their contributions to the arts. This one-time $5,000 award was given to artists whose work provides heightened visibility to the accomplishments of artists with disabilities. These artists, from the visual, literary, performing, and media arts demonstrate excellence in their field.
Established in 1994, the NADC has awarded 327 grants to California artists with disabilities, providing funding to advance their professional careers. “Awarding financial support to artists with disabilities is an investment in their professional development, and increases accessibility in the arts,” said Dr. Olivia Raynor, Founding Director of the NADC.
The NADC Artists Achievement Awardees are all previous recipients of an NADC individual artist grant. The artists represent a diversity in age, ethnicity, disability, and gender from 12 different cities across the state including urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Following is a list of the awarded artists by discipline.
Visual Arts |
Writer |
Media Arts |
Performing Arts |
Literary |
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The artists bio are below.
NAHSHON DION (Altadena) is an African American Louisiana Creole multi-talented, award-winning creative nonfiction writer, teaching artist, video editor, emerging filmmaker, producer, grants panelist, community organizer, fundraiser, disability advocate, and arts patron. Growing up in the backyard of Hollywood, she's been an entertainment professional for thirty years in various roles behind the scenes and in front of the lens as a SAG-AFTRA actor. Her exceptional memory, attention to detail, and discernment have played a pivotal role in her career success and longevity.
Nahshon Dion's forthcoming untitled memoir has garnered significant support, evidenced by the dozens of grants, fellowships, top artist residencies, honors, and national awards she has received. As an advocate for the arts and a skilled grant writer, she has selflessly aided countless artists, entrepreneurs, and crime victims nationwide in securing substantial grants, funding, and vital resources.
For the past year, Nahshon Dion has been hosting a YouTube show called "TRANSBRATIONS," where she celebrates diversity by featuring various individuals from across the nation. The show has welcomed notable guests such as writers Jennifer Baker, Sarah Schulman, Linda Villarosa, Gwendolyn Ann Smith, and Jacqueline Woodson, DJ Terence Toy, Architect Jill Lewis, drag queens Harmonica Sunbeam and Kevin Aviance, Executive Celeste Smith, Artist Jazzmun Crayton, Publicist Nanda Dyssou, Writer and Poet Elmaz Abinader, historians Dr. Jeffrey Stewart and Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson, and California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber. Upcoming guests on TRANSBRATIONS include writer Charles Rice Gonzalez, journalist Michele Zack, filmmakers Pablo Mirales and Tracy Robinson, executive Leila Steinberg, and Transgender advocate Jade Lenore LeDuff.
Nahshon Dion’s recent endeavor to further her positive influence and achieve change is creating a documentary film titled Renewed Life, which chronicles her remarkable journey, resilience, and artistic exploration. The film is her triumphant rainbow blueprint to show marginalized youth the importance of literacy skills and self-respect and how to reach their full potential and shine with dignity when their rainbow is blurred.
Nahshon Dion is the author of a forthcoming untitled memoir and Executive Producer and Host of TRANSBRATIONS, a YouTube show.
Website: nahshondionanderson.com
Twitter: Nahshondion
Ana Carrillo (Oxnard) grew up in a neighborhood known as "La Colonia" in Oxnard, California. Being the "quiet one" born into a large boisterous family allowed her to observe the daily struggles, emotions and actions that were part of the everyday life. Even though she grew up in a “ruff-n-tuff” neighborhood my memories are filled with family barbeques, water balloon fights, walking to the Rivera’s Liquor Store for sodas, and going to Bob’s Market for banana splits. But there were many dark moments. Ana credits her mom for showing her how to knit, crochet, sew, embroider, and cross-stitch; so, it was only natural for her creativity to develop at a young age. She has a love for reading which also played a large part in her life growing up and the library is where you were most likely to find her. The quietness and rows and rows of books allowed her to escape from things she didn't understand.
She worked for schools for over 20 years and spent many years painting and drawing at home before taking classes at the local community. There, she was able to strengthen her skill as an artist and gain confidence in her work despite the curve balls life threw at her; so, as she struggled and faced her own demons in life, she matured as an artist and her art evolved as well.
She has exhibited at local art galleries, DNTN Gallery, Stonework Art Studio, Oxnard College, 643 Project Space, 18th Street Arts Center, and at Buenaventura Gallery, various RAW showcases, and many other locations. She was received a Visual Artist Semi-Finalist Award, Director Highlights Award, City of Oxnard Cultural Arts Grant 2013/2014 and 2014/2015, National Arts and Disability Center-UCLA Grant recipient in 2014, 2016 and 2017, 2018 and received a Letter of Acknowledgement from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for community involvement in the arts to bring awareness and understanding to homelessness with the focus on homeless children. In 2017, she had a successful solo show at 1617 Pacific and was the lead artist and art program coordinator for the Oxnard Housing Authority Youth Summer Art Program and Mural Project. To date, with the help of local artists and community supporters we were able to create 13 community murals. Currently, she is continuing hosting community art workshops, presentations and organizing artistic community efforts.
Website: Ana Carrillo's Story
Bella Cosper (Los Angeles) is a multi-media artist, primarily focused on television writing and performing. Most recently, she wrote for a new animated preschool series for DreamWorks TV. With a handful of industry fellowships under her sash and an education from UCLA Extension’s TV writing program, she stirs in 20 years of comedy learned at Upright Citizens Brigade, The Pack, and iO West in Hollywood, to create audio, video, voice-over, and original content. She also runs Big Role Media, a lifestyle website focused on women who have a disability.
Website: bellacosper.com
Victor Dean (Los Angeles) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised by his grandparents, Margaret, a domestic, and Calvin Dean, a U.S. Postal truck driver. He began his career in the feature film, Heist, followed by a role in a pilot season of Boardwalk Empire. Also, Dean wrote, starred, and produced projects for Shaquille O'Neal and comedy heavyweight Walter Latham. He became disabled in 2013, which only empowered him to become an award-winning producer, writer, and editor in short films like Mrs. Taylor's Show & Tell: A Prince Story featured at The Pan African Film Festival, The Cleveland International Film Festival, The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Toronto Black Film Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Finance from Morehouse College and certified from NYU Tisch Film and TV Industry Essentials Program.
Website: victordean.com
Instagram: vdean1
Moya Devine (Silicon Valley) was born in Neuilly sur Seine France and grew up in California before moving to Hawaii where she remained until graduating from the University of Hawaii earning her B.A. degree in Drama with a minor in Dance. It was at this time that she developed her love of movement. Following graduation she moved to San Francisco starting a small dance and performance company, Brand X Theater, with her partner at the time, Barb Roesch. Her award-winning work focused on themes of gender and the body. Ms. Devine went on to work as Business manager for Franklin Furnace Archive Inc. a performance space and artist book archive in New York City and Development Director of Art ReGrup in San Francisco.
She studied visual art at the State University of New York Purchase and SUNY Westchester School of the Arts. She currently teaches art in alternative high school settings to students formerly marginalized. She has mentored artists with ASD and continues to work with students on and off the spectrum and those with special needs.
She has completed residencies at the San Diego Museum of Art and Atlantic Center for the Arts and her work has been shown internationally at museums, colleges, universities, art spaces, libraries, and galleries. Her most current exhibition participation includes “Call and Response” at Shoebox Projects, Los Angeles and “Climate Reckoning” at Grossmont College in San Diego.
Website: moyadevine.com
Pete Eckert (Sacramento) is a totally blind visual artist and has a broad education. He has degrees in Fine Art, Industrial Design and Business. He was going to go to school to be an architect when he went totally blind from retinitis pigmentosa.
Pete has been in shows nationally and internationally. Pete has been invited to be in the permanent collection of the American Printing House for the Blind new museum. Pete is proud to be in the Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists show curated by Douglas McCulloh. This exhibition is considered to be the pivotal point where the blind photography movement starts and is connected with the impressionists painting movement. The Sight Unseen show has been on world tour for 14 years and is still going strong.
Pete has been the subject of many documentaries and films; "Dark Light The Art of Blind Photographers” a documentary film directed by Neil Leifer 2011, “Shot in the Dark” a documentary film by Frank Amann, Germany 2016, The Today Show “Beyond Sight: American Story segment with Bob Dotson NBC aired June 4, 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3YeqFY_KhY, The Avant/Garde Diaries a feature documentary film by Anna Piltz and Annikki Heinemann https://youtu.be/0mfywo9s4yc , “Obscura” a documentary about the art and life of blind photographers. Director Damon J. Stea, Mindfruit Studios 2009 https://vimeo.com/5346560, Artists Wanted | In Focus: Pete Eckert by Christian Schneider https://vimeo.com/artistswanted/exposure2008 , "In Your Light, Do We See Light" a 2023 Rising Voices Film. I was a consultant and my photographs are featured in this film. https://risingvoicesfilms.com/film/in-your-light-do-we-see-light/ , "NCIS In the Dark", Episode 92 CBS’s TV episode based on me showing my work in 2007.
Pete has also been included in art history books; “Visual Communication: Images With Messages” by Paul Martin Lester 5th Edition ©2011 Wadsworth, Engage Learning and “Visual Communication: Images With Messages” by Paul Martin Lester 6th Edition ©2014 Wadsworth, Engage Learning.
Pete is the founder of the Blind Photographers Guild. The goal of the Guild is to gain entrance into exhibitions and shows. On behalf of the Guild we thank the NADC for their support and mini grants.
Pete has worked to gain civil rights for the blind since he became visually impaired.
Pete makes his living making fine art, public speaking and in advertising. He has done photographic shoots for Volkswagen https://youtu.be/Vr3xOHGgRoM, Google https://youtu.be/OzWpDT97EOU, Swarovski and Playboy. His significant contribution as a totally blind person to the blind photographers movement has been in breaking into the public market. While all his advertising work has been ground breaking the strongest shoot was for Volkswagen. The VW shoot describes Pete’s methods.
Pete receives emails from blind young people from around the world. My goal is to break a path I try to be of help.
Website: https://peteeckert.com/
Ayin Es (Joshua Tree) is a mixed-media, genderqueer artist who identifies as nonbinary. As a Los Angeles native, Ayin grew up quickly while working in the garment district from a young age, then leaving an abusive home life for emancipation at age fifteen. They were then a working musician (a drummer) while practicing painting and drawing, pursuing dual careers in music and contemporary art.
Struck with physical disabilities at age thirty and struggling with mental illness, Ayin left music to dedicate themselves fully to their art. They have since become known for their unusual oil paintings, weird drawings, personal collages, and Artist's books. They also work in watercolor, installation, and video. Ayin’s work resides in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, and National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as multiple university collections.
A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, Ayin has also won a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Wynn Newhouse Award, grants from the National Arts and Disability Center/California Arts Council, Asylum-Arts in Brooklyn, NY, and the Bruce Geller Memorial Award from the American Jewish University.
Website: https://esart.com/
Instagram: @ayin_es_art
Diana Jordan (Los Angeles) is an Award-Winning Actor, Solo Artist, Theater & Filmmaker, Disability & IDEA Influencer. Content Creator and Artist Educator. She is the founder & Chief Creative Artivist of The Rainbow Butterfly Café (an edutaiment & consulting company and the production company Dreaming Big On A Swing Entertainment. She was the first actor with a disability to obtain a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from California State University Long Beach.
Ms. Jordan has been cast in over 60 theater productions, film and television including CBS’s S.W.A.T. and is a member of Soul Sista Comedy ( a sketch and improv comedy group) She was one of 20 actors selected from over 7,000 applicants for the inaugural Warner Media Discovery Access Talent Showcase in 2022 and performed her solo show Happily Ever After (One Woman’s Journey To Find A True Love) at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe where she received, Pick of The Fringe and an Encore Producers Award honors.
As a director she has over 20 stage productions under her belt She received a Easterseals Film Challenge Best Director Award nomination for the first film she ever directed I CAN, written by Aaron Saunders and executive produced by Cory Reeder. She has been teaching acting at Performing Arts Studio West (a professional training program for artists with disabilities) for over 20 years and hosts and produces the weekly vlog, A Morning Cup of Joy.
She has been a keynote speaker, performed her solo shows and expressive art- based workshops for universities, colleges conferences and corporations and recently did her first TEDTALK for Sonoma County TEDX. Diana had been a featured guest on podcasts, entertainment industry panels and featured in Ability Magazine and Forbes Women to name a few. Diana is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity Association, The SAG -AFTRA Performers with Disabilities Committee, The Hollywood Fringe Access Committee. The Impro Theater DEIA Committee and is one of the disabled advocates for Women of Color Unite. Whether portraying a character, sharing a personal story, directing, or producing a project, Diana is committed to transforming limiting perceptions through the power of storytelling.
Websites: www.dianaelizabethjordan.com
www.therainbowbutterflycafe.com
Instagram: fromtheheartdej
Twitter: fromtheheartdej
TikTok: fromtheheartdej
Jeremy Sicile-Kira (San Diego) began to tell others about his dreams: dreams that he was painting the emotions of people into colorful abstract portraits in 2012. One night he dreamt that he painted ten of his paintings and had an art show. Jeremy was encouraged to make this dream come true and began to paint in real life. In 2016 Jeremy’s first curated solo art show was covered by local and national media including People.com, NBC, ABC, Good Morning America. He has been a professional artist ever since.
Jeremy believes that the synesthesia which informs his paintings, is directly related to his sensitivities as an autistic person. Seeing people’s emotions and hearing their voices elicit colors; and so does listening to music. The subjects of Jeremy’s paintings range from current events, social injustice, public figures he admires, to commissioned portraits, including memorial paintings. Jeremy strives to show the inner beauty and spiritual essence of all those he paints and provides a description of the meaning of the colors used.
Since 2016, Jeremy has participated in many curated group shows, including at the Oceanside Museum of Art, Spark’s Gallery in San Diego, and Art Basel in Miami. His art hangs in public places such as Boston’s Children’s Hospital; University of Scranton, PA; Mira Costa Collee, CA; San Diego State University; the offices of the DDS (Department of Developmental Services) in Sacramento, CA. Jeremy’s art has been licensed for use in book cover illustrations, as well as magazine articles.
In January 2023, A short documentary by filmmaker Aaron Lemle The Beautiful Colors of Jeremy Sicile-Kira aired nationally on PBS. In April, Jeremy was invited by the Guggenheim Museum in NYC to give a virtual art lesson for their Guggenheim for All program. As well, Jeremy was honored to be one of 4 artists highlighted at the NIMH/OARC Special Event for Autism Awareness Month: A Portrait of Autism: Artists and Their Works.
Advocacy for others like him who have no voice is an important part of Jeremy’s life. Jeremy co-authored a book A Full Life with Autism (Macmillan) and served as a Youth Representative to the United Nations for the Autism Research Institute (NGO); as a youth leader for the Autistic Global Initiative, and as a youth advisor to the California Employment Consortium for Youth (CECY). Currently Jeremy serves on the Spellers Advisory Council for the Teva Community.
Jeremy was the recipient of two grants from the NADC which enabled him to apply for and partake in his first Art Walk; and to develop his website during the Covid pandemic, for which he is grateful.
Website: jeremysvision.com
Instagram: @jeremysvision
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeremysVision/
Joshua Ramirez (Pico Rivera) is a brown-indigenous social practice artist, museum arts administrator and cultural practitioner that works and resides in Los Angeles County. Using his own mental Illness and disability as a platform for systemic change, he has successfully piloted art classes for individuals with mental illness, veterans of foreign wars, LGBTQ+ youth, women and children of day laborers and the homeless population. Building on this experience, he continues as a public speaker with the National Alliance on Mental illness where he co-started two nationwide programs: “Parents and Teachers as Allies” & “Ending the Silence”. For over a decade, these two programs continue to rid the stigma associated with mental illness as well as aiding in suicide prevention and mental health advocacy. With academic and institutional support, he started his own non-profit called Saint Remy Arts and Culture, which provides transformative spaces for individuals with mental illness, PTSD and suicidal thoughts through advocacy and art.
He received his BA in Art from the University of Southern California, where he attended on full academic scholarship and received his MA in Art Education in 2021 from Azusa Pacific University. Intentional in his own practice, his sculpture, photography, and paintings, focus on the complexity of the human condition, exploring themes of abandonment, past childhood trauma, and working-class race relations in the United States. His artwork is housed in many permanent collections, including the Bauman Foundation and Sherman Collection. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including the Dr. Juan Lara Honors Transfer Council of California Student of the Year in 2012, McNair Research Scholar, Norman Topping Scholar, UCLA NADC Individual Artist Grant in 2020 and 2021 and the Maxine King and Bernard Osher Scholarship.
He currently sits on the board of NAMI Pomona Valley and advises national and local organizations such as American for the Arts, NEA, California Arts Council & Tri-City Mental Health. He currently works in Youth Development Programs at the J. Paul Getty Center in California.
Instagram: SaintRemyArts
Francesca Roccaforte, MS (Alameda) is a digital photographer currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years. Francesca was born in Brooklyn, New York. She credits her father Frank, her mentor, for sparking her interest in photography at an early age. She formally studied photography at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan for four years. Influenced by both the industrial N.Y. urban landscape, its people, and the serene scenes of family visits to beautiful ocean and parks, she used the camera to focus on the beauty of the natural landscape and its diverse ethnic population. Ms. Roccaforte has earned both a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in visual communication in Education from California State University, East Bay. She also has an associate degree in Multimedia Arts/Digital Imaging from Berkeley City College, California. Even though she has struggled with learning challenges/disabilities her whole life, she has forged a successful photographic career in the arts and education. In 2020, she was one of the winning artists for her photo “Urban Love” in the 13th annual “Health through Art” sponsored by Alameda County Behavioral Health, Oakland, CA. In 2020, Francesca was also awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the National Arts and Disability Center (NADC) Semel Institute, UCLA to complete a project on macro flower photography. In 2023, she will be awarded a NADC Artist Achievement Award in recognition of artists who provide a heightened visibility to the accomplishments of artists with disabilities.
Ms. Roccaforte’s current body of work consists of California landscape, macro images, and animal photography. She has exhibited her work in over fifty museums, galleries, community organizations, spiritual centers and educational institutions in California, New York, Massachusetts, Italy, Germany, and West Africa over the last five decades.
In the past, she has been employed as an instructor teaching both digital and film photography. Ms. Roccaforte has produced award winning documentaries on mental illness and performing arts along with multi-cultural educational videos and multi-media festivals. Her photos, essays, and poems have been featured in academic, cultural, and feminist journals and anthologies. She has self-published her own poetry chap book “Urban Love" and is currently writing her memoir “Beyond the Wooden Spoon”.
Website: rocknfranny.weebly.com
Bloomington, Indiana is an oasis of plush forests, expansive grassy hills, and wild lands where trails sweep you through what was once a great ocean. Walking trails line the city. In geological terms, we are living at the bottom of what was once an ocean. Today, its textures, colors, trees, and other natural formations serve as Maria's primary inspiration when she is not living along the Northern California coast. It is a long way from Pasadena, California, where she was born. She was raised in the Bay Area and went to high school in Cupertino, California, across the street from the Apple headquarters. As a teen, she was often found at the beach, in the redwoods, or observing clouds in a park. She co-founded The Earth Savers Club and Art Club at her school. The Earth Savers Club focused on training to become a wildlife rescuer and the Art Club focused on teaching other students how to throw and work in the sculpture lab. Her formative years were spent in Baden-Württemberg Germany. She participated in a high school program to improve her German speaking skills and learn about her culture in a deeper way. While in Austria, she climbed the world’s largest ice cave. At 22, she received a MacArthur nomination for her co-creation of an arts collective turned non-profit WhatIsArt - WhatIsSound. Maria was inspired by the devotion of her grandparents, who were artists. Their influence and commitment to their own practice and each other led her to the life she knows today. As a bio artist, she spends most of her time foraging for color, processing color into archival and lightfast palettes to work with mycelium as a co-creator in all of her experiments. Maria has been an artist for 26 years and a Buddhist for 28 years. As a bio artist, she holds the same objectives as ecologists.
Maria is enamored with the natural world, which is highlighted in her new body of work Hollow Earth. Her methodology and practice are science based and include aspects of biology, ecology, symbiotic relationships, and the fungi kingdom. Her work is meticulous, careful, and immersive. Her sculpture work, grown from an unseeded mycelium, engages youth in ecologically sound practices that encourage the innovation of climate change solutions. She engages youth in STEM education by creating a space where innovation can happen. This empowers youth to be their own thought leader. Maria's ultimate goal is to develop work that inspires stewardship of the natural world. Her mission as an artist is to inspire others to use healthier materials for a healthier world.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culturedsocial
Lisa Sniderman (San Mateo) is a multi-award-winning artist, playwright and advocate known by her artist’s name, Aoede. As a disabled artist, Sniderman creates-and often centers characters with illnesses-to express, foster healing, elevate, empower, and advocate for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. She’s been honored with 100+ awards and accolades for songwriting, albums, films, stage plays, spoken word, books, all while battling a rare, disabling autoimmune disease for 15 years: Dermatomyositis, a progressive muscle disease that attacks and weakens her immune system, skin and muscles. In 2010, Sniderman was hospitalized for a month with complete muscle weakness due to a flare, and spent months in rehab using a wheelchair, relearning how to sit, stand, walk and eventually, how to play and sing again. She’s been creating ever since. While struggling with illness, Sniderman’s created/released 10 albums, including three young adult fantasy musical audiobooks, and staged two of them. Sniderman notes that she initially created to escape her illness, but then started to integrate her illness into her art, to help others thrive, starting with her memoir: A Light in the Darkness: Transcending Chronic Illness through the Power of Art and Attitude (Sep 2018), chronicling her 10-year journey living with chronic illness while creating to heal. In July 2020, she held a free two-week online summit featuring videos with 60+ experts, to help others struggling with chronic illness thrive, attended by 1,800 participants. Says Sniderman, “Music and art are my lifelines; I just cannot stop creating.” She kept so busy creating, Sniderman admits she forgot to grieve her illness.
She has also been homebound many years, missing live theater, and had a vision of bringing live theater to those like her through filmed stage performances, which sparked the creation and release of her ninth studio album, "The Grieving Project" (August 2020), a spoken word musical audiobook that sets the stages of grief to music. She’s adapting this audiobook to a stage musical to bring live theatrical experiences to chronically ill and disabled communities (see: https://thegrievingproject.com). Sniderman also serves as Secretary and Engagement Co-Chair for Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD.org), promoting inclusion, advocating for accessibility, elevating disabled artists-helping her implement her mission and disrupting ableism-changing the narrative about disability culture.
Website: t6dh.com
Ahmet Ustunel (San Francisco), a blind ceramic artist who has the passion for ceramics since a very young age. He created his first sculptures using window caulk, paper, wood and glue. Later, he discovered clay at school for the blind and it quickly became his favorite medium. Currently he creates functional sculptures using ceramics, but also incorporates mixed media materials, often sourced from nature. The ocean in particular, serves as his greatest inspiration for his artwork.
In addition to being an artist, he is also a teacher for the visually impaired and has the pleasure of sharing the joy of creating art with his students. He has had the opportunity to co-teach for the first summer art school for blind students at SFUSD. He has worked as an art instructor at Enchanted Hills summer camp and at A Reason to Survive, a non profit organization in San Diego. As an educator, artist, blind individual, he strongly believes that art should be accessible to everyone. This believe led him to organize touch shows such as “Art to Touch” in San Diego in 2011 and “Please Touch the Art” in San Francisco in 2022. Additionally, his artwork has been exhibited in various art shows held in Istanbul, Warsaw, San Francisco, and San Diego. In 2022, he was honored as an Artist Power Convenings Awardee.
Website: theblindcaptain.com
Instagram: ahmettheblindcaptain
Facebook: ahmetblindcaptain
Kurt Weston (Mission Viejo), a legally blind photographer/artist is a resident of Mission Viejo, California and a Master of Fine Arts graduate from California State University, Fullerton. Kurt’s work is in the permanent collection of The Houston Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the National AIDS Museum. His work has also been featured in both national and international exhibitions – most notably - a series of exhibitions featuring the work of disabled artists at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington DC; the Sight Unseen exhibition at the California Museum of Photography - which has traveled internationally – featuring the work of 12 visually impaired photographers. Kurt has also been the subject of numerous interviews, videos, publications, articles, and abstracts. Kurt has served with the national Art’s organization VSA arts and is proud to be associated with the National Arts and Disabilities Center.
As an artist who has survived AIDS and many of the AIDS opportunistic infections including loss of sight from AIDS related CMV Retinitis, Kurt represents his disabilities through self-portraiture. His work reflects the bitter battle he fights just to stay in this world. Many of his images represent his body as dissolving and fragmented or as silhouettes fading to blur and black. He offers a unique perspective and evocative aesthetic which is punctuated by his will to survive.
Website: kurtweston.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015479683892
Instagram: kurttweston