Deaf Art Collections: Mansfield, Ellen (Jewish American)

Ceramic Plate

A picture of Abbe l'Epee, a hearing
French founder of the first free
International Deaf school in Paris.

Multi-colored painted ceramic tile depicts a
woman kneeling by a stream with flowers on
both banks. Within the stream are two large
human eyes, “De’Humankind.” This surrealist tile
is about the humankind of Deaf people. They come
from a place where the AGB pharaoh banned sign
 language, ran a cochlear implant control law, and
supported the slavery of oralism and eugenics centers.
Parents secretly put Deaf babies in the cocoon blankets and left them to go on the Deaf Identity River on the way to another side of the world, another dimension. An ASL princess found them and signed, “Future, ASL will never die on us!” This story is inspired by The Book of Exodus, about Moses on the Nile River in Egypt around 1400 BC.

Oil on canvas

A beggar, "starving" for ASL. One eye is on the ground. There is a garbage bag with handshapes behind the figure. Two trash cans with handshapes are in the back. Black handshapes are shown on the ground in front of the figure. The figure's hands are stunted or not shown.