Monday, February 8, 2010

ArtsWORK's Featured Artist: Gina Golden

ArtsWORK Indiana, an organization that "facilitates access to careers in the arts for people with disabilities through awareness, education, and encouragement," has selected Gina Golden as this quarter's featured artist.

Golden inherited the family flare and aspiration towards the arts: her genealogical tree includes a visual artist grandfather, a similarly inclined grandmother, and a graphic artist father. She studied illustration at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. After building her career, she settled in Indianapolis and has contributed to several galleries and private collections.

Golden is also hearing impaired. Thanks to abnormal bone growth in her ears, her hearing gradually declined throughout childhood. She eventually lost it completely a decade ago. However, she has embraced who she is and refuses to concede to cochlear implants that aren't advanced enough to "listen to music or have a conversation with [her] eyes closed." Hearing loss has nothing to do with her identity as an artist, she says. "Being deaf is not a great selling point. I want people to remember my work, not that I’m a deaf artist."

You can read the ArtWORK article on Gina here. Also check out her website for samples of her paintings, drawings, sculptures and decorative walls. For an archive of past featured artists, visit http://www.artsworkindiana.org/index.php?pageId=47.

No comments: