My Voice

About the Book

With humour and gentle wit, A.J. Brown shares her inspiring life journey. She offers hope for anyone facing illness, disability and other life challenges. We all have great wealth or a special gift inside us. She chooses to share her own wealth of insight through poetry, art and stories. Her message is about finding your own voice and seeing beyond limitations to the love and joy all around. This is an insightful, inspiring look at living life - no matter how it is presented to you!

About the Author

I started to explore various arts in 1999, as a way to overcome personal fears. One of these was a nightmare I had as a child. This dream is a parable of my 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!"

I am Deaf. I have difficulty speaking and signing coherently because of an unnamed neurological condition, which I call Cerebral Palsy for now.

Creating is way to express my soul - voice in a way that others can hear and respond to. When I create, it feels like something spiritual guides me. I need to continue my spiritual path, and that is through expressing myself. Art connects me to my Spiritual Self. My art flows from my Spiritual Self.

I am self taught. I work with acrylics, pencil, charcoal, pen, pastels, felt pen, collage, and my cat. I am also a potter, writer, poet, actress, dancer, music composer, and musician. I have also created, written, produced, and directed a video. I sometimes mix these media to create something. Each piece of my art is unique; I paint 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 Each has its own 'personality': One will have vibrant, wild, lush colours, and another will have shy, withdrawn, tame, muted colours.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. My work shows how I feel right at the moment of creation.

I have different inspirations: a memory, a movie, an image, another piece of art, visions, words, myself, an event, and my cat! What will come out, I never know. My preferred subjects include nature, magic, hidden words, and my cat.

I have been involved with an art experience group for the past year. This has enabled me to explore my creativity in a supportive envrironment with other deaf artists. This weekly group has acted as a springboard to encourage me to take professional classes and to show my art publicly.

Over the past two years, my work has been exhibited in several galleriies, icluding: the CityScape Art Space, the Artists Helping Artists in Burnaby, a deaf art show at the Vancouver Community College, and Art Pars, and the Harmony Arts Festival this year with their 'Art Beat'! I am excited with the growing interest in my work and my evolution as an artist.

With my arts and through my images, I can be heard. I believe this is my way to freedom, and spirituality. Most importantly, art is my way out of that well.

I reside in North Vacouver, British Columbia, Canada with my gorgeous cat Rumbles. My art website is www.artistsincanada.com/hppp and my email is: art_by_ajbrown@yahoo.ca.