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Artwork (Digital) / Portraits
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A "self portrait" from 2004. I've never owned capri pants and I didn't wear flipflops regularly until 2008, but anyway...
I'm anywhere from 50 to 85 percent deaf in my right ear depending on the day (my eardrum doesn't move/vibrate properly due to scarring), and have been since roughly 2nd grade. I had major surgery on my ear done in 2002 which didn't do anything to help my hearing (the surgery was completely unrelated) but it did leave me even more conscious of my problem. It's difficult to be hearing impaired in the sorts of social situations you encounter in high school where people are both impatient and lack understanding. It's something I struggled with for a while. To make matters worse, I'm not hard of hearing "enough" to really fit in with the deaf/hoh crowd, so on top of everything else I was having a bit of an identity crisis. I want to say it was in this period of time (03-04) that my fursona changed from primarily being a dragon into being the fox girl in the picture here... so, yeah. SOCIAL AND IDENTITY ISSUES AHOY. That's what this piece was trying to be about, for me.
tl;dr this is from when I was using art to express myself on deeper levels, before art school ruined me. I'm still trying to climb out of the rut.
I'm anywhere from 50 to 85 percent deaf in my right ear depending on the day (my eardrum doesn't move/vibrate properly due to scarring), and have been since roughly 2nd grade. I had major surgery on my ear done in 2002 which didn't do anything to help my hearing (the surgery was completely unrelated) but it did leave me even more conscious of my problem. It's difficult to be hearing impaired in the sorts of social situations you encounter in high school where people are both impatient and lack understanding. It's something I struggled with for a while. To make matters worse, I'm not hard of hearing "enough" to really fit in with the deaf/hoh crowd, so on top of everything else I was having a bit of an identity crisis. I want to say it was in this period of time (03-04) that my fursona changed from primarily being a dragon into being the fox girl in the picture here... so, yeah. SOCIAL AND IDENTITY ISSUES AHOY. That's what this piece was trying to be about, for me.
tl;dr this is from when I was using art to express myself on deeper levels, before art school ruined me. I'm still trying to climb out of the rut.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Portraits
Species Vulpine (Other)
Size 639 x 900px
File Size 103.7 kB
I actually can't tolerate things in my bad ear for extended periods of time. What normally happens is I move myself around the people who are talking (sitting in certain parts of rooms during class, moving myself to the left of people I walk with) because I don't always expect people to remember or care. :P
Ah. Yes. That was middle-school for me. It was about then (through 10th grade) that a lovely bout of JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) set in making it really difficult for me to do anything is Phys. Ed. classes, or even walk some days. I have so many fond (NOT) memories of then....
My sister could most definitely relate to this, she's always been hard of hearing, wears hearing aids, but a surgery to remove some abnormal tissue growth from her inner ear made it so she's only got one good ear. Turns out that the abnormal growth that destroyed the tiny bones of her inner ear had been conducting sound through itself instead! Otherwise we might have known sooner. Naturally I forget the medical terms, but thankfully it wasn't cancerous in origin. Too bad there isn't an ear accessory equivalent to an eye-patch, eh? Of course, some kind of technological repair would be a better solution. Ever talked to a doc about some kind of cochlear implant? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to, I'm just curious. Long post is long. XD
I think it was established at some point that sound conducted directly through my jawbone can be heard more clearly than if I just "hear" it normally, and sometimes I'll put a headphone behind my ear rather than over my outer ear, since I'm pretty sure I hear things better that way as well.
I hear well enough that my family never looked into any sort of corrective devices (plus we can't really afford it if I don't need it), but the other stuff I just mentioned means I might be able to benefit from hearing aids if my good ear ever starts failing. :)
I hear well enough that my family never looked into any sort of corrective devices (plus we can't really afford it if I don't need it), but the other stuff I just mentioned means I might be able to benefit from hearing aids if my good ear ever starts failing. :)
That's true, and I'd forgotten about the whole sound-conduction thing, if I recall correctly, Beethoven composed multiple works after he had gone completely deaf. I think he listened to recorded music by biting down on some part of the record player so his jaw conducted the melodies. On another topic, do you have any siblings? I ask because I seem to have gotten the better lot in life physically, I'm hale and hearty as they say, and this is a source of frustration for my sister because she has low muscle density in addition to her hearing losses, being the first-born child didn't really turn out so well for her. Heck, I was two-weeks premature and I caught up with other kids my age pretty quick, even surpassing them in a few areas. Pardon the long and involved post, talking is therapeutic and all to easy to over-indulge in when you're in a place where no-one knows your true identity, but thanks for chatting with me, it was... informative. Hopefully you got something out of this correspondence too. Anyways, I must say goodnight and never stop listening for those things that might be missed by those people that take hearing for granted! Goodnight FA! -exit stage left-
I really like your sense of style here. Also perspective looks good.
then I read the words hard to relate because, believe it or not I had the OPPOSITE problem, hearing hypersensitive so loud noises caused pain, and took medication to make my hearing WORSE, lol. Much as I like to think of it as a "superpower", it also was my "kryptonite". Though it is almost normal now, I can't deal with parties very well because rooms full of conversation just blend all together, and I can't understand even the person who is 6 inches from my face.
then I read the words hard to relate because, believe it or not I had the OPPOSITE problem, hearing hypersensitive so loud noises caused pain, and took medication to make my hearing WORSE, lol. Much as I like to think of it as a "superpower", it also was my "kryptonite". Though it is almost normal now, I can't deal with parties very well because rooms full of conversation just blend all together, and I can't understand even the person who is 6 inches from my face.
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