The Art of Conversation

Now that The Space Between Words has come to an end, I have been reflecting on its September 22 closing reception and artist Q&A—and on what the exhibition taught me about art, language, and conversation.

I joined fellow artists Kelvin Lopez and Jess Bergman at Vanguard Culture’s ARTS LAB at UC San Diego Park & Market. Our fourth exhibiting artist, Ale Uzárraga, was traveling outside the country, but her artwork and story were still very much present.

The exhibition was curated by Susanna Peredo Swap, founder and executive director of Vanguard Culture. She brought together four artists with different backgrounds, experiences, and ways of communicating. Through our work, she invited us to consider a meaningful question: What happens when words alone are not enough?

For me, the evening was an opportunity to share how I experience language as a Deaf artist. It was also a chance to listen to the other artists and discover how our stories could meet through art.

The Space Between Words closing reception and artist Q&A at UC San Diego Park & Market.

Seeing Language Move

During her presentation, ASL and Visual Art: A Shared Language, Erin Oleson Dickson invited me to demonstrate a horse in ASL.

I signed a horse trotting. Then I showed it galloping. I slowed its movement down and then made it move faster. The audience could see the difference. They could watch speed, rhythm, and time become part of the sign.

Written English can tell us, “The horse is trotting,” or, “The horse is galloping.” But the words themselves do not slow down or speed up. ASL can show that movement.

Demonstrating movement and rhythm in ASL during Erin Oleson Dickson’s presentation.

That simple demonstration captured something important about my work.

ASL uses handshape, location, movement, facial expression, rhythm, and the space around the signer. The image is not separate from the language. It lives inside it.

This idea is central to my series, The Art of Conversation. My work moves between ASL, English, gesture, color, and visual expression. Because ASL is physical and constantly moving, I often ask myself how I can bring the energy of a living language into a still artwork.

I use color, gesture, and repetition to guide the viewer’s eyes through an image. Even when the artwork does not physically move, I want people to feel its rhythm. I want them to sense that a conversation is taking place.

From Jon Savage’s The Art of Conversation series.

Listening to Other Artists

During the panel, I listened to Kelvin Lopez and Jess Bergman talk about the experiences behind their art.

Kelvin shared connections among family, cultural identity, gardening, and learning to care for himself.

Jess spoke about how unilateral vocal fold paralysis changed his relationship with the singing voice he had relied upon. Visual art became another way for him to explore loss, mental health, identity, resilience, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Ale could not join us in person, but her work spoke through English and Spanish, memory, distance, and the things we sometimes wish we could say to someone no longer in our lives.

Artists and participants in conversation during the closing reception.

My artwork has its own story. However, seeing it share the gallery with their work changed how I experienced it. Susanna gave each artist a distinct place on the walls while allowing our stories to speak to one another across the room.

I was interested in how their stories blended with mine. We each approached communication from a different direction, but all four of us used art to hold experiences that can be difficult to express in words.

Working With DawnSign

DawnSign brought ASL poetry, performance, and storytelling into the evening.

The collaboration grew from conversations between Ryan Maliszewski, CEO of DawnSign, and me. We wanted to connect ASL with the themes of The Space Between Words and give the audience an opportunity to experience visual language rather than only hear an explanation of it.

Ryan was unable to attend, but his support helped make our collaboration possible. Tina Jo Breindel joined us on DawnSign’s behalf and brought the organization’s history and commitment to ASL into the room.

ASL/voice interpretation gave Deaf and hearing participants full access to the same conversation, allowing the focus to remain where it belonged—on the artists, the artwork, and the exchange between us.

I appreciated seeing Deaf language and culture become part of the exhibition’s larger conversation. DawnSign’s participation reminded the audience that ASL is not simply a tool for exchanging information. It can also carry poetry, humor, emotion, history, and art.

Art, language, and accessibility sharing the same space during the evening.

The Person Between the Words

Victor Medina performed Inside Me, a personal story about identity, struggle, and overcoming the forces that tried to determine his future.

What stayed with me was Victor’s strength. He transformed what he had lived through into a reason to guide and support others.

His performance gave me another way to think about the title of the exhibition.

Deaf, Mexican, and the hearing world are the words around Victor. Victor is the person living in the space between them.

That space is where his identities meet. It is where other people’s assumptions encounter the reality of his life. Most importantly, it is where Victor finds the strength to define himself rather than allow others to define him.

Through movement, expression, timing, and space, his ASL performance carried the story of a whole person.

My Place in the Conversation

As I listened to everyone and looked around the gallery, I was reminded that I am rooted in Deaf culture and also part of the wider San Diego community. These parts of my identity do not need to exist separately. My artwork can help bring them together.

I hope hearing audiences who encounter my work begin to see ASL differently. ASL is not a lesser version of spoken language, and Deaf culture is not defined by something missing. It is a complete and expressive language with its own movement, rhythm, structure, history, and beauty.

After living with this exhibition, The Space Between Words means more to me than silence. That space can hold movement, memory, identity, emotion, and everything we have not yet found a way to say. It can also become a place where people meet and try to understand one another.

The closing reception did not feel like the end of the conversation. It showed me how that conversation could continue—between Deaf and hearing people, between artists and audiences, and among communities with different experiences.

I am grateful to Susanna Peredo Swap and Vanguard Culture for bringing this exhibition to life, and to UC San Diego Park & Market for giving art, language, and community a place to meet. I also thank Ryan Maliszewski, Tina Jo Breindel, Erin Oleson Dickson, Victor Medina, DawnSign, my fellow exhibiting artists, and everyone who supported communication and access for being part of this journey.

My art is how I share my language, my culture, and my place in the world.

Sometimes words are enough. Sometimes our hands, bodies, colors, and images must carry the story.

That is where my art begins.