A few weeks ago I was invited to a Pecha Kuchu Presentation.
PechaKucha 20x20, Japanese term for, "chit chat", is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.
This helps those who talk to much ;), keeping the presentation conscise and forward moving.
Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world with San Francisco being the top Pecha Kucha city in the world outside Tokyo where a couple hundred spectators are usually expected to congregate.
The theme was "Grassroots". Huh, I think I know something about that. I decided to use my illustrations for all 20 of my slides. I was running out of time, so unfortunately I didn't get to do many of the drawings I had planned to show for it, but no one knows that besides us ;). With my bike project just closing, and many other things that were waiting for my attention, I was working for a few days drawing till late trying to figure out what I was going to say.
My slides pretty much consisted of me storytelling how I found out about my condition, what HIBM is, how it could be treated and the Bike for Kam project I did with my friends. I absolutely didn't feel prepared when I went up.
The presentation was on a Monday and so I was working on it over the weekend. I remember towards the end of putting together my presentation it was becoming a little emotionally draining. I had dealt with the bike project, a month + of doing nothing but talking about HIBM, and now I had to do a presentation consisting of very telling and personal drawings. I don't mind talking about it, nor do I want people to hesitate to ask me about it, but it can get heavy at times.
As I draw, it can be a very personal moment. I'm drawing myself and drawing out my feelings as I'm figuring them out. There have been times that I cry while I draw and I only then realize how much I share about myself. Parts of me that are still a surprise to me even after all these years. We don't predict that disability will be a topic that we will talk about later in life; a topic that seems so foreign to you in one moment and then becomes the most intimate of topics in the next.
I suppose the presentation went well. I was praised for my illustrations and was surprised, since I don't consider myself a "professional". I was told I "elevated the night". That was nice. A nice compliment. When I started drawing myself I honestly didn't expect people would like my illustrations as much as they have.
I have yet to draw other people in my illustrations, because the truth is I struggle with that still. It doesn't come easy to me. I can't whip out characters quickly. I kind of started illustrating on my own without "technical" training, so each drawing is new to me. I've been trying to work on a thank you illustration for my friends who did the bike project, but having a hard time drawing representations of them. I want to draw each of them as boys, print it, frame it and give it to them as a gift, but I only seem to be able to draw myself and my experiences.
When I'm drawing myself it doesn't really feel like I'm drawing. It comes easier. It's not "art" to me, I guess. I'm not trying to attach meaning to a drawing, the meaning is behind and during the drawing. It is just what it is without arbitrary depth. It just is and that's it. No need for further poetic explanation.
I feel like I'm nine years old sitting at the table with my sneakers unable to touch the ground, so they sway back and forth to the beat of my pencil and I'm just doodling without thinking. As soon as I start thinking I ruin it.
Later, I looked at photos from the presentation and saw myself in front of a crowd in a wheelchair. It was odd. This would be my very first public presentation in a wheelchair. Not that it matters, it's just new. I'm constantly changing and everyone gets to see it whether I want them to or not.
I ended my speech with, "Sometimes you get to choose your causes, and sometimes they choose you and it's all in how you respond."
I'll try and upload the video of me presenting after they upload it to their website.