Lisa not only learned to paint after losing her sight, she wrote a book about it. Her inspiring use of color and her ability to tell which color she is using just by feeling the texture of the paint are…
Alison Lapper, 1961–
Alison Lapper has phocomelia and was born without arms and with shortened legs. Since her childhood, she has lived in homes and has had little contact with her kinship. The mother saw her child for the last time at the age of four months; later…
Peter Longstaff, 1961–
Peter is a foot painter. He creates all of his artwork using just his feet, having no arms. Peter’s disability stemmed from the drug thalidomide, which was prescribed for morning sickness until it was discovered that it caused deformities fetuses.…
Joseph Cartin, 1953–
JOSEPH CARTIN Cartin is from Brooklyn and actively lives with bipolar disorder. He has been active in the Mental Health Consumer Movement since 1990 and considers himself a “psychiatric survivor”. He has won numerous art competitions and does corporate design…
Maria Iliou
MARIA ILIOU Disability: Autistic Maria Iliou is a Greek artist with autism spectrum condition. She is a life long resident of Long Island, New York, and is deeply involved as an advocate for the rights of people with autism. Her…
Stephen Wiltshire, 1974–
STEPHEN WILTSHIRE Disability: Autistic Wiltshire was born in 1974 in London to West Indian parents. He is an autistic savant and world famous architectural artist. He learned to speak at the age of nine, and at the age of ten…
Artists First (artist group, Bristol)
Artists First is a group of 16 disabled visual artists with learning difficulties based in Bristol. http://www.artistsfirst.org.uk We have been working together since 1988. We are used to running our own studios and have organised and been part of many exhibitions,…
Keith Salmon, 1959–
KEITH SALMON Disability: Visually Impaired Keith is a blind fine artist and avid mountain climber. He has climbed over a hundred Munros (a type of Scottish mountain), one of which can be seen in the first painting below. In 2009…
Lord Byron, 1788 – 1824
Lord Byron by Ellen Castelow ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know’. That is how Lady Caroline Lamb described her lover George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron and one of the greatest Romantic poets in English literature. As famous for his scandalous…
Early Graphic Illustration, Comic Strips and Disability
The history of printing goes back to the duplication of images by means of stamps in very early times. The use of round seals for rolling an impression into clay tablets goes back to early Mesopotamian civilization before 3000 BCE, they feature…