Chuck Baird

"The Deaf theme in my work relates to my own experience as a deaf human being; my genre is De'VIA."

"I no longer paint what people would like to see. I paint for myself. It is about my own experience, my love of ASL and pride in our Deaf heritage. I sometimes create works that have no particular relation to the Deaf."

"Deaf art expresses the values of Deaf culture — the beauty of sign language and its painful oppression, the joys of Deaf bonding, communication breakdowns between signers and non-signers, the discovery of language and community, and the history of Deaf people."