WEBVTT

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[music plays]

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Rafael: I remember seeing an artist once

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and I went up to him
and I watched him work.

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It was really cool.

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So I went home, found some paper,

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found a pencil and
started drawing what I saw

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I started watching a TV show as well.

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It was Frankenstein.

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I really liked that movie.

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So I went to my desk,
got another piece of paper,

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a pencil, and tried my best
to sketch Frankenstein's monster.

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A lot of people have asked me,
“Wow! Yow you did that?”

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Yeah, I did.

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So, yeah, I started at seven,
just fooling around and sketching

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and having fun simply
because I saw that sketch artist working

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and he inspired me
to want to be an artist.

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My name is Rafael Morales,

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and I have a nickname with people
who know me, “R” as in artist.

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[music plays]

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I really like Sylvester Stallone.

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I like him in Rocky,
I like him in Rambo.

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When I was a kid growing up,

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probably 13 or 14, I would draw him
and his face is really hard to draw.

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He's got some interesting eyes,

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so it would take me a while
to get good at it.

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And the older I got, the more I practiced
until I got it just right.

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I guess it's just part of my personality
that I'm a very creative

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and thoughtful person

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and I like to make adjustments

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and changes as I draw.

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Sometimes what I draw
is not exactly what I'm looking at,

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but I definitely want to get the face
and make sure that that's recognizable.

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But other times I'll get very creative
about the rest of it,

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whether it's the background
or the characterization.

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And I like to play
around with my art as well.

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[music plays]

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So I was born deaf,

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and I remember thinking
when I was about five years old

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that I was having difficulty seeing.

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That's probably when
my eyesight began to change.

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Colors didn't seem normal to me
like they used to.

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They began to blur together, and I
couldn't always differentiate the colors.

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When I would cross the street, many times
I wouldn't see cars coming

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and I almost got hit
multiple times as a kid.

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I didn't realize

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that I had no peripheral vision
and I couldn't see oncoming traffic.

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The older I got, the harder
it was to see,

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especially even during regular daytime.

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Currently, now I'm working on my iPad

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and some of the different techniques are wonderful.

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Pencil drawing,
using watercolor, design style,

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oil design.

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I can adjust all those,

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so that allows me a lot of options
and different techniques.

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And I don't see colors
as well as I used to,

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it's very difficult
to see shades and words.

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I have to get very close up.

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20 years ago I could see very well
and I knew what I was drawing.

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Now it's very difficult
to see words or print.

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I can't read books.

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Colors are not as clear
as they used to be.

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And I know that I'm going to go
completely blind.

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I grew up drawing and then I became blind.

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So I wonder, am I the only one out there?

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There's got to be somebody else out there
who is deaf and blind and can also

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be an artist.

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Yes. My neighbor,
Chris Cook, he's fully blind

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and he makes amazing clay sculptures.

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He's got a talent for it.

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[music plays]

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Chris: My name is Chris Cook.

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I'm a DeafBlind person currently
living in Los Angeles, California.

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I'm an artist primarily working in clay
and make many things out of it.

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I started working with clay
when I was about 16,

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and I've worked with
all different kinds, like kiln clay,

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sculpture oven baked clay and air dry clay.

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I make mostly animals out of clay

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and sometimes figures
of people, but not as often.

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Above this display is a miniature town
on the kitchen counter

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between the living room and the kitchen.

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It has a bay out front,
made partly of blue foam,

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as well as buildings, trees, and vehicles.

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Most of the buildings
are made out of paper,

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except for the airport, which is plastic

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and the church,
which is mud with a metal roof.

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It took me several weeks
to make Cooksville.

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Yeah, I named it after myself
after I was done with it.

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I sell my sculptures to make money.

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Everything you see along my walls is for
sale for different prices.

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I use my teletype for around people
who don't know how to sign.

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It's a device
that looks like a typewriter.

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When people type on it, I can read
what they're writing on the other side

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in braille.

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I really enjoy listening to music.

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My favorite kinds are rock and roll
and country music.

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I can't make out the singing.

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I can only make out the rhythm.

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I used to be able to see
and hear in my early childhood,

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but I started to lose my hearing
when I was 13 and my sight when I was 15.

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By age 16, I’d lost all of my sight
and most of my hearing.

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It was hard to accept the losses,
especially my hearing.

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Rafael: Some of the things that I've adjusted

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is I have to be careful
with where I'm focusing.

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I have to see up close
with what I'm trying to draw.

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Sometimes I'll have this weird feeling,
some internal feeling

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and it makes me feel like I can't see
as well as I used to.

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So I have to be very careful

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when that feeling comes up,
I get much more emotional as I do my art.

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Sometimes I miss details, I miss things,

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and what I'm drawing doesn't
look exactly like what I intend.

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It usually turns out well,

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and I know I'm an artist
and my art has changed.

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I like putting my art into competitions.

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I've won several different awards.

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I'm very fortunate

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I think that I'm a skilled artist
and I've nurtured those skills.

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It's just that I'm losing my eyesight
and I just have to create.

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I have to put out there what I'm feeling.

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As far as the future.

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I don't know what
it's going to look like. I don't know.

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I'm just going based on the inspiration
and the feelings that I have.

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I'll keep doing my art as long as I can.

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I can't really say exactly, but I think
I’m going to continue in some way or another.

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Maybe I'll transfer
and do sculpture with clay.

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I used to do a lot of pen art.

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I'm very good with pen and ink art,

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and I should be able to still do that
even if I go fully blind.

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But I don't know.

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It hasn't happened yet.

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I'm going to keep trying, that's for sure.

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I don't think that I need to see
what something exactly

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looks like for me to try to draw it.

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I can do things in grayscale
and I can approximate.

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I know in the future, like I had mentioned,

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that I may well go completely blind,

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but I keep up with my work
and I keep up with my skills as best as I can

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[music ends]