Chuck Baird

What is the sign for TIGER in sign language? Chuck Baird made his name with artwork that answers questions like that one, along with many others of the same kind. His best-known pieces belong to De'VIA, a category of art based on the Deaf experience, and he was one of the people who helped establish it. This book gathers a large selection of his paintings, including well-known works that collectors and art lovers will recognize and others that many readers will be seeing for the first time.

Baird decided to become an artist at eight and never changed that decision. He kept taking larger risks to live the life of a working artist, and for more than thirty years he was regarded as the artist's artist of the American Deaf community. He was willing to turn down chances to earn more money when they would have pulled him away from painting.

The book shows a man who understood early on what he had to contribute and acted on that understanding rather than merely holding it as a belief. Many people say they should find time for making art, but Baird set aside his time and money for it. The author presents him as an example of what it means to be an artist, and as an inspiring one. He sought out any path that could sharpen his work. He acted in order to learn another way of building a visual story, and that in turn gave his paintings greater visual appeal. Through other interests and easier options, he remained a painter first.

His character combined a compelling inner strength with a playful side that could keep people laughing, though he could also turn serious and reach people's hearts when he wanted to make a point.

Much of his most loved work pairs painted imagery with words from American Sign Language. Baird believed that only a visual language could show its words, not written translations of them, and the author notes that paint cannot speak but can depict, which suits American Sign Language because it is built for depiction. In Baird's hands, the author says, that language was colorful and magnificent. The author closes by naming him the King of De'VIA.