Sketchable Artisan Spotlight: Connie Karleta Sales
As Zappa painted music, I write drawings based on my life experiences. I am an artist, poet, and advocate living with Neuromyelitis Optica, the rare autoimmune disease predominately effecting the optic nerves and spinal cord. Even though my disease changes how I work, my goals remain the same; only the mechanics and tools I use have changed. Through art and poetry, I educate and speak publicly on topics relating to art as vocation, rape/abuse/violence, adapting/disability advocacy, and the practice of Lectio/Visio Divina Meditation; all through the sense-lens of image and word. In 2016 I founded Crooked Little Flower Studios. My goal, to empower and connect people through art and the creative process.
I am classically trained in traditional media. However, increasing limitations sent me searching for a computer that would evolve with me, and I found my Surface. Two years ago, I had a major attack of my illness, severely limiting the use of my arms and hands. Even with the use of adaptive devices, drawing, painting, and writing was overwhelmingly difficult without constant assistance, and my actual work time was limited. So, my Surface and I went searching and I found Lawrence Mann’s channel on You Tube, which introduce me to Sketchable.
I wanted something affordable and easy to use. Sketchable checked all the boxes. I found myself immediately enjoying the visual cues of the brush menu: marker, pencil, brush, ink pen, erasure. In physical form, I always had multiple notebooks and sketchbooks, so I was at home there as well; bonus I never misplaced them. Immediately accessible, inviting; and a small learning curve created a natural transition for me. It did not take long to be home again in my new medium, digital art.
The Surface and Sketchable combination have allowed me to continue drawing. I am currently working on a series of figurative illustrations directly related to body and awareness, moving between dreams, experience, perception and power. Often, when I dream, I am walking, hiking, dancing. More recently when I dream, I am a carpenter working with my hands. This is quite common in people with spinal cord injuries whether by trauma or by illness/disease. Using my dreams and the current state of my body, I am moving through all the paths to life and a sense of normalcy. The more I draw myself in this way, the more I draw myself into being as is. I hope the work moves into being a conversation starter for issues in how we treat sick people or those of us with varying disabilities and how the simplest of technologies help enact a positive change.
The release of Sketchable 5.0 late last year has been tremendous. From color swatches to the increase controls on brushes, and the addition of voice control. Most recently, I have noticed a marked improvement with the performance on my PRC Accent 1400, which is what they call a dedicated AAC device; it is my electronic voice and utilizes eye gaze technology. This saves my arms from fatiguing out. It runs windows, and while limited, does have other computer abilities. Whereas other drawing programs are not possible in this setup, Sketchable thrives.
One example being the previously mentioned voice commands. Since my speech is affected by my disease, I use my electronic voice and I was happy to see, it works great! In terms of living with a severe and debilitating illness, energy conservation is key. To this end, another feature I absolutely love is the one finger (knuckle in my case) canvas panning. Sketchable is the only program I use that has this and it is invaluable to me. I tend to use my Dial for zooming in and out or rotation if needed, my knuckle to move the image, with voice and pen for the rest.
At the end of the day, Sketchable makes my art possible, period. I am simply not able to work as I was accustomed to with paper, graphite, and ink. Even now, it is not entirely functional to hold the pen in my mouth to draw. I practice, but it falls out a lot simply because those muscles are not able to maintain. Thank you, eye tracking technology! I tell people every day, I am happy I live in this day and age, because what this illness tries to take away, technology gives back. Sketchable is integral because it continues to integrate very useful features and improve performance, not sacrifice it, creating joy.
