A Modern Famous Home Scholar
Sunaura Taylor
Sunaura Taylor is an artist, writer and activist for animals and the disabled. She taught herself to paint while being unschooled by her artist mother and musician father in Athens, GA. Taylor has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a rare congenital joint disorder that prevents her from using her legs or arms, and believes the disease was caused by the toxic effect of contaminated waste illegally dumped by the U.S. Military near her birthplace in Tucson, Arizona. Using her mouth, Taylor paints extraordinarily vivid and moving portraits of her subjects, primarily people with disabilities and animals, intending to raise philosophical and political issues surrounding disability/normalcy, personal identity and animal ethics. She appears in the film Examined Life, by her sister Astra Taylor (see earlier blog), discussing disability issues with the well known American philosopher Judith Butler. Taylor has won several awards for her work, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation award in 2008, and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
