Promising new artist Angelina Mazzanti calls herself a “Double D”: dyslexic and diabetic.
She was diagnosed with dyslexia when she started having reading difficulties at school at age 6. Learning was a constant struggle for her. Art, on the other hand, gave her space to breathe in what was an otherwise stressful educational environment.
“Art helped me release myself. It was never a struggle, but rather a challenge, which allowed me to explore and understand my disability and made living with it more bearable.”
It wasn’t until high school that she was diagnosed with her second D for diabetes. She temporarily had blurry vision after leaving the hospital which sharpened her other senses and rounded her as an artist.
She’s just premiered a recent artistic installment about her dyslexia called All Jumbled Up. Here’s how she explains it.
“Having dyslexia is something I dealt with for most of my life. School has always been a struggle for me. Through the years the order of letters and words have always appeared rearranged in my brain. Today I still have trouble organizing words and emphasizing syllables in sentences and paragraphs. This continues to make reading very difficult, but art has become my vehicle for reprieve ad escape from these challenges. This body of work reflects different aspects of my dyslexia and expresses to the viewer how I perceive things when I read and write.”
To read more from this inspiring youngster, check out this article: http://hottytoddy.com/2014/06/03/the-story-of-double-d-how-i-deal-with-disability/
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Sarah Forrest is a Reading Specialist for the Easyread System, an online course grounded in visual phonics specially designed for visual learners, dyslexics, and struggling readers. Find out more at www.easyreadsystem.com