Month: June 2023

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SUMMERTIME

To celebrate the Summer Solstice and its longer daylight hours, my dictionary’s ASL hand sign for the season. Known for warm weather and outdoor vacations, I had my character dressed for a holiday on the beach. With a bright sun behind him, donning a retro bathing suit and sunglasses, this beach hunk shows the ASL hand sign for Summer.
The ONE hand sign pulls the index finger across the brow into an X hand, like wiping the sweat off your brow on a hot summer day.
#ASL #signlanguage #summer #cartoon #myasldictionary

 

 
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SUSPENSION

In Hockey, the referee uses hand signals to alert off-ice officials of the misconduct and its penalty. As the game of Hockey uses manual communication, it seemed the perfect fit to have a young Referee show the ASL hand sign for Suspend, another consequence for bad showmanship on the ice. Palms down, the index finger of the X hand wraps over the opposite X hand, lifting it firmly upward, like a player taken out of the game.

#ASL #signlanguage #suspend #hold #halt #pause #stall #hockey #referee #cartoon #myasldictionary

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POSTPONED

As I push forward in my ASL studies, I still take time to record the new words taught in class with illustration. This week’s homework starts with the chapter on Conversations. As I watched the example of a man calling his friend to re-book their reservation at the restaurant, I saw the ASL hand sign for Postpone.
My friend Judy Stark suggested I use Oz’s White Rabbit (who infamously shouts how he is late). This idea was perfect as last class, our teacher Georgia Whalen, also covered the ASL hand signs for Halloween. Dressed as the White Rabbit, this young chap in his Halloween costume and makeup shows one of the ASL hand signs for Postpone, Defer, Delay, and Put Off.
The two F hands face each other as the one moves forward with one or two arcs. The visual of a fixed appointment moved forward to another date.   
#ASL #signlanguage #postpone #defer #delay #putoff #whiterabbit #cartoon #myasldictionary

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RUSSIA

I’ve received generous feedback on My ASL Dictionary’s website and Blog posts. In the past few weeks, commentators have been from Russia, with a script I went to google translate to interpret. Some of these letters, however, have nothing to do with ASL or my site’s content, so I’ll wait until I learn more before approving them for posting.
I’ve already animated my dictionary’s hand signs for the country of Canada, America, and Italy, so today I completed the ASL hand sign for Russia. My 2013 cartoon of a Russian Prince drags his index finger backward across his chin to flick the finger downward, like wiping ale from his chin. As this is a borrowed hand sign from Russian sign language, I included a quick flash of the country’s name in Russian. The silhouette behind the Prince is an older ASL hand sign used for the U.S.S.R, a visual for the Russian dance, the Kazotsky Kick.
#ASL #signlanguage #russia #cartoon #myasldictionary

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PURSUIT OF PASSION

Today was the first day of Schlegel Village’s Pursuit of Passions Gala at The Village of University Gates in Waterloo. Standing here is the Beautiful Photo taken at my interview as I talked about my love of Art and American Sign Language (with pictures of my ASL illustrations as proof). The bottom window has a photo of my hand scrolling through My ASL Dictionary (page 78), the cartoon I drew of my interview photographer, Chris Kufske, and the large ASL poster I made for the Riverside Glen staff.

#ASL #signlanguage #schlegelvillages #pursuitofpassions #myasldictionary