Eric Staib is an elementary teacher who has dyslexia. His painting titled ‘labeled’ was featured in this year’s ArtPrize. The painting is about his experience being labeled with dyslexia and features 60+ misspelled spelling tests.Your Content Goes Here
Eric Staib’s Artist Statement: “’labeled’ is my inner self-portrait reflecting my childhood growing up dyslexic not knowing how to read or write. School was always a challenge, praying that I would never be noticed to read out loud. And when I was, a sense of an inner black hole engulfed me along with tunnel vision, cottonmouth and a lack of time and space. My fellow classmates would giggle at the sounds of mispronounced words. Spelling tests were just as bad, everyone wanted to correct my list laughing out loud sharing with the class how I spelled the words. My spelling list was riddled with red pen marks. At the present day, as an Elementary Art Teacher, I do not use red pens.
‘labeled’ using only my left hand and pointing finger was created using rejected bad house paint mixes nobody wanted found on the clearance end cap rack.
‘labeled’ is the first painting I ever created in my life.”
