Pandemic Perspective
by Christina Baltais
[Video Description: There is a dark blue background. On the left of the screen, taking up 2/3 of the screen, is the 'Pandemic Perspective’ video. On the right is a video of Sarah Stadnicki, a woman with short brown hair, diamond studded earrings, and red framed eyeglasses. She is wearing a dark purple jacket with the collar downturned. The 'Pandemid Perspective’ video starts with a title card featuring a dark blue background. At the top is The Disability Collective logo. To the left is the No Body Left Behind graphic. Beside that are the words "Pandemic Perspective by Christina Baltais". Underneath is "thedisabilitycollective.com". All text is in white. This fades into a video featuring a few photos of Christina, a white female in her mid 30's. She has dark brown eyes and black wavy long hair with fringe bangs. The video also features multiple collages that Christina has made (for Image Descriptions of each collage, please visit our website). After Christina finishes speaking, this fades into the end card, featuring the dark blue background from before, the No Body Behind Logo in the middle, with the TDC logo on top, and "thedisabilitycollective.com" at the bottom]
Click here to access the Image Descriptions for Christina's collages.
ASL Interpretation by Sarah Stadnicki
CHRISTINA BALTAIS (she/her)
Christina Baltais is a chronically ill/disabled artist who resides in Toronto, Ontario. Her body of work primarily explores the intersection between art and advocacy. She's lived with POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) for the past 16 years, and draws on her experiences to create analog collages, photography, sculptures, and makeup art to raise awareness. ME is a deeply stigmatized and contested illness, and she hopes her artwork is one ripple in the wave of change that the ME community desperately needs for greater research funding and treatments. Another intention behind her art is for healing; the kind that takes place when one's struggles are validated, seen, and heard. She hopes her art touches the ME community with the compassion and care they deserve, to help heal what has been often been touched with shame, stigma, disbelief, and neglect - contributing to a stronger foundation in our advocacy efforts.
Instagram: @wordsasmedicine
Facebook: @c.j.baltais
Twitter: @CBaltais
Website: wordsasmedicine.com
No Body Left Behind is an online campaign centred around the disabled community’s concerns regarding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, including mask and vaccine mandates. We hope that this campaign will raise awareness around those who are being left behind as the world returns to “normal”.
We are currently raising money to go directly towards paying the artists and Deaf Interpreters who are featured as part of this project. We are relying solely on donations from our incredibly community to support this project!