 |
Artist Dan Keplinger (born 19 January 1973) was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary short, King Gimp . [1] [2] [3] Born with cerebral palsy, [2] he lives in Towson, Maryland, where he continues to paint.
|
Artist Dan Keplinger (born 19 January 1973) was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary short, King Gimp . [1] [2] [3] Born with cerebral palsy, [2] he lives in Towson, Maryland, where he continues to paint.
After attending a school for disabled children, he was mainstreamed into Parkville High School in Maryland at age 16. [2] He is a 1998 graduate of Towson University with a major in mass communication.
Keplinger visits schools as a guest motivational speaker. [2]
According to The Baltimore Sun , "King Gimp was the name neighbors gave him as a child because his house was on the top of a hill and he liked to roll down it in his wheelchair. A fighting spirit, he calls himself." He explained to a huge audience that "gimp" means fighting spirit to him, when he was featured in a Super Bowl ad for Cingular Wireless in 2001.[ citation needed ]
Through school Keplinger participated in many Art Department shows. In addition, his work was shown all across Maryland sponsored by Very Special Arts. In 1993 he was the Very Special Arts featured artist in their show at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center in Baltimore City. Currently, he is exclusively represented by the Phyllis Kind Gallery in SOHO, New York. [4]
Keplinger had his first solo show in May 2000. He has had work in several shows across the country including 2001-2002 eMotion Picture, An Exhibition of Orthopedics in Art. San Francisco, California Herbst International Exhibition Hall at the San Francisco Presidio, Washington, DC Millennium Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois Chicago Cultural Center, New York, NY United Nations, United Cerebral Palsy Great Expressions art show 2000 and 2001, Towson and MD Sheppard Pratt Conference Center. Keplinger's art features large canvases with bold colors and many are self-portraits.
Keplinger says this about his art:
"At a glance my work seems to be about my perception in society and how I overcome it. I include images of my wheelchair because it is my main mode of conveyance and a major part of my daily life, but these pieces are about much more than my disability. Obstacles and challenges are a universal part of the human condition. We all face them in everyday life, however we also have a choice as to how we deal with them. Many of us are likely to get discouraged during difficult times in our lives. In my work I hope to show everybody that they have the ability to persevere."
"When I start a piece, I just think of what I have to say and not who is going to view it. I know people are not going to view my work as I do, but everyone can get the overall message." [2]
Keplinger has begun working in clay as well.
In 1983 Susan Hadary and William Whiteford featured Keplinger in their documentary "Beginning With Bong" dealing with the education of disabled children. [2]
Later the same filmmakers devoted the documentary King Gimp to Keplinger. King Gimp won the 2000 Academy Award for Best Documentary. [2] [3] The film also won a Peabody award and was nominated for a national Emmy. [5]
In 2004 the same filmmakers produced a sequel to King Gimp entitled The King’s Miracle. [3]
In 2001, Dan was featured in a nationally televised Cingular Wireless Super Bowl commercial, which was ranked as number one by USA Today. [5]
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensation, vision, hearing, and speaking. Often, babies with cerebral palsy do not roll over, sit, crawl or walk as early as other children of their age. Other symptoms include seizures and problems with thinking or reasoning, each of which occur in about one-third of people with CP. While symptoms may get more noticeable over the first few years of life, underlying problems do not worsen over time.
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others]. Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics. As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people in the country. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.
Scope is a disability charity in England and Wales that campaigns to change negative attitudes about disability, provides direct services, and educates the public. The organisation was founded in 1952 by a group of parents and social workers who wanted to ensure that their disabled children had the right to a decent education. Originally focused on cerebral palsy, Scope now embraces all conditions and impairment. Scope subscribes to the social model of disability rather than the medical model of disability – that a person is disabled by the barriers placed in front of them by society, not because of their condition or impairment.
Adedoyin Olayiwola "Ade" Adepitan is a Nigerian-born British television presenter and wheelchair basketball player. As a presenter, he has hosted a range of travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC television. Adepitan is a disability advocate and one of the first physically disabled television presenters in the UK, with a career that spans 21 years.
John Belluso was an American playwright best known for his works focusing on the lives of disabled people. He also directed a writing program for disabled people.
King Gimp is a 1999 documentary that was awarded the 2000 Oscar for following the life of zacky dehalvi Best Short Subject Documentary and 2000 Peabody Award. King Gimp follows the life of artist Dan Keplinger of Towson, Maryland, who has cerebral palsy. Filmmakers Susan Hannah Hadary and William A. Whiteford, of the University of Maryland Video Press and Tapestry International Productions produced the film. Geof Bartz, A.C.E. edited the final version.
Parkville High School (PHS) is a four-year public high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The school was originally established in 1953 on what is now the location of Parkville Middle School. The current high school building opened in 1961. Area middle schools include Parkville Middle, Loch Raven Academy, and Pine Grove Middle.
Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are classified in accordance with the nature and severity of their disability or combinations of disabilities. Like running, it can take place on a track or as a road race. The main competitions take place at the Summer Paralympics which wheelchair racing and athletics has been a part of since 1960. Competitors compete in specialized wheelchairs which allow the athletes to reach speeds of 30 km/h (18.6 mph) or more. It is one of the most prominent forms of Paralympic athletics.
Roy Frank "RJ" Mitte III is an American actor, best known for playing Walter "Flynn" White Jr. on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–2013). Like his character on the show, he has cerebral palsy. After moving to Hollywood in 2006, he began training with a personal talent manager. They sought acting opportunities where his disability would serve to educate viewers, which led him to audition for the role in Breaking Bad.
Abbey Nicole Curran is an American beauty pageant contestant from Davenport, Iowa, who competed in the Miss USA pageant in 2008 as Miss Iowa USA. Curran is the chairwoman of her own non-profit pageant "The Miss You Can Do It Pageant" for young girls and women with special needs. The HBO documentary film Miss You Can Do It (2013) is about her work with this pageant.
Zach Anner is an American comedian, actor, and writer with cerebral palsy who gained worldwide attention with the submission of a video to Oprah Winfrey's "Search for the Next TV Star" competition. He won his own TV show on OWN through Oprah's Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star. His wheelchair travel show, Rollin' With Zach, premiered December 12, 2011. Zach recently wrote for and guest-starred on the ABC-TV sitcom Speechless, which is centered on a teenager with cerebral palsy.
Joseph John Deacon was a British author and television personality.
Australia competed at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona for physically and vision-impaired athletes. Immediately after the Barcelona Games, the city of Madrid held events for athletes with an intellectual disability. The Madrid results are not included in International Paralympic Committee Historical Results Database. Australia finished 7th in the total medal count winning 76 medals. Australia competed in 13 sports and won medals in 3 sports – swimming, athletics and weightlifting. Australia finished first in the medal tally at the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap in Madrid.
Laurence Clark is a British stand-up comedian, writer, actor, presenter, and disability rights campaigner. Laurence was born with cerebral palsy and uses his line of work to alter the general public's perceptions of disabled people.
Disability sports classification is a system that allows for fair competition between people with different types of disabilities.
Para-alpine skiing classification is the classification system for para-alpine skiing designed to ensure fair competition between alpine skiers with different types of disabilities. The classifications are grouped into three general disability types: standing, blind and sitting. Classification governance is handled by International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing. Prior to that, several sport governing bodies dealt with classification including the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMWSF), International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA). Some classification systems are governed by bodies other than International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing, such as the Special Olympics. The sport is open to all competitors with a visual or physical disability. It is not open to people with intellectual disabilities.
Simon Stevens, also known as Simon Walsh in Secondlife, born 1974, is an English activist, Huffington Post blogger, and disability consultant known for his discussions on disability issues in the UK and on social media. Stevens formed Wheelies, a disability-friendly virtual nightclub within the 3D online community of Second Life. He is known as Simon Walsh and for his avatar's use of a wheelchair and helmet. Stevens was a prankster in the disability-themed hidden camera/prank show I'm Spazticus on UK's Channel 4 in 2012–2013. Stevens has received numerous awards and recognitions for his disability advocacy. He was the founder and chief executive of the disability consultancy firm Enable Enterprises from 1998–-2008. Stevens lives and works from Coventry, UK.
Jamie Beddard is one of the UK's leading disabled theatre practitioners. He is a writer, actor, director and workshop leader as well as a trainer and consultant. In the 1990s, he was the editor of DAIL Magazine. Beddard has also worked as Diversity Officer at Arts Council England and as Associate Director at Graeae Theatre Company. At present, he is a Senior Associate at Diverse City and Director of The Big Lounge Collective which he co-founded in 2011. He has achieved the honour of Clore Fellow. Beddard lives in North London with his partner Jo and children Llewelyn and Willow.
Phyllis Barbara Kind was an American art dealer active in Chicago and New York. She promoted the work of the Chicago Imagists and outsider artists.
Jerron Herman is an American choreographer, dancer, performance artist, writer and a teacher for the Dream Project at National Dance Institute for children with disabilities. He grew up in California as part of a religious and art loving family. He has the movement disorder Cerebral Palsy, the symptoms of which he has absorbed into his dance movements.
