Dustie Sands

27/01/2024

There’s always time to take a nap on a map. If you could go anywhere, where would it be?

26/12/2023

Happy holidays from me to you!

15/06/2023

All of this. Awareness. Acceptance. Accomplishments.

Sometimes, I get told that I’m intimidating. 🫣

Even typing that makes me laugh. Me, intimidating…? I’m a 4’11 gal, who cries at approximately eleven reels a day. And half of them aren’t even sad. 😂

But it’s not really that I seem intimidating. It’s all about the perception of me. Or of who they believe I should be. There’s a number of factors at play. All of them are uncomfortable to ponder over.

The main one is that I’m disabled. And I wish this wasn’t true, but we are often assumed to be unintelligent. It sounds unbelievable, but tell me why people appear so shocked when I open my mouth, and out comes an intelligible sentence. Or why it screams in the way that people speak to my mum, rather than me. Looking over my head as though I simply don’t exist, their surprise evident when she turns away, and I respond instead. My response isn’t intimidating - the challenge to their preconceived notion is.

What only serves to reinforce their belief, is that I look young - which is always associated with a lack of knowledge. Age is irrespective, two people can be the same age and have vastly different life experiences, resulting in completely different people. Despite this, it still feels as though society's view of me ground to a halt when I became disabled. Forever a 13-year-old, acting too big for her boots. 🙄

And with respect to each of those stereotypes and expectations, I don’t subscribe to them. It doesn’t even cross my mind to. It would be easy to absorb those views, soak up those expectations, be tainted with the feeling that I should shrink back and be quiet. But I am not some wallflower. I am not feeble. I am not shy. I don’t allow my voice to be erased. And that catches people off guard.

To be honest, I don’t even know that I would refer to myself as outspoken. I think I just don’t fit into the box that society likes to put disabled people in. That’s not intimidating. I don’t believe I’m any more adept than my colleagues, the bar is just, embarrassingly, lower. The expectation is forever ‘less’ because I happen to be sat down.

Regardless of your age or ability, your voice matters. Don't let anyone make you believe otherwise ❤️✨

15/06/2023

Patient care? Yes, please!?

I ask, “why me?”, quite often. Why did I have ischemic colitis? Twice? Why do I have cEDS? Why did I have to go from abled to disabled? Why did I have to spend so much time looking up at the empty ceilings of medical facilities?

Maybe it’s because I was meant to do something for the greater good of others? Because I have the skill sets to make this world a better place for not only myself, but others like me.

This is my first installation of my artwork onto a dentist office ceiling. Of course my first attempt failed. Cause that’s life. Instead of giving up, I found a solution that will open up my artwork to be place in other offices at a faster rate than if I have painted each one. Which is a huge plus for a disabled artist.

Working together with KG Fosshagen to make these epic prints was a pleasure. Thanks for the high quality UV prints!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

11/06/2023

My hips dislocate and sublux as if it is lined wirh butter. Holding on by a threat. It’s generic. Helse the genetic thread holding my hip bones together.

05/06/2023

I also experience I’m like glass. I try to do something and I chip, fracture or shatter into pieces— literally. Then, I began working with a BPA/ personal assistant. Now, it doesn’t matter if I am fatigued or healing from an injury— I can still meet my weekly goals.

Waiting for my kommune tjenester to fix the vedtak to cover the level of BPA hours I am in need of.

Random energy bursts

03/05/2023

Oops I did it again— Randaberg Kommune Tjenester health services

https://www.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/i/G5Pj9/faar-vaere-far-igjen

The kommune tjenester stands firm that their calculations of a total of 4.6 minutes per morning, for me to receive the BPA assistance I need to follow up 3 children in their morning routine— is satisfactory.

And, that they want me to write them another love letter explaining my complaint…

All it took was a— yes. It was that simple. There is literally no lawful reason for a no.

27/04/2023

I’m going to give the kommune the opportunity to respond to my BPA applications/appeals that Statsforvaltoren asked to further process— before I share an update.