Artist in Residence 2015: Jason DaSilva

For the final piece presented, I used Romans 12:2 to highlight my personal challenges with multiple sclerosis and how I choose to use them only as a way to transform myself and present the work that I do in a way that it can help educate others.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For the final video, I made use of animation that will be present throughout the entire piece of When We Walk in bits and pieces just as it was in the recent film When I Walk. When We Walk will be a follow-up film and has similar imagery to that of When I Walk. Because When I Walk recently won an Emmy award, there is much anticipation for the follow-up film. In the piece, I show some of the different statistics for primary progressive multiple sclerosis and how I do not fit in any of the statistics of somebody who is typically diagnosed with the disease. Already, primary progressive only affects 10% of the Earth's population. One out of one thousand people get MS so that means that the possibility of me getting primary progressive multiple sclerosis is one in ten thousand people. Generally MS affects more women than men and so does primary progressive. That means the statistics of men to women is 1 to 3 and thus the stats of me getting MS is only 33% out of the one in ten thousand. Sounds kind of confusing: watch the video for a clearer picture. MS affects more people in temperate climates- I grew up in South Florida, so somehow I fell into this stat. The kicker is that most people that develop MS are from Western countries. My family is from India, and my parents' generation were born and raised in East Africa. So all in all, I fell into something that I could have never expected. That's when the passage comes in my mind. I realize that I was placed on this Earth and given this strange disease with astronomical odds so that I could use my artistic talents to help spread awareness and help others with MS and other disabilities. I'm glad to share it with the Spark and Echo community and I look forward to seeing all the work you produce and hearing from you in the future.