Aug

Overcoming Obstacles: What’s Right with Lefties

by Janine Boylan on August 12, 2013

lefty writer, illustrating overcoming obstacles and Left-Handers' Day

Happy Left-Handers’ Day!

What is wrong with the photo above? No left-handed person would voluntarily write in a spiral notebook like that—it’s horribly uncomfortable on the hand!

About 10% of the population is left-dominant. They prefer to write, toss balls, cut paper, and open cans with their left hands. Often this means they have to overcome obstacles daily by struggling with tools, like spiral notebooks, thoughtlessly designed only for right-handed people.

About twenty years ago, a fed-up group of lefties, the Left-Hander’s Club, started International Left-Handers’ Day, which is now celebrated annually on August 13. According to the official site, the event allows left-handers to “celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.”

So, what are some of the Oh, I see advantages of being left-handed? Here are five.

1. Lefties Are in Great Company

Lefties are a rare, but spectacular, group of people. You probably have heard that four of the last five presidents are lefties: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan (who was ambidextrous). Other famous lefties include:

Leonardo da Vinci
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
Marie Curie
Albert Einstein
Jimi Hendrix
Whoopi Goldberg
Angelina Jolie
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
and more.

This video highlights some other powerful lefties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6jlsKO62ZU

If the video does not play, watch it here.

2. Lefties Get to Choose Where to Sit at the Table

The best seat is the corner seat. Without hesitation, a lefty deserves to have it. After all, if everyone else eats with their right hands, a lefty doesn’t want to constantly be hitting elbows throughout a meal.

Lefty at the dinner table, illustrating overcoming obstacles and Left-Handers' Day

No bumping elbows at the dinner table!
© Thinkstock

3. Southpaws Excel in Some Sports

It is well-known that left-handers have an advantage over right-handed competitors in numerous sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis. Left-handed players can position themselves differently and hit or throw from the side opposite of their right-handed counterparts.

For example, according to the Oxford dictionary, the term “southpaw” originated with baseball. Fields were built with home plate in the west so a southpaw pitcher was using the hand that was on the south side of the field.

lefty baseball player, illustrating overcoming obstacles and Left-Handers' Day

Throws from left-handed pitchers are actually more difficut for left-handed batters to hit than right-handed batters because of how the ball crosses the plate.
© Thinkstock

Northwestern University professor Daniel M. Abrams and his graduate student Mark J. Panaggio researched the role competition plays in relation to the ratio of left- and right-handed people. Their theory was that the more cooperative an environment is, the more single-handed it is. Conversely, the more competitive an environment is, the more even the split is between right- and left-handers.

Their research results supported their theory: the percentage of lefties in highly competitive sports is higher than the 10% in the rest of society. In fact, more than 50% of top baseball players are lefties.

4. Left Hands Can Type More Words than Right Hands

Using a standard “qwerty” keyboard and following the rules learned in keyboarding class, people can type merely 451 words with only the right hand.

Using only the left hand, however, people can type an astounding 3,403 words.

left hand on keyboard, illustrating overcoming obstacles and Left-Handers' Day

One theory is that the left-hand-dependent “qwerty” keyboard was developed
with input from telegraph operators.
© Thinkstock

Here’s a list of the awesome all-left-hand words, ranging from “ax” to “sweaterdresses.”

5. Lefties Are Faster at Using the Whole Brain

The left side of the brain controls the muscles on the right side of the body. The right side of the brain controls the muscles on the left side of the body. As a popular saying goes, “Lefties are in their right mind.”

a brain, illustrating overcoming obstacles and Left-Handers' Day

There are two sides of a human brain. It’s important for the left and right sides to talk to each other.
© Thinkstock

In general, information from the senses crosses sides like this, too. What you see or feel on your left is processed through the right side of your brain. Language, however, is an interesting exception. The vast majority of right-handers use the left side of their brain for language; 60–70% of left-handers also use the left side of their brain for language.

Australian National University’s Dr. Nick Cherbuin determined that people who are strongly left-handed are able to process information between the two sides of their brain milliseconds more quickly than those who are right-handed.

In a BBC report about this study, psychologist Dr. Steve Williams is noted as saying, “This seems to go with evidence that left-handers use both sides of the brain for language—that they are more bicerebral. They get faster at it because they’re having to use both sides of the brain more.”

Happy Left-Handers’ Day

More informed now about the advantages of being left-handed, we salute all lefties on Left-Handers’ Day! May this world become more equally-handed so you have fewer obstacles to overcome and more time to celebrate the benefits.

But before you all go, take a moment and vote. Let’s see how the OIC community compares to the statistics.

[polldaddy poll=7309691]

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan Comments

Discoveries

Aug

Nancy Judd’s Clever Ideas Keep Trash In Style

by Janine Boylan on August 5, 2013

Convertible Trashique, showing clever ideas in recycled fashion by Nancy Judd

Convertible Trashique
design © Nancy Judd
photo by Eric Swanson
commissioned by Toyota

Recycled Fashion Sends a Message

When I first saw Nancy Judd’s work on display, I rushed over to get a closer look at the beautiful fashions.

But, oh, I see! Judd’s work is not at all what it first appears to be. Judd makes her work out of trash.

Janine Boylan 3 Comments

Clever Ideas/Making a Difference

Jul

Touched by Judith Braun’s Finger Drawings

by Janine Boylan on July 29, 2013

Judith Braun showing the creative process of finger drawing

A fingering in progress
© Cesar Delgado Wixan

The Creative Process Behind Braun’s Abstract Symmetry

To put it simply, Judith Braun finger paints.

But her work deserves a much clearer explanation.

Judith Braun finger draws.

And she uses her whole body as she draws. She dips her fingers in ground graphite and reaches to strategically smudge perfect black marks that fade to gray. She nimbly dips and smudges until a blank space is transformed with meaningful symmetrical shapes.

Wiggling the graphite-covered middle digit on her right hand, Braun describes her creative process as she discusses her mural “Graphite”: “This piece is using this finger, obviously. It’s a very specific finger!”

She wiggles her left hand and continues, “I can switch to this hand if I’m on an abrasive wall if I needed to, but I’ll still go to that finger. They’re not just random. Every finger is really different and very specific. The pressure is very specific.”

Watch as she sweeps pattern and shadow onto a wall to create her mural “Diamond Dust” at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The Rules

Sixty-six-year-old Braun is a life-long artist. As Judith Weinperson, she had a blossoming art career with edgy pieces that were featured in prominent New York exhibits. Then a series of life events, including a divorce, temporarily nudged her from the art scene.

In 2003, she realized she needed to switch her focus back to where she belonged: art.

Braun shares how big that decision was. “My one priority would be to make art and show it. That was the goal, to show one more time. This may sound simple, but at 56 years old it was a huge challenge for me to try to re-enter the ever-youthful art world. To start with, I had to make a whole new body of work, but I’d also have to make all new friends!”

And during her reacquaintance with the art world, she established three rules for her new body of work:

graphite or charcoal
abstraction
symmetry.

“With these simple rules,” Braun explains, “there are endless possibilities, and therefore endless, endless surprises.”

finger drawing by Judith Braun, showing her creative process

Carbon

Why the carbon-based medium? Braun clarifies, “I like the black and white. I like the fact that it is just black and white, and yet there are infinite possibilities. . .”

She also appreciates the carbon structure, which, under the right conditions can become a diamond. So she refers to the black powder as “diamond dust.”

As she illustrates in this video, Braun grinds graphite in a coffee grinder and then uses the fine powder as her “paint.”

finger drawing showing Judith Braun's creative process

Fingering #10
Drawn on wall with fingers dipped in charcoal, 10′ x 12′, 2012
“Pressing Matter,” 3 person show at Parallel Art Space, NYC
© Judith Braun

Symmetry and Abstraction

Braun explains her interest in symmetry: “Symmetry is the most ubiquitous form in the universe.” She continues, “When I put abstraction and symmetry together they offered a way to tap into this underlying function of the universe. Random possibilities become probabilities, carefully realized drawings. There is no end to the possibilities to choose from.”

Graphite finger drawing by Judith Braun showing her creative process

Graphite
Drawn with fingers dipped in graphite and charcoal on two walls 20′ x 17′ each,
December 9, 2012–June 2, 2013
Indianapolis Museum of Art
© Judith Braun

The Woman Behind the Carbon

In 2010, Braun made a video to celebrate her birthday. In it she explains, “This past year I was on the reality TV show, ‘Work of Art.’ I, of course, was cast as the older artist, which I knew, expected.”

Braun continues, “I didn’t know I was being cast as the crazy, older woman. So I am crazy and older. Actually I find them both to be quite honorable identities.”

You can watch the video she submitted to audition for the show here.

A More Serious Side

In 2012, during preparations for the “Graphite” mural, Braun learned she had breast cancer.

Her symmetrical, abstract art requires careful planning. Following her normal creative process, Braun had created meticulous guidelines for this mural by getting photos of the space and working through the piece, detail by detail.

The shocking news inspired her to abandon her prepared plans.

“I kept thinking some day I’ll do one where I don’t plan it. This is the time,” Braun shares. “I find out I have cancer. That wasn’t planned. So I thought, ‘Let me just go for it this time.'”

finger drawing showing creative process of Judith Braun

After completing the mural, Braun returned home for a double mastectomy. But first, in typical Braun style, she invited friends to a goodbye party for her breasts.

Oh, I See

Judith Braun’s creative process, one that uses just her fingers to turn black dust into detailed landscapes and geometric forms full of movement, is impressive.

But, behind that art, Oh, I see a woman with a rock-hard confident individuality and laser-clear direction, garnished with a colorful, twinkling humor. I am inspired!

And Judith Braun has obviously benefitted from her “Oh, I see” moments along the way. She says:

“There’s a lot of suffering in the world. I understand that. I’m suffering, but you get to that point—it’s a philosophical thing—you choose to celebrate and be thankful for what you have in the universe. That’s the way it is. You have to look at what is working.”

You can view and buy Braun’s work on her Web site.

And click here for a virtual showing of her solo exhibition at Joe Sheftel Gallery in New York.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.