Michaela Oteri (she/they) is a Disabled digital artist who has spent their entire self taught artistic career, drawing from bed. Since the age of 17, Michaela has lived a very hard life full of illnesses, doctors offices, surgeries, hospitals, and treatments that have usually made her sicker. But through all of that she has had her drawing to keep her company. In 2016 she discovered the Cripple Punk Movement. A Movement centered on disability rights that reject inspirational portrayals and infantilization of those with physical disabilities, created by the late Tyler Trewhella. Michaela soon began the Disabled Beauty Series (formerly the Cripple Punk Series) after realizing the lack of disabled representation that was actually for disabled people, not just of them.
Since then Michaela has been featured and published many times including in museums, anthologies, and on book covers. They won a CripCamp and Adobe fellowship grant in 2020 and even created 150 stock images for Adobe. In summer of 2021 they began their Portraits for Disabled Kids, a little passion project that they were not able to continue in summer of 2022 due to health reasons but have every intention of continuing this year, health permitting.
If you would like to see more of Michaela’s work, see her website, ogrefairy.com
Stunning portraits! Just explored your website, thanks for sharing your work!
I love how the colors show through each portrait! It almost reminds me of the tarot cards I have at home! Thank you for showing us so many types of bodies and lives through your art!
I see JOY! And people deserving our respect. Lovely.