October 2022 Special Needs Living Akron/Canton

Artist Spotlight: Joey Warnken

WHAT YOU “SEE” IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT YOU GET

Ever met a Visually Imparied Graphic Artist? Now you have…

Written by Andrea Hurr

Andrea Hurr

Joey Warnken

Not all disabilities can be seen just by looking at someone, and Joey Warnken knows that firsthand. Joey is 21 years old and legally blind. When you look at Joey, you see a young man who is probably eating wings or a quesadilla and listening to punk rock or alternative rock, living life. When Joey looks at you, all he can see are shadows and very blurry images or outlines … not very much at all. But he can hear just fine, and he has had to face the challenges of dealing with people who think he is lying about his disability, his inability to see. Joey takes time to try to help people understand and has a positive attitude of “if they don’t believe me, well, there’s nothing I can do to change their mind.” Reading in public is a challenge, especially menus at restaurants and using card scanners when paying. He has overcome these obstacles by using the camera on his phone and utilizing the assistant feature.

Joey offers great advice about doing what you love. He says, “No matter what you have, don’t let it stop you from doing what you want with life. A lot of people will tell you that you can’t do it and rain on your parade, but I promise you can do it.” He definitely knows the can-do attitude, as he is quite a talented artist. His artwork is amazing! It is detailed and in this writer’s opinion, just awesome. His Instagram name is joeysblindart and in the description, he states that he is legally blind and loves art. His love and passion for his art really shows, and he was so blessed with this talent.

Joey credits his biggest inspiration as his older brother, James, who has helped him so much in his life. Whether it’s helping him with his disability or offering brotherly advice about life, Joeys says James is special to him because “he is the only one in my family who can truly understand me and what I go through with my disability, and he teaches me how to deal with my disability from reading stuff I can’t see to dealing with people.”

Joey is a graphic artist who is for hire. His dream job would be to be a YouTuber/streamer to raise awareness across the world and build his own community or video game development/ character designer. He says, “Keep your head up and keep going.”

He would also like to share that no matter what disability or special needs you may have, they are a part of who you are and make you more unique as a person. He hopes that people can just treat people right, no matter who they are and teach that to their kids as well. He says, “You never know a thing about a person unless you talk to them and know their story.” This is a good reminder that not all disabilities are obvious, and, in the end, only kindness matters.

I am going to end with Joey’s favorite quote, and it’s by Tim Burton: “One person’s crazy is another person’s reality.”