Mimo

May Talhouk grew up near Beirut, Lebanon. Born deaf, she immediately faced challenges most of us never encounter, and fell victim to the obligatory struggles set forth existing in her silent world. From a young age she felt compelled to express her feelings, surroundings, and life experience through painting. “I just wanted to put what I saw on paper, almost like a journal."
Her mother discovered her desire and unique gift and set out to find an educational vehicle to develop this. She scoured the Middle East and Europe for undergraduate programs for deaf students. During that time, relatives who lived in Washington DC sent her the Gallaudet University yearly catalog to inform her of hearing-impaired opportunities in higher education. Her mother was immediately exited about the opportunity. Initially this was a far fetched dream considering the huge expenditures and long distance apart. A couple of years pass. Then one day a long time friend of her mother, living in Bethesda- Maryland, came to Beirut and re-iterated that Gallaudet University would be perfect for May. It took years to pay for travel and tuition, and to obtain the necessary visa to study abroad. Quite a daunting ordeal to say the least, but success was realized upon enrolling in the ELI program at Gallaudet University in 1994. When she first arrived May describes herself as a naive girl who was close to her family and that had a lot to learn. “Now when I go back to Lebanon people say I’m so different from before and that I have become very independent.”
Presently May is pursuing a masters program in museum studies and interning at the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She paints and visits her place of great inspiration when she can. One could say she takes the style of impressionists like Pierre Auguste Renoir and makes it her own. “I like using warm colors,” she says, “I am influenced by the desert, and my home country Lebanon.”
May ’s success is closely tied to her passion for her home country, her family’s love, and the dream of coming to Gallaudet University.
Please visit my website http://www.maytalhouk.com