THE centrepiece of Linda Bagnall's art installation – Visual Speech – is a large arrangement of gravel laid out on the floor of Staffordshire University's Cadman Building.

At first glance it's a simple and beautifully-formed pattern.

On closer inspection, and with a little explanation from Linda, it becomes clear that it is in fact a profile of a nose and a pair of lips.

The 45-year-old, from Highfields, Stafford, is one of 300 undergraduates to be taking part in the 2010 AMAZE art and design degree show at the College Road campus in Stoke.

But Linda, who is near the end of her fine art course, is one of barely a handful of deaf students at the university.

And it's her experiences as a child growing up in a society with a limited understanding of deafness that informed much of her artwork.

Linda's parents were told she couldn't hear when she was just 18 months old.

Aged five, she was sent to board at The Mount Special School, in Penkhull, until she was 16 years old.

Linda now uses sign language and speaks to hearing people with the help of an interpreter, Jan Cummings, to whom she was introduced through the university.

But when she was at school in the 1970s, educational policy discouraged the use of sign language in the classroom and instead deaf children were forced to speak and lip read.

"I was born deaf, but my parents didn't know that until I was slightly older," says Linda.

"They were terribly upset. My family are all hearing, including my brother Stephen."

Linda says the teaching methods used on deaf children were different when she was five years old.

She adds: "Although we were allowed to use sign language among each other in the playground, in the classroom we were forced to speak and stopped from signing.

"I loved school, but we had to use a feather or balloon against our mouths to make sounds so we could see the movements or vibrations.

"Can you imagine a deaf child being forced to speak perfectly and repeat sounds over and over again? I felt like I was being brainwashed.

"I understand that was how the curriculum worked at that time, but it just didn't work for me.

"I had to pick sign language up from other children."

A doctor also told Linda's family they weren't allowed to sign to her.

She says: "It wasn't their fault. My mum only started to learn to sign when I was 17.

"Mum and dad have been really supportive of me, but I do wish we had that communication earlier.

"At home, away from school, I didn't have any hearing friends, but that was a long time ago and now, things are certainly better."

When she was aged 21, Linda moved to Scarborough, in North Yorkshire, with her then husband, and qualified as a teacher of sign language.

After the break-up of her marriage, Linda developed depression and returned home to Stafford in 2005 to be with her family.

It was her love of art, which she had never pursued seriously up until that point, that helped her on the road to recovery.

"I used to love art and painting as a little girl," she says.

"I still kept myself creative away from work, but in the college where I taught I used to gravitate towards the art room.

"I got divorced and came back home and it was art which helped to put that behind me.

"I enjoyed teaching, but inside my real love has always been art."

Linda went on to enrol at Staffordshire University in 2006.

This July she will graduate at Trentham Gardens and it seems her work has won her recognition.

One of her pieces is currently being shown at the Out Yer Tree contemporary art exhibition at Lickey Hills Country Park in Birmingham.

And art has become one of the methods of communication with the hearing world which was lacking when she was younger.

"I absolutely love it. It's wonderful and has changed my life," she says.

"I've learned so much about sound through art.

"The reason I chose the gravel as part of my exhibition is because I didn't know until recently that there are lots of different sounds you get from walking across gravel, like crunching.

"All the different elements of my art are a representation of what I've been through.

"I've made a DVD of me blowing against a feather for example. The gravel mouth and lips represent lost speech.

"I find that things have totally changed over the years. One of the hearing students at university has gone on to learn sign language and we've become good friends.

"My partner is deaf, but my family are hearing. University is a hearing world and for me now. The deaf and hearing world are intermingled.

"Growing up I didn't really know who I was. But now I do. I'm proud to be deaf and to have a deaf identity."

The AMAZE Show 2010 will open this Friday and runs until June 20 at the College Road campus, Stoke.

The show is open to the public at 11am to 4pm on June 12, 13 and 19; 10am to 8pm on June 14 and 16; and 10am to 6pm on June 15, 17 and 18.