Publisher's description:
Drawing Autism celebrates the artistry and self-expression found in the drawings, paintings and collages created by individuals diagnosed with autism. The work of over 50 international contributors exhibits unique perspectives on how these individuals see the world and their places in it.
Author Jill Mullin, a behavior analyst and educator, has assembled a staggering array of work from established artists like Gregory Blackstock, Jessica Park and Ping Lian Yeak to the unknown but no less talented. Their creations, coupled with artist interviews, comprise a fascinating and compelling book that makes visual how autism manifests differently in every diagnosis.
Mullin’s introduction and the foreword by best-selling author Temple Grandin provide an overview of autism and advocate for nurturing the talents, artistic and otherwise, of autistic individuals.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
"The Outsider" is about joining in from the periphery. It's about being able to join because one has retained the right to also leave. It's about treading the boundaries between two worlds. I think it's universal. We have all been the outsider.
An excerpt from the artist's answer to the question, "At what age did the act of creating art enter into your life?
I was deeply mesmerized with all things aesthetic and sensory from at least 6 months of age. Being meaning deaf, I saw musically. Being face blind, I was attuned to movement patterns. Being object blind and context blind, I'd tap everything to make noise, to hear its "voice," flick it to feel its movement, turn it to experience how it caught light, toss and drop and shred and snap and sprinkle grass, sand, twigs, leaves. I'd lick and run my hands and face over surfaces, wrap myself into fabrics. I'd align myself with symmetry and lines, mold myself into forms to feel their shape as them, stare at colors and lights and shapes trying to become one with them.
What was the inspiration for this piece
Generally I start drawing one street on different spots on the edge of my paper. I make the streets grow toward one another.
Who are some artists that you like?
None. I study road maps and atlases in detail and generally I scroll the full track of our trips on Google Earth.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
This was painted in 1995, not long after I had moved into a housing project for people with special needs. I was euphoric about my new home—a self-contained flat surrounded by a huge garden in a rural setting. (This idyll did not last long.) I brought my dog Jasper with me. He was the only lively animal there and brought great pleasure to me and all of the residents in the project. They loved him too and enjoyed playing with him and petting him. Jasper was a healthy presence and completely indiscriminate with friendships.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
On May 8, 2008, my nephew Ben and my niece Sanne died in a fire. I was very sad and desperate. Because I didn't have words to express my despair, I drew this werewolf. I dedicate my drawing to Ben and Sanne.
Do you think your art helps others understand how you view the world?
It feels weird when you have autism. I feel silly. It makes me sad thinking about it. People do not understand. Strangers cannot tell by looking at me that I have autism. If I am having trouble, they often want to tell my mom how I should behave. I wish I had more friends that liked me for who I am.
Shawn's mother: The intensity that Shawn draws with is amazing. There is a look of concentration on his face that is intense, one gets the feeling that for that period of time the world ceases to exist.
from an email from David's mother to Jill Mullen:
His drawings often represent his current obsessions. In the attachment I send you, it's not hard to guess what's keeping him busy right now. There are almost 400 birds on it and he knows the names and Latin names of most of them.
How do you choose your subjects?
I always think of each Imagifriend and I write a name and story about each one. It all comes from my imagination.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
This is a small portion of a larger piece that's yet to be completed. The larger piece is one of three in a series, focusing symbolically on psychiatric units, utilizing Hell as an analogy. The demons in the piece were inspired by 12th century works depicting Hell and the Final Judgment. The piece was also inspired by some of my own hospital stays in the past. While I was never a suicide risk, I always found it odd that none of the patients could have any of the items listed in the title of this piece. I understood the logic and the risk to suicidal patients, but nevertheless still found it strange to be walking around in shoes with their tongues hanging out or to have unshaven legs.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
This was inspired by all wars in the world and people's indifference for all bad things. And also it was inspired by the lyrics of the Project Pitchfork song "Vietnam"
What was the inspiration for this piece? [answered by grandmother]
The key in understanding Pals is the brown rimmed off-white donkey ear. Four facial expressions depict the bad boys turning into donkeys in the movie Pinocchio: purple-faced Pinocchio is stunned by his new ear and considering what to do; it's too late for the horrified yellow face; the green trapezoid is oblivious to his pending fate; the blue head is looking away hoping he's not included.
What was the inspiration for the Mirror Mind posters?
I created these posters to commemorate and promote the launch of my self-published autism book, Mirror Mind. The book aims to convey the inner feelings I feel as a person with autism, and the pictures represent a poem from each book.
很多幅都值得一看再看。
藝術家有時需要這樣的純粹與無邪,當他們失去了這些靈感又希望把握住時,使自己處在創作的某種狀態時,或迎合世俗的要求而靈感處於枯竭的不堪狀態,很多人向毒品伸手。毒品使人進入精神的亢奮和奇異的自我感覺中。
這也與杜姐說的一樣。
當藝術成了為賣錢的塗抹時藝術家失去了那種生命的激情衝動,多是迎合世界的產物或是技巧的羅列。藝術需要一些更純粹的靈魂來表達這倒是符合自閉症人的特點,因為交流困難可惜大部分自閉症人伴有學習困難,所以很難得到他人的技術指導,畢竟有些東西除了天才對大部分人來說是需要學習的。
這些繪畫的作者都是一些自閉症的人,他們顯然以更純粹的筆觸顏色形狀表達自己和所見的世界。他們更少世俗的標準,我覺得更接近藝術的本來麵目。謝謝欣賞。
可見普通人的思想和思維方式都是被很多世俗的所謂理智的內容所壓抑和限製。都格式和平凡化了!
怪不得有的藝術家期望自己不斷有創意,然後就去接觸具破壞性的毒品了
特別喜歡那所象Lego搭的房子和下麵的蝴蝶草那幅。
它是我想到了畢加索的巨作。