World Autism Awareness Day - Photo Gallery:
"Don't 'dis' the ability -2008"
The United Nations & The Manhattan Children's Center
Savant Artist GREGORY BLACKSTOCK was born in Seattle, Washington (1946). Greg attended The Manhattan Children's Center Exhibition live.
He drew and also
signed copies of his
book
"Blackstock's Collections
for his guests!
His drawing
"More Colorful Egg Patterns (right) was quite a "conversation piece" at the UNited Nations!
Artist SETH CHWAST was born in Ohio (1983). artworks on wooden blocks!
Seth has been featured on the NBC Today Show several times, and also FOX and PBS.
Seth was diagnosed with autism as a very young child. He lived for years in a world of roller coasters, haunted houses, and classical music. A dramatic change came in 2003, when at age 20 he took an oil painting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Seth, who rarely speaks, began describing his world in paint.
12 year old Artist and Author AMANDA LaMUNYON was born in Oklahoma (1995). Amanda attended the United Nations Exhibition and graced us with an extremely eloquent recital of her poem "A Little Secret"! Amanda also joined Suzanne and Bob Wright (co-founders of Autism Speaks) at the Stock Exchange for the bell ringing ceremony on April 2, 2008 in honor of WAAD. Amanda designed the cover of the new book "Girls Under The Umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders" and had a book signing with the authors Lori Ernsperger, Ph.D., and Danielle Wendell at Barnes & Noble on Court St. in Brooklyn, NY........ (Thanks Paul Trinidad!). She has been featured in magazines: Duke University’s Academic 411, Middlers Leader’s Guide, Duke Gifted Letter and Navigator Magazine, Woman’s World Magazine, Amazing_Kids.org E Magazine, Pearls Magazine (Australia). Amanda was named by KSBI TV, Oklahoma City, 1 of 5 Oklahoma’s Most Talented Kids. They featured her in a story about overcoming challenges. She has won Okla. State Speech Meet with her poem about Autism. She is Oklahoma's National American Miss Spokesmodel and won their National American Miss National Volunteer Award 2006.
For more photos of The United Nations WAAD events click here
Savant Artist JONATHAN LERMAN was born in New York (1987). Jonathan focuses on drawing faces (which is rare for an artist with autism). Jonathan was diagnosed with autism at approximately the age of two, and with an I.Q. of 53. His mother describes him as a normal, happy child who began to 'slip away' into autism at about age 2. Jonathan’s verbal communication skills were very limited. His early drawings “were a means of giving order to and assembling his fragmented visual world”, as he suddenly began drawing at the age of ten. Jonathan had his first solo exhibition at the KS Art Gallery in New York in 1999.
Greg invented the "Standard Time Chart of the World". Written on a 10 inch square of cardboard in his precise lettering, are all of the countries and states of the 27 world time zones, or 264 countries and 50 states. Set in the center of this square is a rotating dial with the 24 hour clock marked off in 15 minute increments. Twist the dial to have the current time pointing at your location, and then look up the targeted location to see what time is 'pointing' to it. A complex problem rendered with striking simplicity. Much more fun (and easier) to use than many calculators. ..........Dr. Darold Treffert
Dr. TEMPLE GRANDIN was born in Boston (1947). Temple did not talk until she was three and a half years old. In 1950, she was labeled "autistic," and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. Temple Grandin is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. She is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She has appeared on 20/20, 48 Hours, CNN, PrimeTime Live, the Today Show, and many shows in other countries. She has been featured in People Magazine, the New York Times, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Time Magazine, the New York Times book review, and Discover magazine. She has also authored over 300 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design. She is the author of "Thinking in Pictures", "Livestock Handling and Transport," and "Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals." Her book "Animals in Translation" was a New York Times best seller.
Artist JESSICA PARK was born in 1958. She is known for her colorful pop-art architectural paintings.In regard to her ability to detect details in her subjects and to depict them with such accuracy, Jessica comments, "I rarely omit a drainpipe." Jessica received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in 2003. She paints exclusively in acrylics. Jessica's life and vision have been documented in The Siege and Exiting Nirvana, two books by her mother, Clara Claiborne Park.
Artist SUSAN BROWN was born in New York (1957). Susan began drawing at 5 years old before she had developed language. Her first drawings were of spirals, women, and cars. Susan initially began painting on cardboard because it was readily available at work. Her art reflects an eclectic interest in portraiture, architecture, transportation, and landscapes. She particularly enjoys making artwork about subways and the Long Island Railroad. Her pieces are included in numerous private and corporate collections. Her work was featured on a CBS Sunday Morning Show segment on Outsider Art, and in publications such as Envision Folk Art Magazine and Out of Art.
Savant Artist CHRISTOPHE PILLAULT was born in Iran (1982) and lives in France. Christophe is unable to talk, walk or feed himself. He discovered painting, using his hands though unable to use his fingers functionally. He applies paint to the canvas directly with his hands and signs the work on the reverse with a fingerprint. He began painting in 1993. His capacities were discovered by his special education teacher and then encouraged by his mother.Christophe has exhibited throughout France, Italy, Japan and the U.S. He is a member of several artist societies. One of his paintings is featured on the cover of the 2003 DAN (Defeat Autism Now) Conference Program. His art is also included in ART OF THE MIND, the permanent art collection of the M.I.N.D. Institute in California.
Savant artist RICHARD WAWRO was born in Scotland (1952-2006)
Richard was considered legally blind. When he was three years old his parents were told that he was moderately to severely retarded. He also showed considerable autistic behavior with the characteristic obsession for sameness, withdrawal, walking in circles, spinning objects endlessly, and a preoccupation with the piano striking a single key for hours at a time. He did not have useful language until the age of 11. He required surgery for cataracts on both eyes during childhood.Richard had his first exhibition in Edinburgh when he was 17 years old. Now he is known worldwide and has sold over 1000 pictures in over 100 exhibitions. One of his exhibitions was opened by Margaret Thatcher when she was Minister of Education. She owns several of his pictures as did the late Pope John Paul II. A very impressive and moving documentary about Richard called "With Eyes Wide Open" had its world premiere in 1983 and has won numerous awards in many countries.
Savant Artist GEORGE WIDENER was born in Ohio (1962). George Widener attended the United Nations Exhibition and related WAAD events live. He made a speech at the "Don't 'dis' the Ability" Art Exhibition opening reception and also awed the audience with some of his "lightning calculator" skills by telling guests about events in their birth year and also telling them how many minutes old they were within seconds of hearing their year of birth. George displayed moderate autistic behavior in early childhood such as walking on his toes, grunting instead of speaking, aggression, and frequent temper tantrums. George graduated college at age 37 while in a special education program for learning disabled persons at the University of Tennessee , eventually earning a general Liberal Arts degree, Cum Laude. George's memory habit of converting house and license plates into calendar dates led to a sort of discovery as he glimpsed a Magic Square in a book in the late 1990's. A magic square is a grid of numbers which add up to an identical sum in all directions. George converted the numbers to dates and hence created the 'Magic Time' square. Blending calendar dates with magic squares, George creates his own magic squares. Walter Trump of Germany, a world class magic square mathematician and computer expert, has applied computer analysis to some of George's calendar squares and shown that 'Perfect' (where month, day, year, day of week values in each cell add up to identical respective sums in all directions) magic time squares do exist. George was only recently formally diagnosed with Aspergers at the New England Medical Center of Boston in 2001.
Artist and Author DONNA WILLIAMS was born in Australia (1963).
"Assessed as psychotic in infancy, I was later labelled emotionally disturbed and tested for deafness a number of times all the way into late childhood and although the word autism came up in late childhood in the 1970s it wasn't until the 1990's, in my 20s that I was formally diagnosed with autism. I don't think in pictures. I'm a kinaesthetic thinker, a systems thinker, a musical thinker. Mine is a physical and sensory world of pattern, theme and feel. My mind is like a mosaic, my conscious thoughts intangible until I experience them after they've been expressed- usually through arts." Donna Williams is also a singer, song-writer and sculptor!
Savant Artist STEPHEN WILTSHIRE was born Born in London (1974).As a child, Stephen was mute, he did not relate to other human beings and by age 3 he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world. At the age of five he began drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. At age 8, Stephen started drawing cityscapes after the effects of an earthquake (all imaginary) as a result of being shown photographs of earthquakes in a book at school. He also became obsessed with cars and illustrations of cars at this time (his knowledge of them is encyclopaedic) and he drew most of the major London landmarks. In 2001 he appeared in another BBC documentary, Fragments of Genius, for which he was filmed flying over London aboard a helicopter and subsequently completing a detailed and perfectly scaled aerial illustration of a four-square-mile area within three hours; his drawing included 12 historic landmarks and 200 other structures.
Prodigious Savant Artist Ping Lian Yeak was born in Malaysia (1993).
He currently resides in Australia. Initially, Ping Lian demonstrated poor
fine motor control. In order to strengthen and develop Ping Lian’s fine
motor skills, his home schooling curriculum included tracing and
coloring activities. Ping Lian was unable to engage in play activities.
Ultimately these activities became a catalyst for discovering his exceptional art talent.
In mid-2002, at the age of 8, Ping Lian displayed an obsession with art. The transition from tracing to drawing
happened almost instantly. One day after he had finished eating an ice-cream cone, he just started drawing
the pictures that were printed on the ice cream wrapper. He has not stopped drawing since then. Ping Lian
has limited communication and social skills. Art is his outlet of expression.
Ping Lian’s work, “Ubudiah Mosque I“ which was donated for a Nov 2004 RDA charity auction in aid of the Riding for the Disabled Association, Malaysia sold for RM100,000.00 to an anonymous bidder. He has had extensie TV coverage including British television documentaries, NY , UK, Australia, Malaysia, Scandinavia and Korea. He was filmed for a 60-minutes Savant Syndrome documentary along side two other notable savants – Kim Peek (real Rain Man) and Kodi Lee in 2005. Ping Lian has exhibited solo exhibitions and group exhibitions across the globe. He was also featurd at the US: ~ An extraordinary international art exhibit - “Windows of Genius: Artwork of the Prodigious Savant”, at the Windhover Center for the Arts, Wisconsin, Sept 2007.
The Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs of the State of Qatar is a center of excellence that provides comprehensive services to individuals with developmental learning challenges, their families, and the community. Shafallah was established at the behest of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, wife of His Highness the Emir of Qatar, to meet the demands of the Qatari society to establish a center that provides comprehensive services to children with special needs. These paintings were done by children with autism from The Shaffallah Center. I am tryng to get their names to thank them for their wonderful contributions toward autism awareness and for such beautiful artwork!
Stay tuned: Video coverage of the actual events at The United Nations and The Manhattan Children's Center coming soon -
Click here for more pictures of United Nations Opening Reception
Click here for pictures of The NYC Board of Education Art Display
Click here for pictures of The Manhattan Children's Center Exhibition
For more photos of The United Nations Opening Reception, The Manhattan Children's Center and
The NYC Board of Education Art Exhibition scroll down:
For complete individual artist profiles click here
To read interview with artist Donna Williams CLICK HERE
To read a POST PRESS RELEASE of WAAD events CLICK HERE
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