"I wasn’t too worried about Sebastien’s behaviour for the second day of the holiday programme, as he had already experienced this embodied movement activity the previous year. Natalie, the practitioner, was highly effective in engaging the participants with her carefully-organised sequence of movements that involved using colourful ribbons, balls, and the parachute... Boy, was I wrong. From the get-go, Sebastien’s mind was never on the activity at hand. As the participants we

#autism #paintings #environment #puffins #extinction Extinction Sanctuary, 9 x 12 in, water color and poster color, canvas panel As I study this painting with all its potential orientations, I see a puffin “conversing” with a “flying turtle” (yellow shape on the right). The title of this painting is thus inspired by the fact that animals like puffins are facing the extinction threat without a sanctuary. I relate this reality to my endeavour for Sebastien, my autistic son, an

(14 x 11 in, water color and poster color, canvas panel, SGD180 + shipping) What this painting conjures up for me is the the path of the solitary journey of the “kung-fu warrior”. In many ways, our autistic kids share many things in common with this warrior. For they are amazingly strong and tough to live in a world where they feel alone because of the lack of understanding and empathy about them. Although they are strong and strive to hold it together, such a life does take

(12 x 9 in, water color and poster color, canvas panel, SGD140 + shipping) Sebastien is a self-taught, unguided autistic artist paints as a way of being. People often consider special needs individuals like Sebastien as being “able” in terms of whether he is “employable”. No, he is not employable in conventional ways. But that does not mean what he can offer is of no value to our world. A wonderful artist and Sebastien’s kindred soul, David Trevelyan, who sadly passed away l

I have just signed Sebastien, my autistic son, on Patreon, in the hope that his artistic life can be supported and celebrated. You can support him at as little as USD5/month! Here is his "introduction": My name is Seb. I am an untaught, self-guided artist, who "speaks" through paintings. It is my mother who is writing this text on my behalf. It is only in recent years that she has learnt that I paint for my survival, that art is a form of therapy for me. People often ask my m

Chapter 6: The First Dominoes Fell “It is often said that things happen for a reason. So if the following events had not occurred, it was most likely that the holiday programme of December 2015 would not have gone so horribly wrong. And I would have just trudged on in my endless struggle with Sebastien and coped with his occasional, but consistent, meltdowns. Instead, the series of events that preceded the fateful A Mother’s Wish programme would snowball and generate such an

Heart of My Spirit (12 x 12 in, water color and poster color, canvas panel, SGD180 + shipping) Sebastien is a self-taught, unguided autistic artist who currently lives in Bali, Indonesia — a natural and community-oriented environment that is suited to his sensitive temperament than his previous urban existence. “Neurotypicals often lament that “non-verbal” autistic individuals, i.e., those who do not converse with formal languages (including sign language), like Sebastien, m