August, 2003

Mom talks about her two artists, Sébastien and Ophélie!

For my children, creating art is not a goal; art is an accident! As an artist I put thought into my work. I have ideas and, I try to use my skills to express those ideas. I strive for perfection. I worry about whether or not “the message” will be understood or even received. Communication; that is my children’s intent!

Sébastien (aged 8) suffers from High Functioning Autism, Specific Language Impairment and Sensory Integration Dysfunction. He lives with one foot in his little world and one foot in our world, he barely speaks and when he does, a lot of what he says is unintelligible and to top it all off, he is hyper sensitive to all forms of stimuli. All these things could drive a child insane with frustration. This is specially true for my son since he has a blessing to go with his many curses; he is gifted with above average intelligence! So he has plenty to say and not very many ways to say it!

Ophélie (aged 6) suffers from Semantic/Pragmatic Dysphasia. The disorder makes it difficult for a child to develop communication skills because the part of the brain which organizes verbal communication doesn’t work properly. Language forms slowly and comes out all jumbled. Ophélie understands what we say to her but only if we use the words she has learned; stray from her known vocabulary and you will lose her. She speaks quite clearly now but she still has difficulty making entire sentences that make sense. Like Sébastien, she has above average IQ and has hyperlexic tendencies (she has taught herself to read and write; she now does so at a level which is considered to be that of a second grader and she just finished kindergarden last June).

Thankfully, I had the good idea when he was a very tiny child to put a crayon in Sébastien’s hand and he immediately started scribbling and doodling. He very quickly showed talent and, as he got older, we realized that this was much more than a pastime for him. In his drawings, Sébastien showed us what he liked and disliked, what he feared, what he loved, what he wanted, what he felt… Ophélie, who idolizes her big brother, quickly followed suit.

Autism and Semantic/pragmatic dysphasia prevents my children from being... my impulse is to say corrupted by the formulaic mode that is taught them in daycare and school but, maybe what I should say is that in their inability to conform to social rules, they have gained the ability to express themselves in a novel, highly personal and beautifully stylised manner. Just because they don’t make it with the motivation to move people, just because they don’t agonize over it for days and weeks, just because they sit there with paper, pencils, crayons and scissors and just throw it all together in a visceral act of expression doesn’t make it any less art!

Annie

Artworks