Art show features work by people with Asperger's

From The Boston Globe:

DANVERS, Mass. - The artwork is as diverse as you could find at any gallery, from a charcoal drawing of the Maine seashore to psychedelic mindscapes in bright acrylic to a painstaking collage of General William Tecumseh Sherman. What they have in common is that the artists who created them are living with Asperger's syndrome.

Making art is often a part of life for those with Asperger's. "I don't know if it's more than the general population or not. I think it might be, because some of them are very visual. Their visual or perceptual sense is heightened in some way, so they do see things in a way that is different from more typical people," said Dania Jekel, executive director of the Asperger's Association of New England.

"The main point is, people with Asperger's syndrome are extraordinarily different from one another. Some are more detail-oriented, some have more trouble with communication, some are much blinder to faces . . . so it's not unusual that their art looks very different," said Jekel.

The art is on display in the Perspectives exhibit, a collaboration between ArcWorks and the Asperger's Association of New England, through Jan. 5 at the Gallery at Southside in Danvers. ArcWorks is a program that promotes the work of artists with disabilities through North Shore Arc.

Asperger's is a neurological condition, generally considered a form of autism and widely believed to have a genetic basis, according to the society. Although it affects people in many ways, its common forms include great difficulty in social situations and in deciphering social clues such as facial expressions. People with Asperger's seem to process sensory input differently, some finding it overwhelming, some showing a great ability to remember details, especially in visual form. Undiagnosed Asperger's may often be mistaken for simple eccentricity; those who study Asperger's suspect that Vincent Van Gogh and Albert Einstein may have had it.

"For many people with Asperger's syndrome, the social realm is very difficult; it's energy-consuming and it's difficult, the interaction with other people. So doing art and painting is something they can do to express themselves that doesn't involve interaction with other people," said Jekel. "For some people it is therapeutic. It does give them a way to be perhaps a little bit calmer, to sort of express themselves in a way that's not verbal, it's visual."

That's true for John Williams, 27, of Winchester, whose specialty is collages of historic figures such as Sherman and Mao Tse-tung, using small pieces of pictures cut from magazines. His words sometimes halting, sometimes rushed, he talks about an overload of sensory input and how making art is a way "to put some order out of all that chaos."

While he works, "I'm trying to find what I think, what colors will work best . . . it just starts to take on a life of its own as I work along. I try to relax a little. I get in sort of like a trance state . . . I get lost inside it, you could say, for a time anyway."

Art "has brought some level of order to my life for many years," he said. "It has really been the one thing that gives me some sense of empowerment . . . and some confidence as well."

"Just to be recognized and have their work in a show is a very, very positive experience for them, because a lot of them have not had a lot of positive experiences over their lifetime," said Jekel 'They've had lot of struggles with work, friendships, school. Especially the older ones; there were some of them without a diagnosis for many years. Just being received well by the public and having something that they do well, and being recognized for it, is tremendous for them."

Sharleene Hurst of Hampton, N.H., (pictured) endured years of what she calls "hell" before her many struggles and differences were identified as components of Asperger's when she was 39. "Even now, still, I don't completely fit in," said Hurst, 49.

Making art "is like a mental vacation for me, and I try to create mental vacations for other people. It just gives me a chance to unwind and relax and put my concentration on something outside everyday issues," she said.

Now, her bright images feature strange floating eyes and Dali-esque surreal touches, even glow-in-the-dark paint. "I like to go for whimsical more than anything else," she said.

"Many people with their Asperger's syndrome are sort of proud of their Asperger's syndrome. This is something they have that is different from other people, that makes them unique, that makes their artwork unique, and they're proud to be in a community of people with Asperger's syndrome, people who are kind of quirky, who
are different, who are thinking differently, painting and drawing differently," said Jekel. "And [they're happy] to show other people, especially children and young people with Asperger's syndrome, that people with Asperger's syndrome really do have a multitude of different kinds of talents and things that they can do, and ways to contribute to the world."