Artwork

Autistic art, art made by autistic people, is usually seen as a subcategory of outsider art. I believe much of the nuance in our creativity is being overlooked, as we are not outsiders. Rather, we are people with a different social rhythm. To those of us who are autistic, allistic (non-autistic) people might seem to be the outsiders. But really, nobody is an outsider. I aim to challenge the notion of the autistic outsider through paintings, drawings, and mixed media works that embrace curiosity, play and wonder.

As is common with autism, I have a condition called prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. Prosopagnosia can leave some unable to recognize the faces of family and friends. In rare cases, people may even be unable to recognize their own face. My experience is mild, so I usually only fail to recognize the faces of people I don’t know well or have not seen in years. These works are minimalist and abstracted imaginary portraits. By creating faces, I am able to sometimes recognize features of people I know or have met. So they may be less imaginary than I realize. These works help me link feeling with features. I hope viewers will feel both as uplifted and as mystified as I do when making them.