Image Gallery
Introduction
When we started the arts and craft workshop about ten years ago, I hadn't worked with people who had so many difficulties using materials and tools before. Some of them were frightened of the tools while others ignored them and used materials in a way that is usually called 'inappropriate'. We thought that they ought to be allowed to do some of the things that they seemed to enjoy doing and were good at, rather than lots of things that they couldn't do and didn't seem to like doing.
Luckily, in art, the only rules that there are guarantee the freedom of the artist rather than diminish it. Art is odd because it has a very loose relationship with function. Art doesn't have to 'do' anything, so it's ideal for people who are a bit different because they can't make mistakes. But at the same time some autistic people want to make practical things instead and they don't have to be artists if they don't want to, that's important!!!!
We had our first exhibition in 1994 and we learned from this, and from the kindness of all the people who visited the exhibition, that the public don't really exist, they are just like you and me and usually share some of our problems. They are really able to show interest and concern if you give them something to think about and work on.
We sold a lot of pictures and today we're still amazed at what happened. We didn't really expect it, we thought we might sell one to someone's uncle or aunt and that would be that, but it was Christmas and we had a good site that people had to pass. They came in, looked around, went away and thought about it, brought their wives in, went away again then came back and bought one. They were usually very curious too, they'd heard a lot about autism but didn't understand it.
So we started putting on more and more exhibitions... sometimes we sell things and sometimes we don't. Because they just try to make pictures in their own way it helps autistic people assert their own values and ways of doing things, so other people have to stop expecting 'normal' art and think about what's going on in our pictures. It's also a good way to talk positively about autism and we found that many of the pictures and artists had things in common.
Sometimes we could guess what was happening, and sometimes it was a mystery, but eventually we thought that if we are constantly told that autistic people have an impairment of this or an absence of that, then they'll never get better. Other people will constantly try to mend them and because they are always trying to fix them, they'll always be broken. So we decided to do the opposite and look at things another way, doing things back to front like that can be revealing, and now you can think about some of these things too!
Ian Wilson - Art Tutor at Hoffmann Foundation for Autism's day centre.
All the artwork is for sale and the profit goes to the artist and towards the materials. If you are interested in buying any of the paintings please contact us.
