For the past 10 years, I have been working with and creating modules for people labeled as "special" or those with mental and physical disabilities as a study. I look to art workshops as a cultural study and the best platform to encourage art appreciation and crafts-making.
Today I am featuring my student Samir, age 11 and diagnosed with Autism. Samir now makes eye contacts, greets me and bid me goodbye after, holds my hand when he wanted to say something, and in between the numerous breaks and seeming inattentiveness, I noticed that he displays quick learning abilities, knack for multiple activities (we sing, tell stories, count numbers, write his name, make fluid movements like a dance all while working on a project!)
For special students, the art medium goes beyond aesthetics and artistry. The session is about expressing what and how one perceives the world around him and how art can be used as a medium to understand the confusion of daily life and events and hopefully resolve it.
The Garden in the Afternoon
The Flowers in Bloom
My Pool and Whirlpool
This early I imagine Samir to go through the demands of his school, create better relationships, learn things for his survival, and find the medium where he can express his talents and abilities better and in more meaningful ways.
