Autism Vox

Artists Can Do What They Want

by Kristina Chew, PhD on May 23rd, 2007

So says 23-year-old Sean Gray, whose ceramic work has been shown at the Indianapolis Art Center, Starbucks, Conner Prairie, the Broad Ripple Student Art Fair, B-Java coffeehouse, and Artifacts. An article in the May 2nd Nuvo profiles Gray, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 11. He first spoke at the age of 4; his mother, Sylvia Gray, notes that he has difficulties staying focused and with being obsessive-compulsive. In high school, there was only one class in which Sean Gray would speak to the other students—sculpture class.

Sylvia Gray met an art teacher with a social work background, Rick Greiner, in 2003 and he continues to teach Sean Gray.

Sean’s mom explains that Sean is focused when working with art. She says, “I’m not sure how Rick does it, but Sean will do five or six pieces in an hour, basic clay work. Rick can tell when he needs a break and then they’ll take a walk and look at other art.” She notes that they work well together. “It’s a collaborative effort.”

Sean Gray’s bowls are “Midnight blue, deep sea green and bronze”; some are edged in mirrors, and others in spirals or earthen clay. “The pieces sell quickly,” the Nuvo article notes. A photograph of Sean Gray appears at the top of the article and something about the precise way he holds his fingers over the wet clay on the potter’s wheel recalls how my son Charlie often positions his long and slender fingers. Sean’s father, Brad Gray, notes that his son “‘likes touching. Clay appeals to him. He can squeeze it,’” and that, after working with his teacher on his art, his son is in “‘a calmer space, more at peace.’”

While sculpting has helped Sean Gray with some of his challenges—to express himself via a medium other than words, to alleviate distress due to sensory overload—it is also suggested that his being autistic has played some role in his art, in his sense of color and shape and form, in his being an artist. And, indeed, in being someone who “can do what they want.”

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POSTED IN: Art, Sensory