Living with Autism: = I'm an Artist & Author Too!

Asperger's Syndrome = I'm an Artist & Author Too!
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I always knew I was different. But it wasn't until 2005 at the age of 30 years old, that I found out why I was different. A doctor told me I had Autism. Well, while I knew I was different from every one else, I didn't know what it was that Autism was, so I got several books out from the library about AS. Unfortunately they are all just a bunch of speculation and observations written by doctors and parents who ask more questions than they answer.
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One of the things I read most often is parents noting that their AS child is attracted to crayons, colors, and drawing. So much so that when they pick up a crayon and start drawing, they completely shut out the entire world, unable to see or hear anything that is going on around them. I can testify to the fact that this is true. I can not explain it, but drawing is a must. It's like eating or sleeping or breathing - I can't survive without it.
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I don't know when my love of crayons started. I can't remember a time when I did not always have crayons at my side. I also don't remember a time when I didn't dump out my crayons on the floor and line them up from red to indigo. I also do not remember a time when I have gone to a store, and walked past a box of crayons without buying one. It may be one of my worst obsessions and I'm not sure what triggers it, but it is impossible for me to walk by Crayola Crayons in the store and not buy them! The end result is, well, I have a lot of crayons! I've spent 30 years buying every crayon I see, and than coming home dumping them all out on the floor, and lining them up. It's like, I can't go on with anything else, until I have first found some crayons and put them in order.

Of course, it's not just crayons - it's colored pencils, oil pastels, tubes of paint, felt tip markers, glitter paint, and scented jelly pens too. I just buy all of them. I completely love the thousands of colors they come in, and I can not pass up a color that I do not yet have or risk running out of a color I do have. I take them all out, line them all up - red to indigo like the rainbow - and than spend hours sitting on the floor drawing and painting. I've been doing this since I was about 2 years old. Today 30 years later, I still do it, only now I get paid to do it because I'm a professional artist and sell my work now.

Aspies tend to grow up to be very quiet, but very creative adults. Many of the world's greatest scientists had AS. Many of the world's greatest painters had AS. Several famous authors and novelists have AS. These are the three careers most commonly chosen by Aspies. Oddly, two of those three are what I did become: an artist and a writer.

Why do Aspies become scientists, artists, and writers? I'm not sure if there is a reason, but I can tell you my personal theory on the matter. Aspies don't do well in jobs requiring a lot of contact with people, nor do they do well in places filled with loud noises. High traffic, lots of moving objects, phones ringing, lights flashing, people talking . . . all of these things are like stabbing an Aspie's brain with thousands of pins and needles. Noise is frustrating. Noise hurts. Noise makes me want to take a book and throw it at whatever or whoever is making the god awful offended noise. (Throwing things "for no reason" is another thing we Aspies do a lot, only we DO have a reason: NOISE HURTS! It causes sering headaches and make my ears ring and is no different than had you just hit me in the head with a hammer. I am often accused of being "overly sensitive", well, maybe I am, but even soft noises sound like cannons blasting through my ears and I can't take the pain it causes, so I avoid noise, things that make noise, and places where loud noise is, at all costs.

Asperger's vs Sports and Perception
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One of the things I discovered was a symptom as Asperger's quite surprised me. An inability to play sports due to clumsiness and lack of coordination and no depth perception. Interesting. It often surprises people that I hate sports. Not, I don't like sports, not I don't watch sports, not I don't play sports, but I absolutely hate, loath and despise sports with a vengeance. My extreme animosity towards sports takes most people by surprise and has resulted in a lot of teasing, which in turn has only deepened my hatred for them. There is a reason behind my hatred of sports, and it started very early.

I went to public school for three years, from the age of 5 till the age of 8. I played sports in school, because it was required for gym. Initially I loved sports. I jumped in on the whole thing with great enthusiasm. The enthusiasm was quickly shattered. Basketball and baseball were the two sports we had to play every week. At first I liked basketball. At first we played singly not as a team. On my own I was okay. However, being an only child (my 3 brothers were not born until after I was an adult) I had no practice in physical contact with any one, thus no practice being on a team. This proved a glaring problem once we were grouped into teams, and sent to play basketball together. The problem was every one was bumping into each other. It was the first time I remember being touched by a human and it was also one of the ONLY times in my entire life when a person has gotten close enough to me to touch me at all.

During that game of basketball, someone bumped into me, resulting in me screaming bloody murder out of the gym and down the school hall, to hide in the girl's room. The physical sensation of having the soft flesh of another human being in contact with me was a harrowing and sickly experience, that sent pain rushing through every fiber of my body. The kid had really only brush against my arm, but it felt like he had dropped a truck on me. This was the first time another strange thing occurred: my entire arm turned black and blue as though I'd been beaten. These odd bruises on my arms and legs (usually over 8 inches in diameter) show up every time a person touches me, even if just to hug me. My extremely sensitivity to touch has stayed with me my entire life, and resulted in today, my not letting any one get within two feet of me at all.

This sensitivity to touch was not my only trouble with sports however. We tried baseball a few weeks later. Though I tried several times throughout the school year, I never once hit the ball, and when it came time for me to trow it, it always went completely the wrong way, too far, or not far enough. By the end of the year (and many various failed attempts at sports later) it was concluded by the coach that I had a complete lack of physical coordination, was unable to aim at anything no matter how hard I tried, and apparently had no ability of depth perception at all. For the rest of my three short years in school, I sat on the benches reading while every one else played sports.
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Well, for me at least, art, writing, researching, and building things are all huge attractions because I can go off by myself, in the garden or at the library or on the beach, some place relaxing and quiet, and I can read and write and draw and study without having to worry about loud noises or sudden movements or people bombarding me with questions. Being an artist, writer, or scientist are "safe" jobs because you can focus on your work without worrying about some loud noise hurting your ears.
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Not being able to work around people, means I work at home. I am an artist, an author, and a fashion designer. These articles look at how Asperger's Syndrome affects my creating art.
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How I Became An Artist: I've been an artist for nearly 30 years now. In the past few years I've expanded to creating art for greeting cards and t-shirts. On this lens I'll look at what I do and how you can do it as well.
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My Art Equipment: With 30 years of art under my belt, I have tried literally hundreds of different materials and art supplies, testing them all, the old and the new, and finding out which are the best, than sticking with the ones that worked the best for me and my sty...
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Best Art Instruction Books: These are the books I used to teach myself to draw and paint. I have listed them in the chronological order in which I bought and used these books, from my early years as a small child not yet old enough to read and write, through my teen years, and...

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Copyright Info: The contents of this article, are taken from the second draft of the book "For Fear of Little Men" by Wendy C. Allen, and reprinted here with permission.
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This article was originally published in October 2008 under the title Living With Asperger's Syndrome is copyright to Wendy C. Allen and The Twighlight Manor Press, and is reprinted here with permission.