More from Jacob's Batman files

As you may well imagine, Jacob is nearly beside himself with anticipation over this weekend's opening of the Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises. Batman has been an on-and-off obsession of his for years.

Two-Face, one of Jacob's favorite Batman villains

As far as autistic obsessions go, I find Jacob's fascinations with superheros (& their counterparts, super villains) to be, well, fascinating. He is particularly intrigued with the notion of the double / secret identity.

He is always talking (in his way, which means asking closed-loop questions) about this.

"Who is Bruce Wayne, Mom?" (Only acceptable answer = "Batman")

"Who is Batman?" (Answer: "Bruce Wayne")

Occasionally he will get deeper into the matter of the transformation itself and ask "What happens when Batman puts on his cape, Mom?" (Answer: "He becomes Batman.")

That it's an obsession with people - albeit fictional people - makes me happier than if it were, say, train schedules for (an overused) example. Especially since he also likes to talk about what they are thinking and feeling.

According to Jake this is "Bane" the main bad guy of the new movie

We are going to a 9 AM screening on Saturday (remember, Dan is in "the business" and the producer is a friend of his) and Jake can't stop asking "What are we doing on Saturday, Mom?" even though he knows full well the answer.

I am very glad Jake has an activity to keep him happily occupied on these dreadful heat-wave weekend days. He will go though a half ream of paper over the course of a week.

And have you noticed how his style is evolving?  He is drawing fewer giant heads and starting to include more bodies, slowly figuring out how to do that (whereas before, his bodies were mostly vaguely rectangular shaped lumps).

His faces are becoming a little less interesting in the process, but I'm sure the details will come back once he gets this body stuff figured out.

And the rest of these guys aren't necessarily Batman related, but just some of the recent crop that I found particularly intiguing or endearing.

Enjoy.

I think of this one as "Introspective Superman" - less chiseled, more thoughtful

(For more Jacob art posts, click HERE.)

An Autist and an Artist

Jake: "A Bad Guy from Iron Man"

I have been posting images of my son Jake's artwork from time to time here on my blog since he started doing really extraordinary work this past fall.

As I am way too tired to write anything of import today (first day of camp for Ethan - Jake in his 2nd week of no school/no camp vacation - trip out to L.I. with Jake in tow to both see my Mom & meet with her rehab team - there's nothing to eat in the house, so food shopping too) I thought I would fill in the unseemly blank space here and share some of the recent crop.

With all this free time on his hands, he's been busy!

"Bad Guy"

All Jake would tell me about him is that he's a "Bad Guy" and I have no idea which TV show or Movie he's from.

Personally I LOVE all the personality that comes out in the little lines around his mouth. And the sparkle of mischief in those eyes.

It never ceases to amaze me how Jacob manages to capture so much expression and emotion and character in the faces he draws. This would be impressive for ANY not-yet-ten year old boy, but for someone on the autism spectrum?  Truly, mind bogglingly extraordinary.

I love how it goes against the grain of all the common "wisdom" about autistic folks - how they are more interested in objects than people, don't pick up emotions, etc. etc. Because Jacob? Fascinated with other people, and clearly VERY tuned into facial expressions and what they convey.

Like I always say "You meet one person with autism... and you've met ONE person with autism." And Jake is SOME person with autism.  My favorite (but I am clearly prejudiced.)

"Peter Parker"

Jacob says this is Peter Parker - see the bit of spider on his arm that is cut off in this photo - but I think he looks quite a bit more like John Lennon, no?

"Two Face"

"Batman Bad-Guys"

Jacob is so clearly enamored of larger than life characters and stories. He loves drawing both superheros and their nemesises - the "Bad Guys."

"Harry Potter"

We've been having a bit of a Harry Potter film festival in the house this past week, as that's what Jake's been asking for, and I don't mind a bit as I have loved the books and enjoyed the films. This is definitely Harry from Book Seven, roughed up a bit and covered in either mud or blood - Jake was not quite clear on which - or both.

We haven't been watching in chronological order, but rather jumping around as Jake requests one or another specific film with a logic his own that I am not questioning, but rather letting dictate our viewing habits.  He has been commenting on Harry's maturation over the course of the series, going from asking "Is Harry a boy or a man?" to stating "Harry is a boy AND a man!" as he understands the films encompass some years of his life as he grows from one to another.

I think Jake is also thinking in about himself and how he will grow from a boy to a man someday. He's been talking about his impending birthday a lot, when he will turn TEN!

And with that thought I leave you. More tomorrow on... something. (Whatever my brain can muster.)

ishes

A yellowish android

Today, I'm taking a break from reporting from my mother's bedside. Not that it's any different, any better there. I just can't keep talking about it day in and day out. My guts are too wrenched, they need a break.

So tonight, a little bit lighter fare; a few moments with the kids. Remember them? Yep, still got 'em.

Jacob tonight was showing me the pictures he'd drawn today, while he was home after school with Daddy. As is usual, he engaged me in conversation the best way he knows how: asking questions he already knows the answers to.

"Mom, what color is Vegeta's* hair?" I had to look to see if he had been drawn as a regular Sayan or a Super-Sayan this time. "Black honey, it's blackish."

"What is 'black-ish' Mom?"

Oy!

-ish is such an abstract concept, I think he's never going to get it, but I try...  "You add '-ish' to the end of a word to show how it is kind of, almost, but not quite all of something. You say 'whitish' about something that is not quite pure white, but on its way there, in the white family."  And left it at that.

And five minutes later...

Jake: "Mom, what color is Freeza's skin?"

I look over. "It's pink honey."

"Nooooo, it's pink-ISH, Mommy!"

And so it was.

(Never underestimate an autistic person's ability to learn.)

And then Ethan, on the loooooong way home from an East side doctor's appointment (Obama in New York = traffic from hell) decides to invent a word. Or rather, a new meaning for an old word, create some slang, as it were.

"Mom, let's make up a new meaning for the word 'Bagel' - OK?"

"OK." I say, game for any sort of game that does not involve a screen.

"How about... a special way you stab something with a sword?" He suggests.

"How about something non-violent?" I counter.

"It's a hug. A special, special hug where you wrap your arms around someone and give them a squeeze like you're the bagel and they're in the hole in the middle."

"THAT I like!"

"Give me a bagel, Mom!"

And I do.

I so do.


*If you have anything like a nine year old boy, you probably know who all these characters are. If not, you are without a clue. They're from the Japanese anime cartoon world of Dragonball Z - one of Jake's current obsessions.

I am linking this up with Just Write, because I just wrote it.

Pictures

I grew up immersed in the world of pictures. My father was a photographer, artist, sculptor.

Jim Steinhardt, Woman in Greenwich Village Cafe, 1948

I grew up in - and then a nearby suburban stone's throw from - New York City, the art center of America. Trips to the great museums a weekly, then monthly, occurrence.

At six, I would tell you how much I loved the sculpture garden in the Museum of Modern Art, the Ellsworth Kelly being my favorite. I would insist we visit my beloved Sleeping Gypsy every time we went, too.

Henri Rousseau, 1897

Our home, needless to say, was full of pictures. This guy? (well, a reproduction print):

Paul Klee, 1922

He greeted me every morning. (Klee being my mother's favorite artist.) I called him "Orange Man" and was quite fond of him. (Does it spook me a bit that the official title of this piece is "Head of Man Going Senile"? Yes, yes it does.)

My father's photos and sculptures filled our house.  (Books, too, but we're talking about pictures today.)

Jim Steinhardt, Pearl Seller, 1947

It is no surprise I became a photographer myself in high school, went on to make my living in the image and picture-full business of film / television / video.

And then I married a man who, though a writer and editor in it, is from the world of comic books, the place where the melding of picture to word became its own art form, and gave birth to the beautiful thing that is the graphic novel.

And we had a son who, though he struggles with words, speaks most eloquently through his pictures.

Jake, December 2011, "Mom"

Although no longer working in the world of pictures that is film and television, thanks to modern technology I am never without my camera; iPhone and instagram being my tools of visual creativity these days.

Hydrangeas on 6th Avenue, April 2012

Even though I have now chosen words as my medium and am immersed in a world of reading and writing, I will never discount the power of pictures in my life.



I am participating in Momalom's 5 for 5 link-up and the prompt for today, Wednesday, was “Pictures.” 

My 1 in 88

Jacob, March 2012

Today is World Autism Awareness Day and April is Autism Awareness Month. A big deal in the autism parenting community.

I am, as is usual these days, a busier than busy bee, slammed to the wall with things that MUST BE DONE. And a long school vacation is looming later this week.

But I could not let today pass silently, without notice on my blog. It's just too important.

Last year I wrote a pretty cool post about my son, Jacob: Every day is Autism Awareness Day 'round these parts and everything I said in there still stands.

Jake is now one year older, evolved and evolving; his conversational skills and artistic talents just bursting forth, more and more amazingly every day.

And he is still, and will likely always be, on the autism spectrum. A unique boy with a unique brain; a singular perspective on the world, which, thankfully, usually delights him.

I love Jacob with every fiber of my being.

But I hate that he struggles so mightily with language, with expressing himself, and sometimes with just simply understanding what people are saying to him. I see the efforts in his eyes; sometimes I swear I can watch his brain attempting to process. And then I see the pain when it just doesn't compute, and he switches off.

I hate that his relationship with his twin brother, Ethan, is so difficult and fractious. I know that this too will evolve, but it has been a thorn in my side for so long now, it is hard to imagine anything other than the state of fraternal siege we live in.

I worry about his future in so many ways. I want him to have the biggest, fullest, happiest, most independent life possible. I want him to always be surrounded by love.

But I know how harsh and cruel the world can be for those who are noticeably different.

And as much as I am alarmed by the statistics that have recently come out, how autism is on the rise as a worldwide phenomenon and is just increasing and increasing annually with little end in sight?

I am also weirdly comforted by knowing that Jacob will not be alone. That he will be be coming of age as an adult into a world increasing filling up with others like him, and the world will HAVE to change - and will actively BE changed by the higher functioning of his brethren - to accommodate Jake and his people.

1 in 88 is a number, a statistic.

But my Jacob is not a number.

He is a person.

A boy.

My boy.

This is the face of autism.

To me.

Jacob, March 2012

Art and Autism

I think about the connection between art and autism a lot. About how outside the box, committed to their singular vision both the artist and the autist, each in their own way, are.

I've been doing this for a while (see my best known post "From Autist to Artist") but it's been circling round my brain a lot these days, as Jacob's artwork has really taken off lately. Into the stratosphere.

If you've been following my facebook or Twitter streams you may have seen some of these:

"Bruce Wayne"

"Goku" (From Dragonball Z-Kai)

"Commissioner Gordon"

"Goku" (Again)

"Superman"

Drawing makes Jacob so happy. Time to draw is his big reward at school, and it's a great carrot.  You don't want to know how fast we go through a ream of paper these days. And I'm not complaining in the least.

What I am most struck with is the emotion in the faces he draws, even more then the details of certain parts like the ears (the ears!), or the way his noses look like noses; the way he captures a mouth with one line - and it so completely is a mouth.

This flies in the face of so much common "wisdom" about autistic people paying no attention to faces, or not being able to read facial expressions for emotion.

When I mentioned this along with a photo of Jake's art I posted on Facebook, a cyber-friend, who is herself on the spectrum, responded with this really interesting reflection:

What this has to do with his autism, if it's mere coincidence or if the way he perceives the world through its filters open up the artist space in him, all this is unknown and probably unknowable. And ultimately besides the point.

I don't have any answers here. This is just me ruminating out loud, in public (blogs are so lovely for that). And also, truth be told, showing off, sharing some of my son's wonderfulness with the world.

Because Jake deserves to be celebrated.

I do know this: Jake's drawings are alive, in the way that mere renderings are not. They are art, and he IS an artist. 

Jake is who he is.

A package deal.

An artist and an autist.

But mostly, he's just Jake.

My son.

<^><^>^<^>

I haven't been writing that much about autism here lately, as much as it suffuses our lives, and bits of it weave through almost every thing I do. The other bits of life have been more dominant.

But that's about to change. Tomorrow is April 1st, the beginning of Autism Awareness month, and Monday, April 2nd is International Autism Awareness Day.  And just in time for all of this, the CDC has released new figures for Autism rates that are making big news.

I'm sure you know the new numbers, but if you've been sitting in a cave and haven't heard:

1 in 88.

(And for boys it's 1 in 54.)

And these are figures for 2008.

Four years ago.

(A limited 2011 study? 1 in 38. No I'm not kidding.)

So I'm going to be talking about Autism a lot this month, and you should too.  Because it's not going away, and even if you don't have an autistic kid (or nephew or cousin) you are and will be affected by this.

And the autistic kids of today are going to be the autistic adults of tomorrow, contributing to and (re-)shaping our world. And figuring out how best to support them, how to establish a future world that nurtures and meets the needs of us all, really needs to be on all of our minds.

It sure is constantly on mine.

To be continued people... to be continued...

Art, art, art, and a few words

Since I blew right past Wordless Wednesday this week, I might as well add more words into the story of these pictures that I had been planning to share with you.

The boys have both been busy making much art, and I have been having too much fun with my iPhone camera, always handy, always there.

This past week, parents were invited into Ethan's school to walk the halls and witness the results of the wonderful "Studio in a School" art program that has just completed a unit with the 4th grade, quite interestingly tied in with their history curriculum.

The kids providing docent service for the grown-ups, Ethan loved shepherding me through the show, helping me to find his own creations.

I know he wasn't consciously trying to mimic the expression on his "Crazy Warrior" - a  portrait of the self, imagined as a colonial era figure.  But, it shines through, no?

Ethan and his self-portrait as a colonial era Native American - "The Crazy Warrior"

Jacob has been drawing, drawing, drawing, as usual, and I thought I'd share some of the latest crop:

A guy

A Dragonball Z Kai dude. And if you have to ask, you don't want to know.

All TV show and cartoon characters this time. But, once again... WOW! Jake's ability to capture so much emotion, especially in the eyes, I find beyond astounding. Who says autistic kids don't perceive, understand and process emotion?

Dragonball dude again

Yes, it's everybody's favorite airbender: Ang the Avatar

I love these eyes.

Is it just me, or do you not want to meet this guy in a dark alley, too?

My favorite are the half-finished ones, with the simplest lines.

I love this drawing

 And because he's so damn cute, here's a picture of the artist, too: 

Jake out & about on our snowy Saturday last week

Me? It rained and rained and rained today. A biblical level downpour that lasted about 20 minutes. Excellently, of course, during the alternate side car-parking shuffle time. So what did I do? Document it, of course.

Rain on my windshield on Riverside Drive. 

I turn my wipers off at red lights and watch the rain overwhelm the windshield.

 Enjoy. And coming tomorrow - lots of words!


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Because

Because he would rather skip than walk down the street... and he's so fast that I have to run to catch up...

Because he gives the best hugs, pulls my cheek down to his lips telling me "Big kiss, big kiss for Mommy" and then plants one on me with a loud smacking sound...

Because every day when I meet his bus, he turns around once we're on the sidewalk to wave and yell "Goodbye, Deba, see you tomorrow!" and his stone-faced bus driver flashes him the brightest smile you've ever seen...

Because he draws people with "all the parts" and his drawings breathe with life:

It took Jake 3 minutes to do this sketch of "Mommy" as he was in a hurry to play

Yes, that's Timmy & his fairies from TV's "Fairly Odd Parents"

This IS our cat's expression when Jake's around: anxious

Jake didn't get to finish the body, but I love Bruce Wayne's face here

I tell you: "If you've seen one kid with autism... you've seen ONE kid with autism."

Look at my Jacob with fresh eyes, anew every day, and every day he will astound you.

As he does me,

as

he

does

me.

I'm linking up to Shell's Pour Your Heart Out & Maxabella's I'm grateful for... because I am so grateful for my wonderful autistic son Jacob.

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