Painter of the Month

Nathaniel

In a truly moving, all-but-overwhelming updraft of emotion, A.R.T. watched the artist Nathaniel appear from nothingness. He's eleven.

As Nathaniel was rolled into the room, he had no way to express who he was. He was the one they told us could not signal yes or no.

Will you take a minute to imagine that?

Imagine you yourself, unable to signal 'yes' or 'no'? Seriously, think about what your life would be like. Or better, what it wouldn't be like. It wouldn't be anything, at least anything you had anything to do with, any say in.

The thing of it is that we've found almost all kids with the most severe physical and/or neurological challenges can readily signal yes and no, if they are encouraged. It's as basic as pain and pleasure. Yes and no is how we show the world who we are. Without the assertion of personal choice, personal taste, we live outside the life of the world.

When staff rolled Nathaniel up to the canvas, he froze like a bunny on the lawn, not wanting to be seen. He looked worried, maybe asking himself What was going on? Why was he here? Why was he facing this big canvas? Offered full control of the painting process he sat very still. Very still and totally silent. For a long time. Frozen. So long did Nathaniel sit still, not engaging the techniques he was offered, that those in the room felt ill at ease, bad for him, awkward for both him and them, in the same room, them so able, he so not. But in time, very, very slowly, tentatively at first, he began to use the A.R.T. laser technique to draw on his large canvas. He made one or two exploratory passes with the laser, sitting still to absorb the fact that he had directed the marks. With the Tracker sure and quiet, poised and waiting without placing any pressure on him, Nathaniel began to really draw.

His confidence building, he became lost in the creative process, the room, all of us vanishing. It became very clear to everyone there that Nathaniel was really, really into his painting, the drawing. You could feel his concentration. So now it was so much different than forty-five minutes earlier, when he sat frozen and the staff were the ones who seemed alive compared to the frozen boy. Now it was all of us who were still, and it was he that was most alive, lost in his work.

And when it was time for them to take Nathaniel away there were ooo's, ahhhs, and wows and rich applause for his first painting. Look at the snapshot of him, absorbing what he had just done.

When the staff who wheeled him away returned, they reported that the moment Nathaniel was drawn from the studio he had burst into tears. If you have tried to imagine your life without any choice of any kind and how that would really feel, and how if suddenly you had these powers you might cry too. Luckily the place Nathaniel lives is adapting A.R.T. with a passionate commitment, this meaning that it won't be just Nathaniel and the nine or ten other kids we worked with last week who will get free, get the power, come to life. It's going to be hundreds of kids and young adults that this group serves. They have a beautiful studio space selected.

P.S. Nathaniel painted but because he used the laser and drew with one color, he did not signal yes or no. It was our job to get him to engage the painting and the job of the great new Trackers we trained to reach for the yes and no. As I was about to send this sketch of Nathaniel's first session with A.R.T. to the office, an email came in from the New Trackers at Hattie Larlham, the site we are partnering with in Ohio. Here it is:

Hi Tim!

I know it's been a while, but thought you would like to know we have had progress!

Nathaniel gave me his first yes sign the other day-awesome for him, he laughed and smiled after he got it out and painted!!! And Rhia is proving to be the one to test the limits. Each time she paints, she increases the canvas size to the exact limitation of the space, which we keep adjusting bigger. So we have a core group of about 7 painters now, with more new people coming in this week. Fantastic work coming out of the studio from the start and it is consistently getting better.

Talk to you soon-

Laura