Art on the spectrum: A source of calm in a confusing world
Frustratingly, for many art students, their visual talents are often not enough to see them through. ‘I took Art as a GCSE in school and it was, without doubt, my favourite subject. It was the only one I excelled at, and I was predicted an A grade. But it was not to be. During my final week, my Art teacher took me aside. She told me that she could not put my work through as the examination board had picked my name randomly as one of the students’ work that would be externally verified. The teacher said that this was to ensure that she was grading students correctly. The issue was that I had not completed any written work.’
‘At that point in my life, having to do any written assignments just ruined me. I would make excuses to avoid it, I felt embarrassed about it, there was so much of it I just didn't get. It left me feeling awful. I had thought that by studying Art that I could avoid it, but I couldn't. So I never so much as achieved a GCSE in Art, and now I have no formal training in Art whatsoever.’
Despite this however, Violet has persevered. As we will uncover, regardless of all the set-backs she has endured throughout her life, in a world that she has often struggled to understand, Violet has continued to find light in the shade through paint and collage.*
*‘Wait, sorry, what was that?’ I ask my colleague. ‘This street here is a collage and not a painting?!’
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