Living with Autism

Behind the Artwork

Excerpts from Walker’s Story

Wings of LoveParticipatory art has a subtle power to serve as a healing catalyst. Visitors often experience new insight through connecting with the work. As the artwork begins to unlock the soul, it becomes a place of hope and healing. Walker’s autism story inspired an avalanche of hope, with more than twenty thousand ArtPrize visitors writing prayers for other children, like Walker, at Wing and a Prayer.

I have autism! I’m afraid that others will look at me differently. But, if they could see what is in my heart, they would see a real human being. Not an outcast or a kid to dislike.

One of my teachers said I would never learn how to read or do math, but she didn’t understand my determination. In high school and college, I played hockey, got good grades, and achieved pretty well socially, too.

I can’t get my autism to go away no matter how hard I try. But I’m living proof that people can’t tell me how far I can go. That is up to me!

Walker, age 19

Walker’s story inspired the Wing and a Prayer exhibit.

Hospitality Artist!

Behind the Artwork

Wall of Hope full

You are invited into my art. As a radical hospitality artist, I have created art that lets others respond. My interactive and collaborative work welcomes visitors like you into a healing place. Inside this safe space, viewers are invited to become active participants. This new type of art offers something unique: it lets you speak and respond.

In 2013 during an ArtPrize event, visitors were invited to write a note for children in need and to hang it on the wall for my Wing and a Prayer installation. After preparing 20,000 vellum cards in advance, enthusiastic visitors quickly used up all the cards. So, to my astonishment, they started posting my business cards on the wall. The visitors’ desire to participate in the healing process couldn’t be stopped; they created their own pathway to respond.

Following her successful ArtPrize career, Pamela’s interactive healing work continues to expand into interactive event art, school programs, and speaking opportunities.

Pamela’s collaborative and interactive art is donor supported.
You can get involved, donate securely on the Patreon web site.

Participatory Art

Behind the Artwork

Over the last decade of creating interactive healing installation at ArtPrize, I have discovered that the audience reaction to the artwork often ends up being different from what I imagined. The visitors somehow end up creating their own unique response to the work.

For ArtPrize 2013, we created four thousand origami birds and prepared 20,000 vellum cards for the growing response to our participatory work. Then, with only two days left of ArtPrize, almost all 20,000 note cards had been hung on the wall. I knew that by evening, we would run out of cards. When I returned the next morning, I was astonished.

Fifty of my business cards clung to the wall. As I stepped closer, I noticed that people had continued to write prayers, punched holes in them, and then hung them. The ArtPrize visitors’ desire to participate in the creative process couldn’t be stopped. A generative opportunity was birthed by the visitors; the artwork moved them to create their own pathway to healing—their own pathway towards human flourishing.

In this video, though this particular art project is on a much smaller scale, the spontaneous and unique response is similar—which leads to another discovery: Cats love art, too!

Enjoy!

What is one thing you can do to foster creativity with others? (be it human or be it cat)? Share your story #TheCat

To learn more, visit watercolorbypamela.com…

Our healing art involves you—because you matter!

Wing and a Prayer: The Inspiration

Behind the Artwork

Art’s interactive installation has a subtle power to serve as a healing catalyst. Visitors often experience new insight when given an opportunity to connect with the work. As the artwork begins to unlock the soul, the interactive installation becomes a place of hope and healing.

Here’s an excerpt from Walker’s story that inspired an avalanche of hope:

I have autism! I’m afraid that others will look at me differently. But, if they could see what is in my heart, they would see a real human being. Not an outcast or a kid to dislike.

One of my teachers said that I would never learn how to read or do math, but she didn’t understand my determination. In high school (and college), I played hockey, got good grades, and achieved pretty well socially too.

I can’t get my autism to go away no matter how hard I try. But I’m living proof that people can’t tell me how far I can go. That is up to me!

What is your wish or prayer for a special child in your life?

Learn more about how Walker uses hockey for autism therapy…

Our healing art involves you—because you matter!

ArtPrize 2013: Healing Art Still Touches Lives

Behind the Artwork

Wing and a Prayer exhibit

“I Have Autism, But Autism Doesn’t Have Me.”

Walker Aurand said, “I think I’m ready. I think I’m ready to let kids my age know that I have autism, but autism doesn’t have me…”

Walker wrote the paper on living with autism—and soon he had an opportunity to share his story with an even larger audience. A family friend and local artist, Pamela Alderman, was preparing for an upcoming competition in Grand Rapids called ArtPrize. She wanted to paint Walker, and next to the painting she wanted to include an excerpt from his essay.

And this wasn’t just any art event. Held in downtown Grand Rapids every year, ArtPrize attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees. Walker considered the offer for about a week, and then he agreed to have his story included. And then on the day it opened…

Wings of LoveArtPrize 2013 visitors hanging messages on the Wall of HopeClose-up of Wall of Hope

“He came home from school,” Anna recalls, “and he said, ‘Mom, this freakish thing happened today.’ He said, ‘I’m sorta freaked out about it.’ He said, ‘All these kids saw my painting,’ and he said, ‘My phone is blowing up.’ He said, ‘I bet I have 150 texts: Is that you, Walker? Is that you, Walker?’ He said, ‘Mom, I didn’t know I had friends.’ I said, ‘Right.’ I said, ‘How do you feel about all this?’ He said, ‘I’ve decided it’s OK.’”

…The same guy who used to hide his disorder from other students and teammates recently published an essay about his experience on a Michigan hockey website.

These days Walker Aurand has nothing to hide—and he wants to make a difference.

“I hope that if there’s someone else out there like me, that it shows that there’s hope for everybody,” Walker says. “If your gut’s telling you to go and achieve something, then go do it. And don’t worry about what other people tell you that you can and can’t do.”

Check out the full story…

Retro Art

General

Releasing Hope, Pamela Alderman, Oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2013Recently, I rediscovered this little work; it was a mock-up painting for my ArtPrize 2013 installation, Wing and a Prayer.

Releasing Hope, Pamela Alderman, Oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2013

ArtPrize 2013: Wing and a Prayer at Hope Network

Behind the Artwork

Wings of LifeExciting news! Wing and a Prayer, my ArtPrize 2013 installation, joined the permanent collection at the Hope Network Autism Center. For ArtPrize 2013, I displayed enlarged giclée reproductions of the Wing and a Prayer paintings in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel; these reproductions were added to the permanent collection at D.A. Blogett and St Johns Home after ArtPrize. But the original work continued to be part of a traveling exhibit for the next couple of years. The Autism Center at Hope Network is very excited to add Wing and a Prayer to their permanent collection.

Note: ArtPrize is the world’s largest art competition. For nineteen days, the entire downtown of Grand Rapids, Michigan changes into an art venue. More than 400,000 visitors attended ArtPrize last year.