Leisa A. Hammett

Put Down the Poison of Comparison

 

In a society increasingly driven by the culture of social media, it’s easy to find ourselves living in a fictitious world of Pinterest Perfect and Fantasy Facebook.

You know what I’m talking about.

Kitchens that are never dirty, family life pictured as problem-free. Posts about DIY home and classroom projects you could make if you were the good mother, the better mother, that mother. Not the mother you really are.

Woah. Hold on. Parenting is tough. Sometimes it’s a roller coaster ride. One thing I learned early in my parenting journey was that I had to unpack some emotional baggage to navigate this challenging series of experiences.

Continue reading the rest of my post over at the Wishing Well blog at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. 

 

Season's Greetings, 2014

 

May you savor stillness amid the week's rush. 

May you cherish some nurture to body and spirit. 

May you be renewed for the opportunities awaiting in 2014.

 

Major changes have taken root here. I'll be sharing them in the New Year. Also, soon, you'll be reading "The Journey with Grace" in a whole new format that's been designed and is being programmed by talented people smarter than me. GraceGoad.com is also finally under reconstruction by this same talented team. After four years of life, her site's flash died and her galleries are not viewable. In the New Year, they'll be back up with an online store. GraceArt will continue to have monthly GraceArt Pop-Up Shows around town and several exhibitions are on the calendar, starting next month. 

About the art: The above cropped mixed media (watercolor and pastel on paper) was part of a triptych created by Grace in 2014. The original hung in her April Autism Awareness Month solo show at the Tennessee Art League of Nashville's 5th Avenue of the arts and sold to a buyer from New York. The series was enlarged into giclee prints at approximately 4 x 4 for The ArtAble Collection of Village Green Hills. Grace created another watercolor series, part of which was featured in the previous blog post here. That series will debut soon in the new year in her new Spring/Summer Art Tile and Notecard Series. The old lines are almost entirely sold out. The new series along with the Fall/Winter will be purchasable at our monthly GraceArt Pop-Up Shows and in her new online store premiering in the New Year at GraceGoad.com. 

 

Bridging Our Community Divide with Love

Today, Christine Mather, writer and theater educator, returns here, to "The Journey with Grace," sorting aloud "the tragedies and controversies besieging the autism community." Christine thought this post was too off-topic for her blog, Autism Reads, so I offered to give it a platform here. I think you'll agree. Her thoughts deserved to be shared. 

The hot topic du jour in the autism community is Jerry Seinfeld’s recent public self-diagnosis of himself as being on one end of a drawn-out autism spectrum.

[The controversy over this] throws me for a loop. Apparently some of us fear that all people with autism will be dismissed as potential billionaire comedians who don’t need any help. Others opine Seinfeld benefits from this revelation. I don’t get it. How exclusive are we? Seinfeld hasn’t asked for anything, and he’s given generously of his time and talent to many communities [including ours]. So he self-diagnosed. So do thousands of adults. Some get an official diagnosis, some don’t want one.

I do not have autism, but I think of myself as on the spectrum—I am connected to my son. I can’t let grammatical errors go any more than he can. Certain lights and sounds bug me. I get squirrely if people digress, yet digress constantly myself. I’m not saying give me the same resources as my son. I’m saying, we’re more alike than different. Let’s love our neighbors as ourselves and give them what they need.

There is more than one type of autism. I am convinced of this. My math and music son is very different from his age mate who is always in costume, and both differ from kids who use iPads as their main mode of communication, and so on. But, while I think most people believe this, there also seems to be a belief that some types of autism are more authentic or important than others.

How afraid are we? Are we so fearful that we can’t acknowledge that some people on the spectrum have amazing gifts?

There are divides. Posts about the costs of adult diapers remind me how many parents work to just keep their child clean and healthy with diminishing hopes that their child will ever be able to handle the most basic of self-care. Some people with autism need intensive help and services that may exhaust their caregivers. Some may never exhibit special talents, especially not talents that bring money, fame, or independence. Others may contribute many gifts to the community, and yet still need significant help in their daily lives. But we are all unique individuals with our own special way of looking at the world.

What if we looked for and nurtured whatever that way was?

What if everyone thought of themselves as being on the spectrum, and recognized that we all have gifts and challenges? What if we focused on what people need and truly gave them and their caregivers support so that parents and advocates did not have to worry that a celebrity’s casual remark would rob them of desperately needed help?

What if we all deliberately created an inclusive world?

Which brings me to the most serious controversy, are we living in a society that believes people with differences, especially disabling differences, are better off dead? And do discussions about the inadequate services available for people with disabilities add to or bolster that belief? Is it necessary for us to hate and demonize murderers to protect innocent lives? My short answers are no, no, and no. But, of course, it's more complicated than that. But for me, one idea is crystal clear: We need to remember that we're talking about people. Should we kill people who are different? Should we help people who need help?

The belief that death is a blessed release may come from religion (“heaven is better than suffering”) or self-centeredness (“people with disabilities waste our resources”). My experience is there is no way you will convince anyone entrenched in these beliefs to think differently. Faith in an afterlife helps us not fear death,  and, to grieve less for those we lose to it. Excluding people who need help, eases our fears that we will not get the resources we need—which goes back to the Jerry Seinfeld controversy.

Those who actually act on the belief that some people are better off dead may or may not be influenced by these cultural attitudes. Most reports describe those who kill their children as having severe mental illness. Their perceptions of the world are so skewed it’s doubtful they have any meaningful understanding of how others think. People with autism are not the only ones who think that everyone else thinks the way they do.

The irony is that recent tragedies have divided people who absolutely agree that we should help each other and not kill people with differences/disabilities. The division occurs because they disagree on where to put all the passion that they feel.

Here's my belief (I don't think my beliefs are "The Truth"). We should honor the dead and serve the living. If the circumstance of the death teach us how we might help a family and save a child, we should learn from them. Hate won't help. The prospect of being universally reviled is not going to stop anyone far enough gone to murder their own child. Love might.

Let us show love for all the living children with their gifts and challenges. Do you love the child screaming in the supermarket? Do you love the child's mother/grandmother/father who screams right back?

If you’ve had the patience to read this far, you probably do. Thank you. Perhaps we can distract the child with a greeting, or give the adult an understanding smile. [The kind that says,] “I’ve been there. I am not judging you. I am wishing you peace."         

Then we can go home and write/call/email our legislators to provide insurance/housing/education/career training and other support for people who need these services. The costs may be high, but the costs of not doing so are so much higher.  

"Don't Judge Me": Has Social Media Magnified the Culture of Judgment?

Really? My eyes widen and I freeze frame, attempting to wrap my head around the context and stern request, to no one in particular, that some woman has just made at a gathering, index finger wagging; or delivered as a warning or hashtag on Facebook or some other social media outlet. 

"Don't judge me" has slithered into our vernacular, a verbal ditty casually delivered in seemingly everyday conversation as women explain their faults: what they ate for dinner, what they fed their kids for breakfast, their home's poor state of cleanliness, what they've chosen to wear for comfort. 

Stop it! Please. Everyone. 

Maybe I'm over-reacting. ("Don't judge me.") Maybe this is just an innocent, cute little hash-taggable saying. Maybe it's more--? Maybe social media, where our current culture (guilty..."Don't judge m..") bears all, solicits  the microscope of public criticism.

What is criticism?: A nasty, infusion of negativity that affects ourselves and others when we put people down while, usually unconsciously, attempting to build up our weak self-worth. (Been there. Done that. "Don't judge ...")

So, there's that. Maybe it's just me. ("Don't judg. ...") 

Or: Could we choose not to give a damn if others judge us or not?. For the last three years, I've been working on getting to what my spiritual teacher calls "The I Don't Give A Sh*t Level." That I am so based and centered in my own self-esteem--who I truly am versus self-worth built upon what others feel, think, approve of me—that it. Truly. Does. Not. Matter. 

It's as if Social Media has created a giant grocery shopping cart of judgement opportunities. The ginormous one perched in front of you at the check out line. The one behind you, the one to the side. The other side. Over there. Those. Them. Spilling out the contents of all the things we choose to judge about others, the junk food (there I go, inferring judgment...but you get my point.) 

Here's an incredibly powerful quote by author Joseph Chilton Pierce from Biology of Transcendence, that gives a potent perspective on just how harmful judgment can be: 

"Being judged by someone offends us if the judgement is true and more so if it is false. When we accuse or judge another, it has the same effect on us as being judged ourselves. Any judgment we make, no matter of whom, registers in the heart as a disruption of relationship, and the heart dutifully responds on behalf of our defense, shifting in neural, hormonal, and electromagnetic systems from relational to defensive.[...]Reaping with arrogance and sowing with tears." 

I'm learning here, folks. With elbow grease, I'm still stripping away nearly 54 years of DNA-infused knee-jerking tendencies to judge all kinds of things about others. But here's the thing: What if I/we consider there are no others? Or, rather, that those others are all us? I mean, that's what Pierce is saying, I think. When we judge others...We judge ourselves. 

What do you think? 

Motherhood: The Importance of Community

 

The journey of motherhood is meant to be shared with fellow travelers. I believe that sharing, through community, is essential to thriving as a new mother. Today I'm blogging over at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt about the importance of community for new mothers. Click this link to read my reflections on how fundamental community was to my early years—and still today, two decades later—plus why I believe it's crucial for every new mother: http://www.childrenswishingwell.org/motherhood-the-importance-of-community/

Speaking Out: #KelliStapleton Autism Murder/Suicide Attempt

The autism community, especially, understands the need for compassion. At least when it comes to our sons and daughters with autism. 

We're not the only ones with this need. Mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, anyone, everyone, needs and deserves compassion. 

Apparently a number in my greater autism community disagree. 

Parents, and a few autism related organizations, enraged by the story of Kelli Stapleton, in which a desperate mother attempted murder/suicide of her daughter with severe autism, have launched a blog and a hashtag campaign, "#IAmNOTKelliStapleton," to communicate they love their children with autism and would never attempt to end their son or daughter's life.  

Stapleton was a Michigan-based blogger—I'd never heard of her or her blog—whose 15-year-old daughter frequently demonstrated severely aggressive behavior. She regularly bit, bruised and attacked her mother. (About seven percent of the autism population is diagnosed with severe autism, which sometimes includes extreme aggression. Individuals with autism can be incredibly strong and live at the perilous razor edge of flight or fight. Unfortunately, aggressive behavior is not uncommon in autism. There are many reasons it occurs. Informed clinicians and parents know behavior is an attempt to communicate. Stapleton's daughter, Isabelle—nicknamed Issy—was non-verbal. Perhaps she was in pain or tremendously frustrated. Who wouldn't be if unable to successfully express themselves?)

Like too many families, the Stapletons fought for years with insurance agencies, governmental systems, and treatment centers to obtain adequate treatment for their daughter. Before the murder/suicide attempt, Issy had been in a treatment center for less than a year. The family continued to fight to keep her there as the treatment appeared to be working. Insurance refused to pay any longer and Issy was sent home and quickly regressed to her aggressive behavior. 

Not long after, Stapleton made the very unfortunate and misguided decision to take her own life and that of her daughter's. She believed they'd die, end up in heaven, and everyone would be better off. The attempt to asphyxiate the mother and daughter by lighting two charcoal barbecue grills in the back of their closed van, failed. Instead of dying, the mother passed out and the daughter was in a coma for several days. After spending a year in prison, the mother was sentenced last week to 10 to 22 years on a lesser plea of child abuse. 

Late last month, an appearance on Dr. Phil, and other media focusing the impending sentencing, brought new attention to the case. A national debate ensued within the autism community, polarizing those who expressed compassion for the mother—not her behavior—and those who chose to distance themselves in the public eye from her actions and communicate their love for their children would never lead to murder. 

I am grateful that, after 17 years on this journey as a parent of a (moderately severe, non-conversational) daughter with autism, that our community seems to be more accepting of our sons and daughters with this complex disorder. When my daughter was diagnosed, we didn't have hashtags. If we did then, hashtag sentiment by many would have been #IHateAutism. I was in the disdained #AcceptanceCamp. Thankfully, we have a lot more campers these days. 

I believe Stapleton did not hate her daughter but, rather, she, herself was ill, stressed, and incredibly desperate. Whether she had adequate state services or not, isn't the point. Some of us access resources, and others are too emotionally, mentally, educationally, and socioeconomically bankrupt to do so. I've seen it repeatedly for the last nearly two decades. It can be puzzling why some parents reach out to what is available—and there is rarely enough adequate resources anywhere—and access or create resources and others don't. It is very easy to swoosh down the slippery slope into judgment of other's different ways of coping without considering the many complicated and extenuating circumstances individualized to every parent. 

Stapleton is not the first parent of a child with autism who tried to end her own life and that of her child. It's the only one I know about in which the attempt failed. Unfortunately, statistics illustrate that murder/suicides in our community are not rare. With the help of friends, I was able to locate two lists, which included other disAbilities, and I heard about a third exclusively focusing on autism. Googling "autistic children killed by parents" brings up a sickening number of pages filled with links.

I clearly remember two stories that occurred during the early part of our autism journey: 

Desperate, a female physician and her young daughter with autism, left behind their family, and sought better services in another state. The separation from her husband and other child/children was intended to be temporary and only for purposes of the move. But, temporary became permanent for the daughter, when, desperate, took her daughter's life.

Story two: an aging father who could not get services for his aging son took both of their lives.

Note the reoccurring words: Desperate. Lack of services. Hashtag those. There's the needed point of  focus. 

#Desperation

#LackOfServices 

----------------------

#Compassion

There's a misunderstanding in this hot little debate. Compassion. Does. Not. Condone Kelli Stapleton's actions. Most agree that what this mother did was inconceivable. Many say they would never do that, but as my friend, an expert in criminal forensics reminds me, murderous rage is not premeditated. How many of us autism parents, when we are tired, under-nourished (physically, emotionally, spiritually,) stressed, stretched, can become enraged? How many of us live like this too much of the time while navigating a most challenging journey? The answer is too many. Why? The reasons are numerous. But here's a few: #LackOfSupports #LackOfServices #Desperation #ASenseOfIsolation

Stapleton's muder/suicide attempt was premeditated. Even if another parent believes they would never commit the acts this mother did, no one but Stapleton knows how desperate she became. Can I say with absolute confidence that I might not snap in the same circumstances? Stapleton is said to have been an autism advocate. That fact doesn't match the rest of the data. After googling and reading a small portion of her old blog, I question the solidity of her mental health. Both the court psychiatrist and her husband opined about the perilous state of her mental and emotional stability. 

The public is frequently unsympathetic to mental health issues in criminals. Such underscores our culture's continued lack of understanding (and #compassion) to chemical, genetic, and environmental circumstances that foster mental illness. 

The majority of autism focus concerns the child on the autism spectrum. Too, too little is given to the caretakers. #SupportGroups #Respite #CrisisCenters #Hotlines #FosterHomes #LifelineSupport ( < akin to AA sponsors or suicide prevention hotlines) 

It is much easier to put distance between ourselves with blame, accusation, and social media hashtags than to realize we do not have all the data, we did not live her life, live within her mind, live the daily torture inflicted by her innocent, challenged child. Yes, the daughter needs compassion. So does the ex-husband and the other children in the family, but they are not the focus of the finger pointing. They are not subjects of hashtags. 

There is no justification for Stapleton's actions. But there is opportunity to refocus the spotlight from Stapleton's act, from blame and distancing to spotlighting what too many families everywhere are experiencing:

#Isolation

#Desperation

#LackOfSupport 

And what can be done about it: 

#SystemsChange

#CaregiverSupports

Whether we can muster #Compassion or not, we can use our energies better for awareness, for hands-on  systems change, and/or program creation so that no mother or father feels so helpless that they attempt the unthinkable, or worse—are successful. 

#BeTheChange 

Sources for this story: 
NBC News, Stapleton's Blog, #IAmNOTKelliStapleton Blog, image source

Comments on this blog post are welcome if they are respectful. Courteous disagreement is fine. Contentious, repetitive, name-calling debate is not welcome.  

Art of Autism + Biscuits & Bluegrass Featuring GraceArt + Nov. 2 Open House

"We need to talk." It took a couple weeks and lots of calendar study, planning and a couple of false starts when unplanned events swiped our scheduled phone date. But, Debra Hosseini, founder of the blog/website, books and art networking and event series, The Art of Autism, was right. We needed to connect. Our call, two years ago, confirmed that we are doing similar things in two different regions of the country. Since the social enterprise arm of Art Tank, our nonprofit, launched this last year, my admiration has increased exponentially for what this woman has single-handedly done with her organization and on behalf of artists with autism nationally and worldwide. I have experienced just how great the challenges are to corral gifted artists with disAbilities who generally have had little exposure and training to how the art world works and to provide them a light and deserved pathway to those opportunities. 

We are grateful to Debra for featuring Grace in a post this week! You can click on the link, below, and read: 

Grace Goad Finds Joy and Expression in Her Art 

Locally, you can find GraceArt, Grace's product line, at Loveless Cafe's annual Biscuits and Bluegrass Day. We'll have a tent and will be selling notecards, tiles, prints and unframed originals. Shimai Pottery and Gifts, which carries GraceArt year round, invited us to join them at this event. Look for us at the purple tent. Shimai has additional inventory, including a few framed pieces by Grace, left from their recent group show featuring Grace, Preston Vienneau, and Donald Werther. 

Sunday, November 2, 2-4 PM, GraceArt will team with Stella & Dot independent jewelry, handbags and scarves representative, Kathy Chaney, in our home for an open house. We will donate up to 20 percent of sales for needy families who have children with autism as a part of Autism Tennessee's annual Holiday Gift Card Drive. We love this cause and are tickled to have our first holiday home show and share the love. 

Art Tank: Building a Community of Support

Sunday, I cried a lot. Not tears of sadness and pain, but outpourings of joy. The night before, Shimai Pottery  & Gifts, in their "Studio Shimai" gallery, on the grounds of the nationally famous Loveless Cafe ,hosted EMERGING: Three Young Artists with disAbilities.* My daughter with autism, Grace Walker Goad, was a featured artist along with Donald Werther, and Preston Vienneau. 

As I drove to the event, I realized I felt ease. I wasn't hosting this event, like many of the artist shows for Grace and others, that I coordinate regularly. I just had to show up. At the conclusion of the show, I summoned one word that encapsulated the vibe that night: LOVE. Other artists, friends, family, patrons—there was such an expression of love for the work and the artists. I'll note that all three young people stood on their own artistic merit. This wasn't about disAbility. This was about sheer talent. It is of great joy to bring together community and to celebrate the gifts of a special population whose talents, by virtue of their challenges, are often overlooked. And also whose talents are often enhanced by virtue of their differences. Saturday night was a celebration of the sum. 

The evening was also a demonstration, yet again, of the energy forming within our greater Nashville community for the work of such individuals, who are the focus of Art Tank. My spiritual mentor reminds me frequently that Art Tank, our nonprofit social enterprise, is my lesson. And one of the lessons is remembering to live in the moment. If I look ahead to the mammoth to-do lists in a future that is not yet born, I become overwhelmed. I cannot do that. I choose to reel myself back into this now moment and choose what is the best use of my time in this moment and then when it arrives, the next now moment. Do I always choose wisely? No, I don't.

Choosing wisely also means protecting my energy via my choices. I know that I could expend myself in such a way that would git 'er done more quickly but absolutely fry myself. I choose to remember what I speak about this in the Autism Orientations and presentations on disAbility grief I have led the last decade-plus. We—any of us—must take care of ourselves and our families' wells and foundations first. If our wells are not replenished, if they are not filled, and our foundations not firm, then there is no more nourishment and quenching, no more platform on which to stand and serve.

I choose to know with absolute certainty that Art Tank will manifest into its full vision and/or one that is greater than my finite mind can envision. That the helpers and the financial backers will come and are already there as I cannot see over the horizon. And I do see them coming. And I do know there will be more. 

We are thrilled that our social enterprise—the selling and installation of gallery-quality art by artists with disAbilities in high-end commercial venues, such as luxury apartment buildings, is underway and that we are  navigating our second venture. As well, we are rotating work of artists with disAbilities in three area venues.** The nonprofit is still in the preemie stages and not out of the incubator. The mission of Art Tank, the nonprofit, is to provide studio and learning opportunities for artists with and without disAbilities to collaboratively create, exhibit, and sell art. (Versus historic models where talents artists with disAbilities worked in seclusion of the their art world peers.) Listed below are ways that you and others can help. (We miss our summer art interns!): 

Grant writing; nonprofit paper work forms; event organization; writing media releases; hanging and taking down exhibitions each month; social media; helping operate merchant booths at a varying event (fairs, festivals, markets, conferences); attending monthly art crawls to represent artist work; assistance with blogsite, websites, digital and physical art inventory; minor research of various resources; some marketing;  serving as peer mentors during art workshops***; teaching or hosting an artist workshop.  

*EMERGING: Three Artists with disAbilities will be up through Sunday, Sept. 28. 

**You can also find our artists' work at Crumb de la Crumb Cafe; The Yellow Wall, Tennessee Art League; Athena Consulting & Psychological Services (private). 

***Our aim is to host quarterly art workshops for artists with and without disAbilities until Art Tank launched into a daily operation scheduled for late 2016. We've hosted one and a volunteer is planning through the next year. 

Photo, counterclockwise: Grace Walker Goad, my daughter, with her art and I; artist Donald Werther; attendees admiring Donald Werther's work; psychologist Doug Herr, artist Gary Oglander, mother Beth Werther, potter Evamarie Pappas Oglander admiring Donald's work; artists Preston Vienneau and Edie Maney; giclee printer, artist, musician and disAbility community chief champion of love and word-of-mouth promotion Massood Taj. 

It was the photos that got me last Sunday and still do. Especially the two with Gary Oglander. Check out the sense of awe on the face of this well-known and tremendously talented artist. He got it. He touched at the purity, strength and richness of this population's art. We are thrilled that Gary and Edie Maney, also a well known and tremendously talented artist, have stepped forward to mentor two of our artists. 

The magic has begun. Actually, it began a long time ago. Thank you Shimai for turning up the volume. 

UPDATE (4/15): Late December, I suspended plans to launch Art Tank, realizing that the demands, as a single mother, of my own daughter with autism and her transition out of her services in 1.5 years and the need to help her own art business were not getting the time they deserved. For the time, I also suspended the social enterprise, which ran successfully for a year. We are now looking to relocate out of state for a greater saftety net post 21. #AutismPost21Crisis #AutismAgingOut #SilverTsunami  Read more here: The Tipping Point and Moving On

Art Transcends. See for Yourself:

Art is a window to the potential and beauty of individuals with disAbilities. 

Art whispers, lures, and transforms the heart. 

Art seduces the eyes then burrows into the heart’s core truth, transcending the societal barriers of stereotypes and labels.  

The first sentence is one I penned at least a decade ago or more to express what I saw could happen with art and artists with disAbilities. Monthly, if not weekly, increasingly, I see this played out in the life of my 20-year-old artist daughter who has autism.

Moderately severe autism. Intellectual disAbilities. Inability to communicate conversationally. Attention Deficit Disorder. 

These are labels she has been given. I don't fight them. They are statements of fact about her. But they are not the ALL of her. 

Art. Art transcends the barriers of these labels. The behaviors and ways of being differently in our world. Two decades into this journey I am mostly over the once-upon-a-time trauma of the following but its existence is still very real: I see the perceptions in the eyes of someone who looks askew at my daughter or who makes and holds assumptions about all that she cannot "do." In contrast, I see their eyes light with surprise when they see the oddly behaving package in front of them can create something of such beauty. 

Not everyone with autism or other disAbilities are visual artists but their ability to contribute...if only by their simply BEING in our world...is a gift equally valuable and worthy of celebration. But, art. Art is that bridge for the naysayers, the Doubting Thomases, those that hold beliefs and stereotypes of inferiority and inability. 

Art. Transcends. 

Come see: On the grounds of the nationally famous Loveless Cafe, now through Sept. 30, Shimai Pottery and Gifts—which carries GraceArt, the art merchandise line of my daughter, Grace Walker Goad, year-round, also has a small Studio Gallery with a special group show. On Sat., September 13, 5-7 PM, Shimai will host a reception for the artists and their work highlighted in the group show, "Emerging: Three Young Artists with disAbilities." Featured artists include Goad, Preston Vienneau and Donald Werther. 
https://www.facebook.com/events/592224430886867/

Art & disAbility: Our Story and Sharing the Stage @ Shimai

Once upon a time, a three-year-old girl, named Grace Walker Goad, was diagnosed with autism. Her family enrolled their only child in all the typical, standard early-childhood interventions of the late 90s: group, private, and public school speech/language therapies; private and public school occupational therapies, and a public preschool program for children with and without disAbilities. A year of these grueling and rigorous typical interventions went by and the little girl's mother asked: "Is that all there is? What about dance? Music? Artmaking?" She felt her child was missing out on the sheer joys of childhood creative play in the pursuit of autism intervention. 

An arduous search began, and, eventually, dance/movement, music, and art therapists were found. What the family discovered was that Goad had perfect pitch and perfect rhythm and when she created visual art, their otherwise hyperactive child was seduced into a zen-like state by her affinity for composition and color. They'd soon discover that many individuals with disAbilities, especially those with autism, possessed these visual-spatial-right-brain creative gifts. 

Two years went buy and the talent discovered at four continued at six. Mom put her own art training, that ended with graduation from an arts portfolio high school, plus her years in communications, to work. Goad  began showing her art at age six and selling at eight. By age 10, the girl with moderately severe autism, severe speech/language disorder and intellectual disAbilities, began to receive local and national media coverage, including sharing the stage of "The View," when she was 11. That year, 2007, launched her first series of note cards in a product line, GraceArt, that has expanded to prints, other notecard series, tiles, and originals. 

Today, the work of Goad has shown and been represented from New York City's Soho, to the Massacchussett's Berkshires, to Seattle, Wash., to Ventura, California, North Carolina, and about her home state of Tennessee. Her work sells at a number of gift shops and galleries around Nashville and at one miscellaneous local festival, workshop, conference or farmer's market each month.

What it took was awareness: seeing the talent, knowing how to market it, finding artists/teachers/art therapists who could mentor. These are three basic ingredients are often missing for many would-be artists with disAbilities. This needs to change. More on that is intended here on "The Journey with Grace." Meanwhile, Goad has emerged into young adulthood. Like 500,000 American youth with autism and more with other disAbilities, in the next ten years, she is rapidly aging out of her public school services. Mom (that would be me,) and co., are founding a nonprofit social enterprise to provide collaborative studio space and training, starting with adults with (and without) disAbilities, to create, exhibit, and sell their work. The social enterprise--selling high-end, gallery-quality works of artists with disAbilities, nation-wide, to developers, is underway, with one project down and three in the works. 

Not every artist with a disAbility "presents" like Goad. Some are higher functioning, opting for a general education diploma track and even college. But in the end, most lack the communicative, socioeconomic and financial skills to market their work, in addition to locating educational resources, and more. This is a major issue targeted with the development of our nonprofit. 

Shimai Pottery and Gifts, located at Nashville's famed Loveless Cafe, has championed the art of Goad since 2007. Both Shimai and Mom are excited to share Shimai's gallery studio space September 5 - 30, with a Saturday, Sept. 13 PM reception, 5:30 - 7:30, with talented young adult artists Donald Werther and Preston Vienneau. Please come. We are thrilled to see other young adult artists exploring and sharing their artistic talents here in Nashville. 

A big thank you to Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, who, this summer, hosted "Grace Walker Goad: Two Decades in Color." Looking back, Goad's career and the nonprofit social enterprise we are forming, are rooted in the presence, exposure, and awareness of arts and disAbilities that this University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) has fostered. We learned about the artistic capabilities of artists with disAbilities through the exhibitions and workshops of VKC. We learned about other nonprofits, such as the one we are forming, through the exposure of VKC. A line could be drawn to this upcoming show for these three artists to the awareness and exposure by VKC to our community. 

Thank you, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Thank you Shimai. Inquiries for opportunities to help launch our nonprofit so more artists with disAbilities can have equal opportunities for the joy of visual creation and exposure are most welcome. It takes a village. Let's go paint the town!