Balham Mums stage Art Exhibition

Two mums from Tooting, whose children go to Ravenstone Primary School in Balham are using their own personal and highly evocative experiences of Autism and Aspergers syndrome with amazing consequences.

Amelia Critchlow and Rachel Nixon are turning around their sense of frustration and isolation and are channelling it into helping children and their carers express, through art and creativity, their inner feelings, their take on their life.  

The first fruits of this project are on display now at Putney Library and if any of you have the time before it comes down at the end of this weekend (20 June), I urge you to go and visit.

What struck me immediately was the power and the strength of the colours used by the artists and secondly the short statements that accompany the visuals, elicited whilst creating each piece.  My eyes were 'pricking' at hopes, fears and dreams of a silent and all too often overlooked group.  

Th****h, aged 12 wrote beside his artwork. ' I like daddy and mummy and Harry and Television.  I don't like the rain, it makes me sad.'  Elizabeth, a mother of a 5 year old girl with Autism wrote 'When my daughter was first diagnosed with autism, it was a shock.  I felt lonely and didn't know anything about the condition.  Now I've learned about it, I feel special. I live for her.  One day, I hope  to be free to fly away!....'

Some of the comments left in the Visitors Book were equally powerful, like this one.  'Busy and graphic each piece.  Demonstrates a different mood with high intensity.  An ad campaign of human life.  Brilliant'.

This is only the beginning of the road for Amelia and  Rachel.  Two talented individuals in their own right.  Amelia an artist and Rachel a wordsmith, who's blog is a finalist in the MAD Blog Awards.  They are already planning the sequel to this project and are keen to give voice to the work of Mums and Women who often take the leading carer role and who's energy, drive and desire to cope on behalf of their children needs to be supported, recognised and acknowledge to the wider community.

If you have had any experience of Autism or Aspergers, please show your support on the Living with Autism Group on Balhampeople.  We will certainly be helping to get their messages across.