Michael and Christine Lopez were gracious and generous hosts and have invited us back for a fall Spinathon in October – so keep those pedals turning!

The Tiburon ARK did a great article on the event which you can find here: Spring 2012 Spin ‘n Sizzle

Job creation for our students is the next crucial step for Autistry Studios. And we are working hard to launch our first Autistry Enterprise – currently called Autistry Railroad Products which will initially produce model structure kits in laser-cut wood and plastic formats. This company will also provide on-demand CNC flat cutting services to order. For small work (thin sheets on the order of 2 x 3 feet) the work will be done by a laser cutter. For larger work (up to 2 x 4 x 8 feet) the work will be done by a computer controlled motor tool called a ShopBot. We foresee the creation of a wide range of jobs matching the wide range of abilities of our Autistry students. To support this effort we are seeking about $50,000 for capital equipment and seed expenses.

We are also very excited about the upcoming opening of Sweetwater Spectrum in Sonoma, a residential community designed especially for those on the autism spectrum. We are exploring the possibility of opening another Autistry workshop facility in the city of Sonoma to offer our Core Prevocational Workshops and employment opportunities to the Sweetwater community and all eligible families in Sonoma and Napa counties.

And, did I mention, that it is Spin Time!?

Sunday, March 25th we will have our 4th Spin ‘n Sizzle fundraiser at Body Image Fitness, 23 Reed Boulevard in Mill Valley. Come for an hour of spin, a BBQ and to meet many of the Autistry families. We will have some of the very cool student projects on display. Spin sessions begin at 10am and go to 3pm – the BBQ goes all day. This is always a great event – exercise and lots of food! Click here for more information. Email janet@autistry.com to sign up.

Hope to see you all on Sunday,

Janet, Dan and the Autistry Team

“What if the students think puppets are lame?”

“What if they get bored?”

“How will we get them to be expressive without unintentionally directing them into something they are not?”

This last question was the most daunting. I have been teaching for five years and inevitably students will copy exactly what you do in hopes of pleasing you. I will admit now, however, this should have been the last thing on my mind. From day one all four young adults have come to Saturday mornings engaged, motivated and most of all true to themselves.

In being so individually self-expressive, we have all learned incredible things about each person. Be it an affinity for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musicals, a childhood love of Disney films or Super Mario Bros., and hilarious social commentary; these young aspies are passionate, creative and expressive.

After revealing these facts about themselves something more amazing happened than sewing, gluing, or bedazzling; genuine social interaction that was unprompted, naturally rhythmic and challenging for even a cunning linguist like me!

In these lunch time conversations they have beautifully navigated topics from pop culture references, Aspergers humor, and social interpretation, critical thinking about literature, all the way to cartoon Batman versus live action Batman.
(Holey social diversity, Batman!)

As a person who grew up with Aspergers and experienced so many awkward lunch conversations that left me confused, hurt and withdrawn, seeing this blooming of social skills brings tears to my eyes, and a hope in my heart that more people like these students and me can have an Autistry experience just once and feel what it’s like to be understood, heard and appreciated for our uniqueness.

Fabulous first meeting of the new Autistry Puppet Workshop led by Courtenay Bell and Melissa Diaz-Infante! The students made stick puppets of themselves. Over the next couple of months they will make several types of puppets, build a puppet theater and stage, and write/perform/film several short puppet plays. Lots of fun!

I too have been humbled and impressed by the other people’s stories in the Five Things meme so here are mine:

1. I am baffled by other people’s fascination with professional sports.

I can identify with playing a sport – I just cannot understand the motivation behind the activity and entire economies driven by watching, talking, and writing about sports. That a city cares whether or not it has a football team and whether they have a nice stadium when at the same time its schools suck makes no sense to me. That a soccer fan needs to throw a beer bottle at someone who does not like their team makes no sense to me.

2. My family set me up to meet a girl they thought I’d like – and it worked.

I met my wife Janet at a family Thanksgiving dinner after months of my family telling me “oh, we want you to meet this girl we think you’ll like.” We’ve been together since that day in 1987.

3. I am an Astrophysicist by education.

My career in software was a profitable side-effect. In school I was interested in everything and focusing on one thing to get a degree was a challenge. Science seemed to be a recurring interest and my employer at the time (Hewlett-Packard) would pay tuition in that area so I chose to major in physics. After my BS I changed schools to work on a Masters. I was at Cal. State Northridge and they had a world class solar observatory and the astronomers were nice to work with so my M.S. in Physics was based on research into the solar magnetic field structure’s relationship with gas brightness and velocity. For my Ph.D. I wanted to work on something other than solar astronomy so amongst the multitude of choices I had (I think it was two) I joined the astronomy department at Indiana University, Bloomington. I was there five and a half years and finished my coursework, my Physics and Astronomy Ph.D. qualifying exams, and made good progress on my dissertation research. However, family and financial pressures precluded my staying the extra one or two years it would have taken to complete my Ph.D so I left IU with a “thank you for playing” Masters in Astronomy. In the mean time I had picked up good programming skills that people were very interested in paying me for.

4. I am an artist by inclination.

My family is populated mainly by performing artists and musicians. Throughout my life I have built things with my hands and the design and construction of structures of fantasy remains my hobby. I’ve focused on model railroading but I also draw and build other 3D art forms. The artist in me determines whether I’m interested in a project: if there’s room for creativity I’m interested. If you just need me to turn the crank, I’d rather be digging ditches.

5. I’m a recovering Aspie (link)

This might be something you already know. In which case my not realizing you know is a demonstration that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. That’s an Aspie joke.

I was not diagnosed until I was in my 30s. I had always known I had to work especially hard at things that appear easy to people around me and all my life I have been known as “really smart – but weird.” It has been really helpful to have a diagnosis. It hasn’t changed anything I do but it has helped me feel vastly better about the coping mechanisms I employ. I still have most of the traditional problems Asperger’s deal with. Let’s face it, most good software developers are what we call “on the spectrum” so I’ve always fit in really well in good development organizations. However, unenlightened employers almost invariably feel I’m stubborn and arrogant when I’m actually very shy and I strive very hard to be a nice person. As far as being stubborn, I like to think I mitigate it by usually being right (although I now know it usually doesn’t matter that you’re right, I’m still naïve enough to be surprised). Fortunately, I’ve had enough really good employment experiences over the years to be comfortable with what part is me and what part is them.

In my fourth grade class we had a two day workshop put on by representatives from NASA. The Space Race was big in American life at that point. The activity was a simulated mission to Mars with the class divided into mission control and crews of two ships traveling together. On the morning of the first day we were informed that one of the ships had crashed on the surface of Mars and was unable to make the return flight. I was in charge of life support on one of the ships. In a few minutes I provided a solution with charts and resource burn-down graphs. By doing that I effectively ruined the next day and a half of the activity for the whole class.

Soon, after days of tests and interviews I spent less and less time in my regular class and starting in 5th grade was moved to a special class with a only six students (2 each in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades) and told I could study whatever I wanted. I studied the history of transportation, astronomy, puppet theater, building geometric shapes out of manila folders, whatever my interests wandered to. As a class we regularly left school and took a bus downtown to get books out of the San Francisco main branch library as needed since we exhausted the resources of the school library after a couple weeks.

For the next three years I was in the San Francisco schools I never sat in a regular classroom and had the most fun I ever had in school (until graduate school). Every now and then someone would stop by with a textbook and say something like “Dan, you really need to learn some math. Work these chapters, please?” A few days later I’d hand in the work and could go back to following my interests.

When I was middle-school age I moved away from San Francisco. High school and college were much harder. Many teachers mistook my shyness (silence) and inability to flow with the program as stupidity. They would put me in remedial reading one week and only to return me to “A track” (college prep) the next after demonstrating reading over 1200 words per minute (as high as their machine could go). I graduated high school with a D-plus GPA but nearly maxed out my SATs. Only in graduate school and when working on a Ph.D. in astrophysics was I having fun in school again.

I’m a former United States Marine. That probably should make six things you didn’t know about me. I put it here in the Asperger’s portion because many of my most effective coping mechanisms were learned during training in the Corps and I’ll always be grateful for that. I also learned how to get shoes REALLY shiny.

We survived the great move. It was a big risk to take the program out of the small barn and into the huge warehouse. We all crossed our fingers and held our breaths each month as rent time drew near. But with all the new students, the new classes, grants from foundations and generous donations from families we were able to meet our obligations and grow our program. We are going into 2012 with strong backing and very strong prospects for growth.

We had great events and activities. We started off the year in January with our first warehouse party to celebrate Ian’s 16th birthday. And we discovered that the warehouse makes a very cool dance hall.

It also makes a great art studio as we found in February when portrait artist Robert Evans came for a Painting Day. 10 amazing paintings were created that day and auctioned at our March fundraiser.

After learning that our studio wasn’t quite up to fire code for large public gatherings our March fundraiser, Dancin’ at Duffy Place actually took place at the Marin Art and Garden Center. A perfect example of “falling upwards”. The event was gorgeous and the sparkly fireplace added a charm and warmth that made the change of location seem like a stroke of genius rather than a Hail Mary pass. (Huge thank you goes to Diane Doodha for graciously saving our event)

In July we had the first Autistry Camping Trip – an adventure in Willets. Staff and students hiked, built rafts, and did some target practice. A crazy, wonderful time was had by all and it was unanimously decided to make this an annual event. There is talk of a trip to the High Sierras. So, look for announcements for Camping Summer 2012!

The October Spin ‘n Sizzle fundraising spinathon at Body Image Fitness Center in Mill Valley was a great success and it too will be an annual, if not semi-annual event. Michael and Christine Lopez were wonderful hosts and Chris and Mindy Schreil kept the BBQ blazing. We love these spinning events – easy to do, healthy and fun.

The students produced amazing projects. Over 75 people attended our end-of-semester Holiday Party and Open House and they were greeted with the premiere showing of the Deadly Diamond, improvisational theater, original comedy sketches, dioramas, handmade guitars, paintings and other incredible Autistry student creations.

And we have grown. We now offer 9 Core Workshops, monthly Parent Support Meetings, Sibling Groups, the Gaming Group and on-site individual counseling. We have over 30 students and more join the waiting list every day. We went from a staff of 3 to a staff of 8. The new Autistry staff bring a wealth of talent and skills and they make our program richer.

We have lots of plans for 2012 but I will leave that for the next newsletter. Tonight we raise a toast to our wonderful Autistry community and thank you all for helping us build a program we can all be proud of.

Happy New Year!

Janet, Dan, Courtenay, Sara, Anna, Jeremy, Caitlin and Melissa

Our Autistry team is growing again. We welcome Caitlin O’Brien, an LPCC intern with an MA in Psychology from Antioch University. Caitlin is interested in Art Therapy and PhotoTherapy, the use of photography as a means of communication. She is also interested in gluten-free/dairy-free cooking so she will fit right in at the Autistry lunch table.

Jeremy Gaunt joins us as a workshop assistant. Jeremy is a talented model builder, RPG gamer, and has lots of experience with the business side of things (like accounting!). Jeremy will be a great asset as we set up the accounting infrastructure to support the launch of our Autistry enterprises. Jeremy also knows his way around a workshop filled with power tools – always a plus at Autistry.

Melissa Diaz-Infante will co-lead with Courtenay Bell our first Puppet Theater Workshop beginning Saturday January 7th. Melissa worked for several years at Art Institute of California. She is well known for her theater work with Bindlestiff, the San Francisco based Filipino American performing arts center. Melissa brings a wide array of talents to Autistry and we are all looking forward to helping her create puppets with attitude.

TALKING ABOUT AUTISTRY: There have been several news articles recently about Autistry Studios. The latest was the November 23rd article in the Tiburon Ark. Reporter Michelle Aschwald interviewed one of our students, Jon Wootton and together they did a great job of describing the Autistry program. Unfortunatly the article is not online.

Tyler Barbee also came to Autistry and interviewed Janet about autism and life as a mother of a son with autism. This was a project for a high school class but the questions he asked came from his heart and Janet responded with honest, heart-felt answers:

SUPPORTING AUTISTRY: We have posted our Holiday Wish List. The Autistry workshops are always in need of supplies and equipment. Many of you have asked how you can help so we put together a wish list on Amazon. Purchases do not need to be made at Amazon and they have provided a link to confirm outside purchases so they will be reflected on the list. There is a wide range of choices from saw blades to KitchenAides!

Also, The Miranda Lux Foundation has just offered Autistry Studios a $10,000 matching grant. Please help us meet this exciting challenge. Our services are expensive to provide and the program costs exceed the fees that we charge families. Fundraising efforts such as this are essential for us to provide services to all of our families. If you have been considering an end-of-year donation to Autistry this would be a great time to do it.

Donations can be made online on our website:
http://www.autistrystudios.com/blog/index.php/donate/

Or, sent to our office at:

Autistry Studios
137 Granada Drive
Corte Madera, CA 94925

Donations are tax deductible to the extent your tax situation allows. Pledges made now count toward the matching grant and may be paid at a later date and count towards either the 2011 or 2012 tax year.

Happy Holidays from the Autistry Team!

Donations can be made online on our Donate page or sent to our office at:

Autistry Studios
137 Granada Drive
Corte Madera, CA 94925

Donations are tax deductible to the extent your tax situation allows.