Flying Colors: The Story of a Remarkable Group of Artists and the Transcendent Power of Art - Hardcover

Tim Lefens

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9780807031803: Flying Colors: The Story of a Remarkable Group of Artists and the Transcendent Power of Art

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807031801 ISBN 13: 9780807031803

Publisher: Beacon Pr, 2002

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The inspiring story of the awakening of a group of severely challenged students through art Ten years ago, Tim Lefens was introduced to a
group of severely challenged students living at the Matheny School in New Jersey, none of whom could walk, only one of whom could talk, and all lacking the use of their hands. As a painter facing the gradual loss of his own eyesight, Tim had come to fully appreciate the power of art, and he was determined to enable the students to paint despite their physical limitations.
Lefens improvised a number of techniques for the students, including using the wheels of their chairs to paint and having able-bodied "trackers"
take direction from them, guided by a laser beam strapped to the artists' heads. These remarkable artists include Nat, the spirited seventeen-
year-old with the beaded braids and brash wit; the brooding James; the wildly mischievous Chet; Eric, the group philosopher, whose talent seems to know no bounds; and the maverick Latino tracker Angel, bent on breaking every rule in the book. The artists come to express themselves through their
painting in breathtaking style.

Flying Colors is an immensely inspiring story about leaping over obstacles. We learn of the challenges the students faced as well as the extraordinary successes they achieved, culminating with an art show in New York and a CBS News documentary. Reminiscent of Awakenings by Oliver Sacks, Flying Colors reveals the passion and determination of one man, his studentartists, and their emergence together from a virtual silence to luminous expression.

Tim Lefens is the founder of A.R.T. (Artistic Realization Technologies) and lives in Belle Mead, New Jersey.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Tim Lefens is the founder of A.R.T. (Artistic Realization Technologies) and lives in Belle Mead, New Jersey.

From Publishers Weekly:

In the early '90s, Lefens, a painter, goes to the Metheny School for students with cerebral palsy and other disabilities to show slides of his work. As this intensely moving memoir shows, he becomes obsessed with finding ways to help students, who are in wheelchairs and have no use of their arms or hands, learning to express themselves, devising methods that allow them the freedom to paint. Carefully maneuvering wheelchairs over tinted acrylic produces excellent results, they find, and a laser attached to a welder's helmet can direct a surrogate precisely where to apply the paint to a canvas. His students thrive: some begin speaking more frequently; others experience improvements in their physical well-being. Lefens founds Artistic Realizations Technologies (A.R.T.) to insure these techniques are used by others. Student work becomes so noted that they get gallery showings, sell their paintings and are the subject of a CBS Evening News special. There are obstacles along the way: it is a struggle to get A.R.T. funded; dismissive sentimentalism (and even resentment) is often shown by teachers, administrators, social workers and therapists confronting the work and students. Lefens writes simply and clearly throughout, remaining focused on the students and the task at hand. "The idea," he tells them, "is not to struggle to do things the way that able-bodied people do. The idea is to make art."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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