Silas's Art

November's post celebrates the images of one of Extreme Kids & Crew's talented artists, only seven years old and already capturing the energy, beauty and mayhem of our world.  The commentary and bio below are by his mother, Vanessa Connelly.

Hate Cannot ..... Only Love Can Do That

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

Subway Study

Subway Study

Subway Study

New York City

America

The World

Silas is seven years old, autistic, and a proud Extreme Kid. He is also one of the sweetest, funniest kids you'll ever meet. Well, anyway, I think so. I'm his mom.

A few years ago, we got a copy of Jill Mullen's book Drawing Autism, which features painting, collage, and drawings by people on the spectrum. Silas was really intrigued by all the pictures, so we spent lots of time paging through the book and looking at them. His favorite pieces were very bright and detailed, with lots of patterns, movement, and emotion.

Silas had already begun to show an interest in drawing, but it has since become his favorite activity. During school breaks, he can easily draw for three or four hours at a time. No matter how busy we are, he makes time every day for at least a few drawings.

Silas's art tends to focus on his favorite books, movies and television shows. Scholastic characters, geography and New York City are also favorite themes. He particularly likes capturing specific scenes over and over again. His subway series has been ongoing for a few years now. He first started drawing subways after watching the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment in Fantasia 2000. Whenever he adds to the series, he likes to listen to the Gershwin piece while drawing quickly and deliberately.

He was very excited when I asked him if he was interested in contributing work to this month's Broken and Woken. He is proud of his art--and so are we.

The artist at work