The big empty gallery space was disturbing for Deshik.

He said he liked the Vancouver Art Gallery better because it was filled with peoples’ art.

I explained he was to be the artist who filled the gallery.

“Can I fill it with birds?” he asked.  We can try, I responded.

He felt most comfortable in the more busy and confined materials room.

With a long white piece of paper and a blue marker he asked me to name birds…any kind.

Deshik knows every kind of bird. He would draw them quickly with appropriate distinguishing features while citing facts about that specific bird.

After drawing Kiwis, Ospreys, Loons, and a random Chameleon he wanted to paint them directly on the wall.

This proved to be a difficult translation for him.  He felt frustrated.  So he attempted the familiar: ABC and 1234

Although, he distracted himself by asking me what a Phoenix was.

I said it was a a mythological bird.

He asked, “Then what is a fact?” I explained.

Then he said, “What is an opinion?” I explained.

Deshik concluded, ” Then it is just your opinion that a Phoenix is a myth. In my opinion it is a real bird.”

Deshik is 7 years old and diagnosed Autistic.

Play, Fall, Rest, Dance is an exhibition project by Valerie Salez. The artist works with children with disabilities to help them explore the creative process of installation making. The exhibition runs from June 3 to July 5, 2014. The public is welcome to visit grunt gallery to see the installations that will continuously change and evolve over the course of the project.

Read more here.

Amelie was the first and only participant to use the tall ladder.

Being an accomplished gymnast might be why she has no fear of heights.

Amelie has an extremely shy disposition yet there is a fierce strength to her.

Her style was fragile yet focused and determined.

Besides using paint she made a few deep red chalk lines with a plumb line.

At one point she looked at her hands intensely and seemed concerned.

Amelie thought they were bleeding.

I check it out and we concluded it was red chalk dust.

She looked up at the wall, smiled and whispered “The wall is bleeding.”

Amelie is termed  ‘medically complex’.

‘Medically Complex’  is a term used for babies born with a rare and undefinable disorder.

Multiple life threatening illnesses will seriously affect the person in undetermined ways.

8 to 10 years ago medicine and medical procedures were not able to keep medically complex babies alive.

Amelie’s heart is severely affected as well as her white blood cell count.

She has had numerous open heart surgeries since birth and catches phenomena regularly.

Yet she has defeated doctors prognosis’s of having completely flaccid muscular structure by 8 years old.

She is 9 and ripped!

Play, Fall, Rest, Dance is an exhibition project by Valerie Salez. The artist works with children with disabilities to help them explore the creative process of installation making. The exhibition runs from June 3 to July 5, 2014. The public is welcome to visit grunt gallery to see the installations that will continuously change and evolve over the course of the project.

Read more here.

Isabelle was very overwhelmed with all the supplies and materials.

I asked her to quickly choose four things that she finds interesting.

She chose all things black, white, red and clear glass.

Then she got to building….

What it is, what it was to become, was irrelevant.

It was solely about colour, pattern, and construction.

And how to install in the gallery.

I introduced her to plinths.

Isabelle is a meticulous worker with a graphic aesthetic sense.

She wanted alternating black and white surfaces on the plinths.

From the industrial jobs of painting plinths and using the staple gun,

to the time consuming precision jobs of arranging small bits and pieces,

Isabelle approached everything with great consideration.

She worked so hard that she consumed an entire dry pint of blueberries.

Isabelle used to go to public school but recently began home schooling.

She has Mitochondrial disease that mainly affects cells in her brain as well as other cellular structures in her body.

Play, Fall, Rest, Dance is an exhibition project by Valerie Salez. The artist works with children with disabilities to help them explore the creative process of installation making. The exhibition runs from June 3 to July 5, 2014. The public is welcome to visit grunt gallery to see the installations that will continuously change and evolve over the course of the project.

Read more here.

Henry did not talk the whole time.

Not a word.

We played Glenn Gould and he set to work immediately.

He gathered every paint and drawing material available.

Then, with no hesitation, Henry started applying medium to the wall.

It was a beautiful and rare thing to witness someone unabashedly experimenting.

The way Henry applied and moved paint around was something extraordinary to behold.

He would run back to the material room and come back holding something to my face with a questioning glance.

He had found the liquid ink stash.

Using brushes, rollers, metal chunks, fingers, crayons, felt pens and chalk he worked at a relentless pace.

Often his whole body moved with repetitive gestures, mimicking the pace of Goulds music.

Henry is also an accomplished pianist.

He is diagnosed autistic.

I re-diagnose him as total genius!

Play, Fall, Rest, Dance is an exhibition project by Valerie Salez. The artist works with children with disabilities to help them explore the creative process of installation making. The exhibition runs from June 3 to July 5, 2014. The public is welcome to visit grunt gallery to see the installations that will continuously change and evolve over the course of the project.

Read more here.