Last updated on November 26, 2023
“You can’t be autistic. You’re creative.”
Our daughters still possess the creative energies of children unbroken by education that declares which creations deserve “A” grades. They love drawing, painting, singing, and writing. Not caring about “rules” helps. They will learn by asking questions, reading, and enjoying the art around them.
I write. I paint. I love music. I’d like to think I am creative.
Neurodiversity does not signify a lack of creativity. I’d argue the opposite is true: Neurodiverse minds make new, innovative, and exciting creative works.
Many of the autistics I’ve met are artists. I’ve met painters, sculptors, vocalists, actors, and writers. Whatever the art form, there are autistics with a passion for it.
Claims that autistics can copy but not create ignore reality. This choice to ignore our creativity marks an attempt to minimize and erase us, though it cannot succeed.
There are Neurodiverse individuals who can play pieces of music by ear. There are individuals who can recreate images from memory. There are some amazing Neurodiverse people. Personally, I consider singing with perfect pitch, playing a complex piano piece flawlessly, and drawing with photorealistic precision examples of creativity.
Yet, if you reject perfect recreation as creativity, then look to original works by Neurodiverse artists.
Neurodiversity inherently leads to unusual ways of experiencing and processing the world around us. The autistic artists I know often innovate within their disciplines and media. We try new techniques and emerging technologies. Sometimes, our adaptations produce creative results, too.
All artists I know “copy” the works of others while learning. Musicians play existing sheet music. Visual artists copy from exercise books. We start by learning what exists before creating something new. Recreating existing tunes, images, or figures is a step toward developing a personal style.
The young artist drawing famous cartoon characters or superheroes might develop a new character or hero. The young musician experimenting with a famous song might mix, arrange, or compose something groundbreaking.
It’s nonsense to dismiss what a young autistic does simply because you might see or hear something familiar. Every young artist starts in that manner.
Art requires synthesizing what was and what is to create something new. You learn from the past and internalize the norms before bending and breaking them.
Though I’m not great at anything, I love writing, especially for stage and screen. My plays have earned regional awards, so someone likes them. Autistic traits force me to study other people and how they interact. That close study of language, mannerisms, and interpersonal communication makes me a better writer.
It isn’t difficult to locate lists of Neurodiverse artists. Yet, people dismiss them as outliers. Artists are outliers, true. There aren’t many artists, regardless of how you categorize and sort people.