Art is life in my Autistic being.

As an autistic person living in today’s fast paced world, Vision Fine Arts disciplines me to slow down and see simple patterns, colors and textures. As I make each work of art, I am exploring the meaning of a fulfillment.

Vision Fine Arts has been created over a lifetime as a way to understand and accept what being autistic is like. 

I started at the age of 10 exploring patterns, textures, and colors in wood. Scraps from my Dad’s construction company progressed to many adventures in the forests of New England to find what could be under a wrinkly piece of bark. The tactile sensations of different woods have always soothed my sensitive (easily overwhelmed) autistic nervous system. Working with wood and releasing the stress trapped in the tree showed me I could do the same within my own body.

Creating became part of me without knowing. Learning the limits of the tools and materials in a way where the finished product is of quality and longevity became satisfying and still excites me to this day. After many years of laboring to reach the level of a craftsmen, I still craved more. I ran a furniture/millwork company and hand split granite company in New England as well as a Construction Company in Colorado. It was in Colorado that doors opened in freedom of art and I began making small crafts, 3d sculptures of mixed media with exotic woods, precious metals and rare minerals.

In my artistic exploration as an autistic adult, I learned to labor with my body and became a craftsman who uses his mind as much as his body.  To enter into being an artist, I had to master the balance of my body/mind first and then add a piece of my soul into what I do. I feel I have a connection with the materials I use. Just like a painter has a color pallet; I see my materials in a similar way.

Since 2021, Ashland, Oregon is home, and l am finishing a unique opportunity of marrying many crafts in a timber and stone living structure over 12,000 feet in elevation. It is the highest living structure in the US going on for over the past 10+ summers, in Colorado.  Living a small simple life in Beautiful Ashland is bringing back the opportunities for adventures; exploring and learning from nature's art. 

By the time I acquire wood it is no longer growing, it still has so much life and always a Soul. The colors and texture are still there; I just have to find and expose what I see as the best parts. The enjoyment of working with what nature has already given me is never ending. Trying to find wood that is less work and still has sap and natural edges is not as easy, but I feel the end results are much more dramatic and magical.

Perhaps being Autistic is what allows me to see and capture the magic in the materials. We seem to desire what we don’t have, more than what we do which I’m told is part of what makes me a great artist. I grab hold of the magic and create something, and then pass it along to the people who buy the art.

I hope in the near future to be able to share more about how Art and Autism dance together in my world. You generations could benefit from how I see, hear, and touch the world in a way where words are not everything as we are taught. Art arrives most easily with little distraction from the chatter of the outer world. The language/conversation in art can have a peaceful still place in a brain that gets exposure to such a fast paced world. 

Yours truly,
Paul Hammer