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A matter of perspective The art of life

Portsmouth Herald - 7/21/2017

The four individuals featured here receive services from One Sky Community Services because of one disability or another. But the most significant bond they share is the pursuit of an art that does not recognize limitations but joins their humanity with the rest of our fragile species.

Tom Owens

Like many people with a disability, Tom Owens is accustomed to being viewed as a person only by his difference from others, measured by the things he cannot do, to the point where he believed in his own limitations.

When he was approached about taking an art class several years ago, he looked down at the hands that ignore his commands, already prepared for defeat. "Paint with these?" His hands were unmoved. Cerebral palsy made Owens into what he describes as "a prisoner to my uncooperative body. I have to work really hard to get my arm to move or my voice to be understandable."

But the volunteer art instructor, Doug Harnden, who happened to be a maintenance man for Betty's Dream in Portsmouth where Owens lived, wasn't ready to concede defeat. After much effort, he devised a way to clip a paintbrush to Owens' ever-present baseball cap. With Harnden's assistance in preparing the paint and changing the paintbrush, Owens soon realized that, in fact, he could paint. That was about eight years ago. Today, Owens has a website for his art (www.tomcanpaint.com) and a new understanding about his disability.

"My art is about what I can do and not what I can't do because of my cerebral palsy," he says. "By literally using my head to paint, I can create paintings that people can enjoy. As long as I can remember, most people who didn't know me have stared at me and then turned quickly away. Now when people who have never met me before see my art, they express astonishment and joy."

Michelle Schladenhauffen

Michelle Schladenhauffen may have begun her artistic pursuits as a simple form of relaxation, but it has become a pastime with a much deeper meaning. Her mother was also an artist and through her own art, Schladenhauffen can reach back through the years and connect with her mother who died when she was very young. "It is important to me that I share our legacy," she says.

Though Schladenhauffen had been sketching for fun most of her life, it became a more serious pursuit when she was introduced to watercolors at Betty's Dream about five years ago. She uses photographs as her inspiration and uses her sketching and painting skills to do watercolor depictions of birds, flowers and garden scenes. "When I am creating my art, I am relaxed," she says. "It gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment. When people look at my art I want them to feel the same relaxation I feel when I am creating. I want to bring happiness and imagination."

Erica Sousa

Erica Sousa has been writing poetry since she was a 12-year-old in a group home and found her way in a writing group there. She thinks she's written about 300 poems over the years. For Sousa, her poetry is a healthy outlet and a way for others to come to understand what she has been through in life and what she has overcome.

"Poetry is all I have known," she says. "I feel comfortable writing poetry. There is no wrong answer for me. It's judgment free."

Magical World

By Erica Sousa

Flying tables flying chairs

it missed me by a hair

magic stick magic wand

we have a magic bond

magical world that you seek

then come with me and take

a peek magic is everywhere

let's breathe in this magical air

being in a magical world

can be fun so let's run

through the fields until our

day is done magical world

is fun for all let's dance the night

away with my crystal ball

Nathan Gray

What began as a strategic means to remember things has developed into a job for Nathan Gray who is staff photographer for One Sky. Gray suggests slowing down when looking at any work of art.

"When you look at pictures for a minute, you can see that they have a feeling," he says. "When you just glance at a picture, you can't really comprehend the feeling that the image is giving out."

Gray's advice is sound. There is a lot to be missed by merely glancing at life and the people around us. Indeed, the value of art has always been its ability to convey more than what is actually depicted by the artist. And what these four artists depict in their own work indicates a life of depth and meaning that is often all too easily overlooked. Such is the life of an artist.

-Incorporated in 1983, One Sky Community Services has been dedicated to providing a comprehensive array of services, su pports and programs to individuals and families with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as acquired brain disorders. A private 5013C nonprofit organization, it is the designated area agency serving the following communities: Brentwood, Deerfield, East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Fremont, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton, Falls, Kensington, Kingston, New Castle, Newfields, Newington, Newmarket, North Hampton, Northwood, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Raymond, Rye, Seabrook, South Hampton and Stratham. One Sky works with nearly 1,200 individuals and families on a yearly basis.

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