A little bowl of love and kindness – taking the strain out of caring.

Extreme old age isn’t easy, not one bit. Mum carries it with great dignity but these few days without a bed rail have taught me so much humility. We will all at some point need adaptations (if we’re lucky) and should probably plan ahead. I’m chastened by the unravelling that can take place for want of one simple adaptation.

Masking and caring – an #actuallyautistic perspective.

What I do have is a complex relationship with masking – which I want to be honest and hopefully nuanced about.  Stigma exists, often we don’t have a choice (those of us who’ve learned masking as an adaptation).  For myself as a bilingual person, I have come to think of masking as a bilingualism wrought by the necessity of living between worlds with different cultures.

I hope to write more about masking and caring as my situation evolves. 

Sanctuary – finding a place of safety online #actuallyautistic

This blog feels like the place to be right now. I can be quiet. I can think my own thoughts more clearly. But when I think about the need for sanctuary my heart stops.

The Art of Now: A Return to Catalonia #Radio4

So I’m finally returning. I can’t help wondering what Abuela (grandma) would say?

I wish too that my father could know that I am going back to Catalonia, via the beaches of Barcarès and Argèles (where he was held in refugee interment camps), to retrace his exile journey to England in 1939.

Adventures in Object Art #MfOR

Like Hansel and Gretel before me I left some breadcrumbs, but still I’m rather awestruck that I could have missed working my way back to this somewhat seminal moment in the evolution of a project called The Museum for Object Research. 

Red lines and the echoes of history; police brutality and the Catalan question.

With my art practice I witness. It’s all I can do. 

When only autism will do.

Yes, yes, yes…okay, okay. Alright. I boil washed another jumper! It’s becoming a thing – a metaphorical thing.  This post is about access and exclusion.  It’s about a stripy jumper made out of scratchy wool that doesn’t fit. Like that awful Xmas gift (that keeps on itching) – you really don’t want it but you have

Autistic resilience: talking up competence.

Perhaps we underestimate just how hard we’re working everyday to keep afloat in a world which does not support our divergent neurologies?

The casual cymbal and the traffic cop #autism

The other day I imagined the difficulty managing information flow (of all kinds including sensory) and coordinating responses in autism as the want of a traffic cop at an  intersection during rush hour.

Processing success #autism

We’ve had such a brilliant response to the work – now we need to find it a bigger stage.