The titles of the paintings in Providence artist Allison Cole’s exhibition “Lost Together” in the Reading Room at AS220’s Project Space gallery in Providence through Feb. 24 begin to tell a story.
“Can I Come In.” “Head Above Water.” “I Know You’re In There.” “I Love You As You Are.”
They are cartoony jungle scenes in flat greens and oranges and reds and blues depicting Cole looking for her 2-year-old son Wilder, who pops up among the foliage as a small smiling face topped with curly blonde hair. They seem suffused with a mother’s love.
“We started early intervention services at 18 months because he was not talking and he struggled with eye contact and he struggled with sleep,” Cole says. Then last July, right before Cole began working on the paintings for the show, Wilder was diagnosed with autism.
“It kind of really hit and I thought maybe I should just do pieces about this,” Cole says. “It was all about my journey of learning about autism and confronting my preconceived notions and how varied it is.”
“This is kind of my imagining of where Wilder is and how we can find him, but also accepting who he is,” Cole says. “We’re not trying to change him. … It doesn’t have to be negative. Accepting it as part of his personality.”
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Cole grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, then moved to Rhode Island to study printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2003. (She now teaches illustration and pattern design at RISD.) She’s gone on to have a thriving career as an illustrator. She’s designed bright cute textile patterns, greeting cards for American Greetings, tote bags, drink bottles, journals, illustrations for publications including the Washington Post, gift cards for Target. Her designs for children’s bedding, an alphabet rug, and a “Head in the Clouds” throw pillow can be found in Crate & Barrel’s The Land of Nod children’s stores across the land.
“We go on a lot of walks with Wilder. We took this really beautiful walk with Wilder at the time of his diagnosis” at a farm in Bristol, Rhode Island, Cole says. “You’re in the woods, but you’re also on the water.”
Cole took photographs of the landscape and began cartooning them, abstracting them into 8-inch square paintings. “This one [exhibition] felt like it was okay to be really personal because it’s Providence,” Cole says. It’s home.
Cole usually paints small gouaches (a form of opaque watercolor) or works digitally. “I hadn’t painted large on canvas for a super long time, maybe since RISD,” she says. Cole sketched out the paintings in Photoshop. “It was really freeing to do these fast, messy sketches and then paint them for real,” she says. She printed out sketches and traced then onto the boards to paint. She mixed up a selection of colors in jars that she used in each of the paintings.
“I wanted this to have a really cohesive feel. So when you walked into the room, you feel they all go together. And it was one less decision to make,” Cole says. “I like that it’s in the small room and the pieces are large and to be immersed in the environment. … I think it’s clear in the room that there’s a narrative going on.”
“I’m just trying to figure out a way in there. That’s a lot of the training we’ve gone through,” Cole says. “A lot of the best advice we’ve gotten is meet your child where they are, on their terms. … It’s really helped him in the last few months, us trying to change ourselves instead of trying to change him.”
Cole says, “I feel like in the beginning I was so uninformed. I feel like I didn’t understand so many things. It was an interesting process to go through with painting as well.”
Some autistic children have outbursts and other behavioral issues. “We’re really lucky. Wilder is not a kid like that. And that was one of our preconceived notions,” Cole says. “Wilder is happy and super giggly and really fun to be around. He does struggle with social communication and he’s nonverbal, he doesn’t speak.”
“When I started these paintings, we were like, ‘How do we reach him.’ Now it’s getting there. So it’s hopeful. I hope these paintings feel hopeful or positive,” Cole says. “We really want Wilder to be able to communicate, whether it’s with words or pictures or signing, to lessen his frustrations.”
Cole says, “We probably have four appointments a week and ABA [applied behavioral analysis therapy] every day. He goes to daycare and one day a week he’s at home for OT [occupational therapy], speech therapist and a nutritionist. … He works so hard.”
Applied behavioral analysis therapy has “helped him a lot. So he’s started to communicate with pictures.” She says he struggles less with meeting new people and with transitions.
What does Wilder think of the paintings? “He loved them,” Cole says. “It was really funny, he would come down here and watch me paint. He’d try to steal my brushes.”
Does he know the paintings are about him? “I don’t think so. He doesn’t have that level of communication or awareness yet,” Cole says. “We know he understands more than” he can express. “But he can’t speak. … They kind of absorb a lot and it’s hard to tell what they’re getting.”
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