Teen with Autism Becomes Art Sensation

[Music] neam Jane's world is often silent often [Music] inscrutable but here in a makeshift Studio the mystery behind his inspiration finds a form and he finds his voice I think he's replaced speech you know um communication is difficult for him and now he's in a in a place where nothing is wrong cuz abstract art is not wrong it's an expression so he's trying to tell an entire story so each layer is a feeling or a thought you can see it with the whole painting uh telling a story like a complete story wait wait wait wait wait the expression of a boy who is only 13 and who only speaks a handful of words neem is autistic but ever since he picked up a paintbrush Last Summer the same boy who has such trouble communicating began to master the art of telling his own story and that was only the beginning I didn't even know neam had a gift for art uh last summer we were looking for uh an activity for neam to do with summer and uh we just thought we'll give him some art well uh we bought some paints we got some canvas and we gave it to him and he started creating these beautiful beautiful paintings [Music] okay Nina Jane admits she is a little biased and jokes she's simply her son's humble assistant it's okay keep going keep going keep going but she is a necessary one neem has trouble opening a jar of paint and his poor coordination means he can only paint in Broad abstract Strokes another but his passion is undeniably strong neem can paint for hours at a time on more than one canvas at a time stripping everywhere and Jane has even driven him here in his PJs when inspiration strikes at midnight there's very few things he asks to do and so the fact that he loves to go to paint and and he feels inside that it's now time to paint means that he's in his mind pictured what this painting is going to be what this expression is going to be let's take it inside like any proud mom Jane want to put her son's Creations on display pretty soon she ran out of wall space at home so she posted some of neem's paintings online so yes that's when something completely unexpected happened so no so yes I was really shocked we unable to hold the paintings so the minute he makes them within sometimes within 24 hours to 48 Hours the paintings are sold we have multiple offers for the same painting some large pieces you know we've had some fun collecting Andrew is an avid collector and even designed his new house as a gallery to Showcase his prize pieces what drives me is to get get a conversation going with the artist he was the first to buy one and then two of neem's paintings including this one neem painted when he was just starting out at age 12 the extraordinary thing to me about neem is that you can't tell by looking at this picture that this kid is 12 he could 25 he could be 75 like there's nothing in here that betrays the fact that this is an early stage artist like this is a very sophisticated painting there's nothing childlike about this like he has a gift let's bring this painting that gift is turning into a full-time career man you going to help me 46 of neem's paintings have sold across Canada and the US some fetching close to $2,000 he's made nearly $20,000 already and he signs everyone he sells the same way I love you meia to and the demand keeps growing Jane barely has time to bring his paintings home before shipping them out are you excited now 10 of his latest works are going all the way to Alberta let's go watch [Music] them [Applause] wow look at this Marco Rosado could barely wait to see them up close Rosado owns an art gallery in Calgary and spotted neem's paintings online not knowing the story behind the artist himself when I realized that he's a 13 years old young guy uh afflicted by autism I honestly triple check the information because I couldn't believe it it's paintings inside the Rosado is also an agent for emerging artists all over Europe extraordinary and wants to Showcase neem's work abroad mement he says mam is already perfecting techniques similar to abstract expressionist masters Jean Paul ropel and Jackson Pollock the pigment and all the dripping and the color the way he Blends and the energy they they release it's really amazing neem's autism he believes is a gift in eyes the autism has kind of open an energetic channel in which he communicate with his high self and from which he grab all the information in order to be able to communicate with the other humans and this is the only way this is actually the only explanation I can give to what I've seen today the art soap does it help by accident or Divine Design it's all happening very quickly and can be overwhelming why don't you go get the soap but it is transformative too Jane says her son is growing calmer more confident he's learning how to buy his own art supplies and learning life skills like using a credit card okay I love it and most of all when you have a child with autism who has the degree of autism that neam has you know he's not going to be independent and as a parent you worry what's going to happen when I'm not here um who's going to take care of him how will he how is he going to how what's the future going to look like for him and now that I know that he has paintings and he loves to do what he does he has a reason to get up in the morning and that's really really important and for neon in all the complexity he creates he's found something remarkably simple too how are you feeling happy an accidental artist who on an unspoken level is proving the world is indeed simply a canvas to his [Music] imagination Yan rottis CBC News Toronto

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 971,266

Keywords: CBC, national, The National, cbc news, cbcnews, autistic, autism, ioanna roumeliotis, niam jain

Id: 75nPBgUINMA

Length: 7min 20sec (440 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2016