It's about about the timing, they say. My Facebook plea for help went out no less than the night of The Super Bowl. Crickets….I've been writing since I was at least 10 and professionally since 1980. But the request from the Seattle gallery, HeART of the Spectrum, that's now representing my daughter, artist Grace Walker Goad, stumped me big time. They needed an artist statement. Uhhh….I've written her bio, website content, a resume, flyers, you name it, if not for her I've written a little of everything about almost everything. But how to write an artist statement for a nearly 18-year-old who rarely talks in complete sentences and only to request something she wants? She communicates to me and those around her about food, shopping, bed, bathroom. The basics. You ask her any question, unless it's something she clearly does not want to do and her answer is "Yes." For the others it's "Don't."

I held off the gallery for a week until the next Monday as GraceArt, my daughter's art business, has me so hopping right now with four shows, three of them in two months of this coming spring, that I've had to designate my weekdays. One day for GraceArt. Two days for errands and meetings. Another for  finishing the book, The Journey with Grace, by year's end, and another for the potpourri of household stuff like those stacks of paper that self-procreate. Blogging? It gets done when inspiration strikes, which luckily happens a lot. (How can a writer not write, I want to know.) So, GraceArt day came and the last document I created to send per request for the gallery was this:

Grace Walker Goad, Artist Statement

I love creating art. Though I am a very active late teen, (I love dancing to music, especially!) making art puts me into a Zen state. I create my best art when it is quiet. And, I work best one-on-one with preferably an art therapist because they best understand my autism and how to bring out my talent.

I love Life. And I love color. I study my palette very carefully and it’s said that both my color and composition skills have always been far beyond my chronological age.

I am pure Joy. And my art shows that Joy. I have no Ego about my art. I just kinda like it when I sometimes notice that other people think it’s really good. Honestly, I never demonstrated that I gave other people's reactions any notice until I got to go to New York City and be in front of a camera and on t.v. (The autism episode of “The View,” 2007.) After that I kinda began to get it that people liked my art.

I do not talk very much. I have a lot of difficulty expressing myself that way. My brain is impaired with a severe special language disorder so my parents are my voice for many things such as this artist statement.  I have intellectual disAbilities, too. I don’t care what folks choose to label me, I don’t notice and I don’t care. I’m ridiculously happy 99 percent of the time. My mother thinks, and many others, too,  that the ways that my brain is not “neurotypical” are compensated for with my ability to express myself through art. Art is my communication.