Artist shares pandemic experience through autistic eyes

Friday 18 June 2021

A local, self-taught artist with Aspergers has opened up about how painting helped them communicate their bewilderment at others’ responses to the pandemic.

Juliet St John Nicolle, who is this weekend presenting their first solo show at Grève de Lecq Barracks, was diagnosed in their late 40s.

They prefer to use the pronoun ‘we’ because they see themselves as a “collective” – several parts of their personality joining together “to be able to engage in…the neurotypical world.”

Juliet describes themselves as “a visitor on earth” in an “earth suit”.

Art, Juliet explains, has had a profound impact on their ability to share their perspective with others.

“Without art, we would not be communicating,” Juliet said. “Art is there before language in our own world. We use art as a conduit for the link between earth world and our own world, we have been doing it for a long time.”

They see their art as a gift they have been given to share with the neurotypical world to educate them about autism. 

“That is our mission in life, this is the reason we started painting we could talk,” they said.

“One of the things people do not realise about autism is you are born autistic and you die autistic,” they added. “It is not an overnight fixe, it’s not going to go away. It’s an added layer, we do not see it as a disability at all, I find it natural, it is our own world.

“We are a visitor on earth because we are not neurotypical. A lot of things people take for granted, time, crossing the road, food, the texture of clothes, this is just a small example of the daily challenges before we have even started our earth day.”

Pictured: 'The Road to Freedom' can also be seen at CCA Galleries International.

Juliet says that no matter how hard they try to be understood, there is still a long way to go for people to understand how it presents itself in many different ways. 

“You cannot compare one autistic person to another, it’s unique to them, that is why supporting autism is very challenging but also very rewarding, some people have a passion for it and some people don’t. 

“There is a lot more help out there, which is wonderful because it means that you are not left on shelf, you are not a wasted piece of paper, you do not have a disease. One of the most important things is you have a name, you are not a number, you are not a case file because at the end of the day you are a human being in a suit, and if you strip everybody back, [neurotypicals] are not better than someone who happens to be wired differently.

“In my day, it was not diagnosed, it was considered if you are different, it was a death note. When you haven’t got the diagnosis and you know you are different, you battle and battle because you know better. When we got the diagnosis that was a relief to us because we knew that we were right from a very long time. Does that make it better? No. Do neurotypicals understand us better? No.

“It takes understanding, it also takes something neurotypical take for granted or do not understand the relevance of, trust. For somebody with autism, it takes times to build trust. To us trust is very sacred.” 

Pictured: 'Cold reality despite its colours and confusion'.

A “conduit of communication”, the majority of Juliet’s work is created with gouache, but they also enjoy etchings and mono prints. 

“We do not like mess,” they explained. “Oils, acrylics, plaster, we cannot get off the ground with because it’s too messy.” 

They say they do not follow the style of any other artists “because all our art comes from within our own world and our experiences.”

“We have thousands of images and ideas going in our head. We are not interested in other artists, and we have a unique style. It’s our style and we cannot be shaped into someone else’s, we cannot do that, we have our own style, and it is how it is,” they continued. 

“It is very highly coloured unlike earth world which we find colourless compared to our own world. Art is a communication within our own world, we have shapes, energy, and its language.”

Pictured: 'Navigating movement and people’s liberty in covid'.

Opening this weekend, their first solo show is called, ‘Viewing COVID Through Autistic Eyes’.

The exhibition features 57 works, focusing on how they saw neurotypical people “struggle to process something they could not see” – something autistic people go through every day.  

“It takes you on a journey, it takes you through back to our own world and you can see us going back in,” they said.

Pictured: 'Coloured travel paths with hope'.

“Covid didn’t bother us, we were not anxious. What bothered us was neurotypicals’ reaction. They are the ones who are supposed cope with it and they struggled with something they couldn’t see.

"We found it very alarming because we could not understand their reactions and how it affected all the areas and their freedom that they take for granted every single day.”

While this exhibition is Juliet’s first solo one, they hope it won’t be the last.

With four pieces of work included in CCA Galleries’ Summer Exhibition, they hope they will have more opportunities to share their unique vision in the future.

Pictured: 'Re-emerging from the sea of covid towards hope'.

They said they hope it will be the "beginning of a journey of exhibiting and finding a sponsor and a mentor that can help us develop our journey, because with autism you need an extra understanding, particularly in social settings."

Juliet added that they need someone "willing to do their bona fide work and willing to invest in and share the journey of an autistic artist to educate and share autism awareness with a neurotypical world.”