Janet Lawson, MFT | August 16, 2011

Wow – did that summer go by quickly! Schools are starting back up and Autistry is beginning our 4th year. We just posted the 2011 Fall Workshop Schedule. We are very excited about the new Theater Workshop led by our Clinical Director, Liz McDonough. Liz has years of theater experience and is a registered drama therapist. Students in the Theater Workshop will develop characters and scenes and experience different forms of theatrical expression. There will be a performance for friends and family at the end of the semester. All the Autistry students will be lending a hand to build Liz a stage!

We are also happy to announce that Courtenay Bell will join us for more workshop fun this year. Courtenay will be working with Dan in the Thursday and Friday Build Workshops and with Liz in the new Theater Workshop. She is also planning a Paint with Courtenay Day for sometime in the fall. In addition to her MA in Special Education and her Autism Certification Courtenay has a BFA in Painting from San Francisco Art Institute. She also skates with the Bay Area Derby Girls!

Sara Gardner returns to Autistry as an MFT Intern. Sara is working toward her Counseling Psychology Masters degree at Dominican University. She is an avid gamer and equestrian. Sara will lead two new groups at Autistry: The Gamers Group and the Sibling Support Group. The Gamers Group is closed but there is still space in the Sibling Group. Email Janet for more information: janet@autistry.com.

We also welcome a new face to Autistry: Anna Dow. Anna has been working with us in the Tuesday Build Workshop and will now join us on Saturdays with the Train Group. Anna is in the MFT program at Sonoma State. She graduated from Lesley University with a degree in Ecological Leadership and Education. Anna is originally from Mobile, Alabama.

The Autistry Summer Camp (also known as Camp Bear Bait) was a success. All campers returned with no snake bites, no poison oak scratches and no injuries! This was the first Autistry getaway and we are ready to plan some other excursions. A big THANK YOU to the Magnotti/Porter family for hosting the event on their property. The place was amazing – complete with pond and woods. Photos of the camping trip can be found here.

We are looking forward to another great year at Autistry Studios!

-The Autistry Team

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Janet Lawson, MFT | July 8, 2011

Tomorrow we are back from vacation! I hope you all enjoyed a little time off from your projects and are ready to get back to work. The 2011 Summer Session Schedule is now posted and can be found here. Most of the workshops are continuing with little change. Note that the Saturday Build Workshop now starts at 11am and ends at 3pm. The Film Workshop will start again in the Fall.

The addition this summer is the new class taught by Dan and Liz – Build/Drama Workshop. This is a 6-week workshop starting Sunday July 10th and running through August 14th. The workshop will include some acting improvisation and character building as well as theater prop construction. We are excited about this new approach and Liz will be developing new theater workshops for the fall.

The Autistry Storybook Playhouse was delivered to Grattan Elementary in San Francisco. The Playhouse was built by Autistry students and purchased at the fundraising event in March by Becky Foust. Becky donated the Playhouse to Pamela Wolfberg’s Autism Institute of Peer Socialization and Play. Pamela has been working with Grattan Elementary to create an ‘Autism Friendly” play space. The Storybook Playhouse will be an awesome addition to the new playground.

Watch for news of Eunice the Unicorn by Owen Bragg.

Copies of this first book project by Autistry Studios and SLM Creative will be available for purchase from the Autistry website very soon. Suzi Musgrove and Owen did a fabulous job on this. Owen’s new book, Ketinga goes to print next week. A few more of these projects and we will have created Autistry Publishing!

Kudos to Daniel M. who finished the first Autistry musical instrument project! Daniel worked very hard on his acoustic guitar – lots of sanding and many coats of shellac. This was a long process as it took lots of time for each layer of shellac to dry. But last week Daniel put the bridge on, inserted the tuners, attached the strings and tuned it up with an online program. Now for the music lessons…

Ken Pontac visited Autistry last week. Ken is a writer of graphic novels and film scripts. He is also the creator of Bump in the Night , an animated program for ABC TV. Ken will return to Autistry later this year to do a ‘show and tell’ of his work for our Autistry students. We’ll send out an announcement when we have more information.

Last week Nancy Dow Moody and Barry Benda of Lifehouse gave a presentation to our Autistry families about residential services available in Marin County. This is an issue that is very important to our families – where will our children live when they are ready to leave home? The presentation got us all thinking of creative solutions for our very creative kids.

The Autistry Parent Support Group will meet next on Thursday, July 14th at 7pm at Autistry Studios. This is a great place to discuss issues and to get feedback from others who have been there, are there now or will be there soon. The meetings are free for Autistry members (families currently enrolled in workshops) and $10 for others. Email Janet at janet@autistry.com if you plan to attend.

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Janet Lawson, MFT | April 25, 2011

In the news: The Autistry film group won 2nd prize at the EdRev Short Film Competition last weekend for the trailer for their new film – The Deadly Diamond.  You can view the trailer on YouTube. Filming on the The Deadly Diamond continued this weekend with the zombie shoot! Stay tuned for news of the premiere date.

We had a wonderful visit with Michael McManmon, the founder of the College Internship Program.  We gave him a tour of Autistry Studios and spent two hours discussing our programs, his programs, LD issues, ASD issues – and how we might work together.  It was great to talk with someone who gets it.  We are thinking of a Fall or Spring trip back east to their new Arts and Theater program. Here is a link to a posting about us at CIP. They did get Dan’s name wrong – it’s Dan Swearingen not Lawson!

Summer Plans: we will be continuing our scheduled workshops through the summer months.  We have openings in a few of the workshops so if you are interested in joining Autistry please contact us. We will open new workshops as our student body grows.

Our program has been going for nearly three years and we have learned a lot during this time. Over the next few weeks we will be sending out short articles about our experience – describing our program and laying out our vision for the future. We have big things planned!

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Janet Lawson, MFT | March 21, 2011

This has been a very busy month at Autistry!  On March 1 we had our official ribbon cutting at 37 Duffy Place. It was a lovely celebration with friends, colleagues and the Autistry Board of Directors. With the help of Mayor Al Boro and Councilman Damon Connolly we cut the red ribbon and became part of the San Rafael business community.  We were thrilled to have Nagam Abdaljabbar and Raminder Somal of Wells Fargo Bank appear bearing a large donation – thank you!  We were also very pleased by the support of the ASD service community: the Marin Autism Collaborative, United Cerebral Palsey of the North Bay, Cypress School, Lifehouse, Opportunity for Independence, Dominican University, The Ryder Foundation and many others.

We continued the celebration with an Autistry fundraiser and dance party on Saturday, March 5th.  Over 150 joined us to celebrate and to share the creative achievements of our Autistry students. We had fabulous projects on display – dioramas, films, paintings, books!  With only days before the big event we were told that the Studio was not appropriate for the size of our guest list. Diane Doodha and the Marin Art and Garden Center came to our rescue donating the beautiful Livermore Room for the evening. And a huge thank you to the event committee: Michael Breard, Tin Fan, Linda Xiques, Si Si Semple, LynnEl Powell, Liz McDonough and Kitty Edwinson. In just four days they transformed an informal warehouse party into an elegant garden gala. It was an absolutely magical evening with families coming together to share stories and to simply enjoy being together. We all realized that we need to have more community events so we are thinking of a summer BBQ (hopefully with no last minute venue changes!).

The Storybook Playhouse was purchased by poet/author/mother Becky Foust who has donated it to one of Autistry’s biggest fans, Dr. Pamela Wolfberg.  Pamela,the founder of Integrated Play Groups and the Mosaic Program has been working with Gratton Elementary School in San Francisco to design a playground that is ASD friendly. The Playhouse will be a wonderful addition to their program.

Now that we have all recovered from our week of partying the Autistry workshops are back in full swing.  We now have over 30 students in 8 workshops.  We continue to interview new students and we will open more workshops soon.

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Janet Lawson, MFT | February 16, 2011

On Sunday Feb 13th local artist Robert Evans spent the day at Autistry Studios. He worked with 10 Autistry artists and the paintings they created in just 5 hours are amazing. These paintings will be on sale at our fundraising event – Dancin’ at Duffy Place on Saturday, March 5th. Tickets for the event are available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/153082.

Abe: Panda

Daniel: City of Music

Breton: Dragon in the Mist

Theresa: Tangled in the Kite String

Steven: Green Menace

Devon: Untitled

David: Heroic Rock

Jonathan: QE II Under the Golden Gate

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Janet Lawson, MFT | January 21, 2011

Note relocation to
The Marin Art and Garden Center
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
Ross, CA

After all the heavy lifting, moving boxes, power tools, video equipment … not to mention building workbenches and work tables and painting we all need a bit of fun! So, join us as we kick up our heels at our first Autistry Studios fundraiser for Duffy Place. The warehouse is a great venue for a party – lots of room to dance. And, yes, that is a photo of the band!

There will be great auction items all created by Autistry students – garden fantasy structures, paintings, books – and much more.

Fabulous food from LaVier Fusion Cuisine!

Tickets are available online at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/153082. $50 for adults, $20 for teens.

Hope to see you all there!

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Janet Lawson, MFT | January 17, 2011

2011 is off to a great start! Thanks to Autistry families and friends we met the $7,500 Miranda Lux grant challenge. These funds are specifically to support our Core Pre-Vocational Workshops and will be used to purchase power tools, video equipment, and workshop supplies. It will also augment our Opportunity Fund making it possible for more families to attend our workshops.

DANCIN’ AT DUFFY PLACE – Saturday, March 5, at 5pm. Mark your calendars for our first big event in the new studio – 37 Duffy Place, San Rafael. The warehouse studio will be transformed into a dance hall and art gallery as we celebrate our wonderful new space and expanding program. There will be a live auction of Fantasy Garden Structures specially created by the Autistry members, a silent auction of fabulous student artwork and music by Cassandra Farrar and the Left Brains.  Join us for an evening of fun and creative exuberance.  Tickets go on sale soon so stay tuned.

The workshops are buzzing!

Friday Build Stuff with Dan: Adam finished building his dual boot computer and is now converting an old laptop into a digital photo display unit. He is fast becoming our go-to IT guy. Corey is working with Dan on the Fantasy Garden Structures -researching photos and helping with the design concepts. Ian G. is doing the very detailed painting of his characters for the new diorama. He is also working with us during the week on a host of Autistry building chores. Ross has finished the sketch model for his World War I piece and will begin the build process. We welcomed a new member, Daniel M. to the group this week. Daniel has been exploring Star Wars scenes looking for the perfect scenario to build.

Saturday Film Stuff with Nate: Peter and Steven added the credits to the Rock ’em Sock ’em epic. It will have its premiere showing at the March 5th event. This semester Ian and Sawyer will work with Peter and Steven to create a group project. I peeked in and it looks like there is a film noir in the works! Lots of venetian blinds and deep shadows.

Saturday Build Stuff with Dan: The train boys! Connor, Ryan, Andrew and Daniel G. are working together on a huge HO scale train layout. This is an exciting and ambitious project based on a layout done by John Olson and featured in Model Railroader. This week they cut out the road bed for the tracks. Everyone got a lot of practice on the jigsaw.

Sunday Build Stuff with Dan: Lots of energy in the Sunday group! David is carving a bokken (wooden Japanese sword). Daniel S. is making fiberglass chest and back armor. As none of us has done this before we will all be learning something new. Devon is adding the final touches to Rattina’s Nest. Gabe, who just joined us is building a multi-level dreamscape diorama.

Tuesday Build Stuff with Dan: Owen is working with Suzi to get Eunice the Unicorn ready for the printers. Abe finished his tug boat and is working on a wooden castle with a drawbridge. He also has a new line of Valentine Cards for sale. Katharine finished the base of her Beetlejuice diorama and will begin work on the house and cemetery. April came on board with lots of ideas and energy! She is working on an undersea diorama – a real challenge.

Thursday Build Stuff with Dan: Two new faces on Thursday. Jon is working on a retro Batmobile as well as creating some great character sketches. Aaron is in the exploration phase, looking through books for ideas and letting his mind go wide and dream. Rinny has created some wonderful characters for her shadow play and has shot several test scenes. Erik, pictured here with Jonathan, is putting the finishing touches on his Sausalito train layout – it is looking great! Jonathan, after suffering through putting together a teeny tiny model is now working on the Titanic.

Lots of work happening around here and we are having a blast.

Janet, Dan, Nate and Liz

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Janet Lawson, MFT | December 28, 2010

2010 has been a year of change and growth at Autistry Studios. We moved into a huge and wonderful new studio- 37 Duffy Place in San Rafael. We added 3 more workshops (and another will likely begin soon!). Our membership has doubled. We have new staff, new volunteers and many new families. And there is much more fun ahead in 2011!

We just listed the Core Workshops for Jan-May 2011 and you can find the list here: Spring Workshop Schedule. Click on the workshop titles for more information.

Meet the Challenge! The Miranda Lux Foundation has put up a $7,500 Challenge Grant to support our Core Workshop Program. This is a matching grant which means that they will match dollar for dollar all funds we raise up to $7,500. So, your end-of-the-year donation will count double! Please help us meet this challenge.

Autistry Graphics: We are close to reaching our fundraising goal to launch our first small business enterprise – Autistry Graphics. This new venture will offer training, internships, employment and job placement support for our Autistry Studios members. If you would like to support our efforts to create jobs please email Janet (janet@autistrystudios.com) for more information.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday March 1st we will have an Open House and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to celebrate our move to San Rafael. Invitations will go out the first week of January.

Saturday March 5th will be the first Autistry Studios Winter Carnival. We are forming event committees now so please email Janet if can you lend a hand creating this unique event.

Looking forward to a great new year!

The Autistry Studios Team

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Janet Lawson, MFT | November 15, 2010

What a whirlwind of activity around here! We just finished our first week of workshops in the new studio and it was awesome. We are quickly converting this huge cavernous space into a warm, cozy workplace. As we look around at all the power tools, hand tools, wood, paints, supplies, and miscellaneous materials it is hard to believe we had all that in the barn!

We have had lots of offers to help us get settled into the new space. It has been difficult to organize work parties as we have been working around the workshop schedule. If you are available on Wednesdays please let me know as that is the day we have no workshops and we can get work done on the space.

And – if you have any of the following items you would like to donate that would be very helpful:

Couches (small and large)
Easy chairs
Office chairs
Book shelves
Lamps (floor lamps and desk lamps)

Autistry in the News: Sean Havey wrote a nice article about us for the new San Rafael Patch online newspaper. You can find the article here and join the discussion: Nonprofit Serving Autistic Teens Opens in San Rafael. (Of course we have workshops for adults too!)

Friday Build Stuff with Dan: The Friday guys helped move in this week – unpacking boxes and setting up work spaces. We did manage to get some project work done. Adam is working on our IT infrastructure and trying to figure out how to get all our computers online. Ian G. dug through the mountain of boxes to find the pieces necessary to work on a new diorama. Ross’ is working on his very creative conceptual piece based on World War I. Corey has been building a sketch model of a movie theater reflecting his passion for films.

Saturday Film Stuff with Nate: We added a new student this week – David. He jumped right in with story ideas, wrote a treatment and began a storyboard. Great energy! Peter’s film project is amazing – a spoof on the Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies. Steven finished one background and began a second for his new animated epic. Ian finished his storyboard for his new Holiday Classic – Kung Fu Santa!

Saturday Build Stuff with Dan: And another two new students, Connor and Dominic joined Andrew for this new Saturday afternoon Build Stuff workshop. Connor and Andrew are working on a train layout. I heard rumors that it could be a Harry Potter themed diorama with the Hogwarts Express. Dominic is creating fabulous cloth dolls. He is very talented and has been working with a hot glue gun but is looking forward to learning to sew and to create life size dolls. Lots of fun!

Sunday Build Stuff with Dan: Is Sunday workshop turning into an exercise & build stuff class? Devon, Sawyer, Ryan and Daniel all worked on their projects but also took time out for some energetic pugil stick competitions. We all had such a great time we’re figuring out how to add this to our regular schedule – and get our project work done!

Tuesday Build Stuff with Dan: Welcome Katharine! The program is truly expanding and Katharine fits right in. She is an ardent fan of Tim Burton films, especially Beetlejuice, and wants to create a diorama of the graveyard scene. Owen has finished the drawings for Eunice the Unicorn and is now hard at work on Alvin & The Chipmunks meet the Rugrats. Abe created a wonderful new holiday card in a style quite unlike any of his earlier work – truly moving forward.

Thursday Build Stuff with Dan: Our new Thursday workshop has familiar faces but will soon have some new ones. Rinny is back with new project ideas. Lots of great brainstorming happening. I heard mention of shadow play and stop action with bears and elves. We are all looking forward to her next creation. Erik and Dan are talking trains. The Sausalito layout is coming along great and now that we have this bigger space they are both dreaming about grander train ideas.

Our Autistry staff has grown too! Liz McDonough has joined us and is currently working Saturday, Sunday and Thursday. This week we had two volunteers, Dan Weil and Michael Breard. This is all very exciting!

–The Autistry Team

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Janet Lawson, MFT | September 23, 2010

Join us for a great workout, great food and great company! To register email Janet or call: (415) 945-9788.

Sign up for a 1-hour Spin with Michael, Dan, or Duncan (or sign up for all three!). Or, sign up for a special 2-hour Spin and Yoga with Teri. The suggested donation is $40 for each 1 hour Spin and $80 for the the 2-hour Spin. To pay online go to the Donate Page! But let Janet know which session or sessions you would like.

The BBQ begins at the end of the first Spin – 11am. And it continues throughout the day. So, work out hard and eat hearty!

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