My original art works have been exhibited and sold nationally and internationally and usually sell for $100-$1,500.  The Limited Edition prints are from collections of only 50 meaning that after 50 art prints are made of each of the original works these are derived from no more art prints will be made so there will only ever be 50 of these in the world.

If you’ve wanted one of my original artworks, or want to buy one as a fundraiser for a charity auction, now’s a good time to grab one in this sale.  It lasts 6 days so be quick.  You can find the ebay link here

Happy bidding.

Warmly,

Donna Williams *)
author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.

http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm

http://www.aspinauts.com

• Email address: bookings(at)donnawilliams.net
• Web site: www.donnawilliams.net

(* denotes solo exhibit)

• 2004: Postcard Exhibition, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
• 2005: * Original works and prints, Art@8 Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
• 2005: Frankston Festival Art Exhibition, Melbourne
• 2006: * Autism and Sensing, Vanguard Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
• 2007: * Alternative Normalities, Gallery 15, Melbourne (solo)
• 2007: Spectrum art auction, Cornwall, UK
• 2007: Prism Gallery, Huntington, Virginia, USA
• 2008: * Alternative Normalities, Grenfell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (solo)
• 2008: World Autism Awareness Art Exhibition, United Nations Building, New York, NY, USA
• 2008: The Savant Exhibition, Manhattan Children’s Centre, New York, NY
• 2008: * Beyond Words, Gallery 15, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
• 2008: Footsteps Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• 2009: * A Place of Belonging, Grenfell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (solo)
• 2009: Jarmbi Gallery, Burrinja Cultural Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• 2009: UN Plaza, New York, NY, USA

• 1997: Sculpture Exhibition, Malvern Hills College, Great Malvern, UK
• 1998: * Victorian Water Cure Exhibition, Malvern Museum, Great Malvern, UK (Commissioned museum exhibit for public display)
• 2006: * Autism and Sensing; the Unlost Instinct, Vanguard Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2009: Jarmbi Gallery, Burrinja Cultural Centre, Melbourne, Australia

• 1990: Nobody Nowhere became a number one international best-seller and was the first mainstream published autobiography of a person diagnosed with autism. It was a controversial and groundbreaking book at that time which became translated into 20 languages, was 10 weeks at number one on the New York Times Best-Seller list and sold over half a million copies. Its worldwide exposure paved the way for so many others who have since had their works published throughout the world.
• 1992: Somebody Somewhere also became an international number one best-seller.
• 1996: Autism; An Inside Out Approach.
• 1998: Autism and Sensing; The Unlost Instinct.
• 1998: Like Colour To The Blind.
• 2003: Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage of Involuntary Self Protection Responses.
• 2004: Everyday Heaven.
• 2004: Not Just Anything.
• 2005: The Jumbled Jigsaw.
• 2010: Weirdos Like Me.

• 1999: Nobody Nowhere (named after the book)
• 2005: Mutation
• 2010: Broken Biscuit

In 2000 two songs from the Nobody Nowhere album were featured in a Japanese TV series, Things You Taught Me (TBS) that has been released internationally and released on the soundtrack for the film.

In 2007 and 2008 two tracks from the Nobody Nowhere album made the top 50 on Artist Underground and the track Beautiful Behavioural Mutations had 15,000 hits in a year on You Tube.

In 2008 Donna formed an inter-arts rock band, Donna and The Aspinauts which began performing in 2009.

They produced their debut album, Broken Biscuit, in 2010, produced by Paul Spears at PV Sounds Studio.

• 2005: Wrote the screenplay to Nobody Nowhere (now under option to Hollywood producer Beverly Nero).
• 2005-2006: Wrote 5 other feature films, now represented by a Hollywood film agent, Liz Hanley of Bicoastal Talent, Burbank, CA.
• 2007: Awarded a commendation for the feature film screenplay The Tower.

I featured in four television documentaries:

• 1993: Autism, Emotion and Behavior, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, USA
• 1995: Jam Jar, Fresh Film, in association with Channel 4, UK
• 1995: Krankheit Als Schicksal, Spiegel TV, Germany
• 1995: Yokoso Watashi No Sekai E “Jiheisho” Donna Williams, NHK, Japan

and five other television appearances:

• 1992: Person Of The Week on Peter Jennings, ABC News, USA
• 1998: Midlands Today Evening News, UK : appeared with my life sized sculpture, My World, The World
• 1994: Norwegian Evening News, Norway.
• 1999: BBC, UK.
• 2006: Insight, SBS, Australia.
• 2007: Win News, Channel 9, Australia.
• 2008: Visions, Channel 31, Melbourne, Australia

• New York Times (US)
• Los Angeles Times (US)
• Boston Globe (US)
• Washington Post (US)
• Toronto Star (Canada)
• National Post (Canada)
• Maclean’s Magazine (Canada)
• Mirabella (US)
• Life Magazine (UK)
• Hello (UK)
• Women’s Day (UK)
• The Guardian (UK)
• The Mail (UK)
• The Express (UK)
• The Independent (UK)
• The Age (Australia)
• Leader (Australia)
• MX (Australia)
• Other publications in Norway, Germany, Israel, France, Japan, Italy.

• Women’s Hour, Jenny Murray, BBC, UK
• Morningside Program, Peter Gzowski, CBC, Canada
• National Public Radio, New York, USA
• Autism One Radio, USA
• ABC, Sydney, Australia
• 3CR, Melbourne, Australia
• MDR, Melbourne, Australia
• Also featured on German radio.

This item originally posted here:

Art Works by Donna Williams on Ebay

On May 21st, for one night only Donna Williams and The Aspinauts will perform the rock musical Footsteps of a Nobody at the prestigious Wendouree Centre For Performing Arts.  Proudly sponsored by Ballarat Autism Network as part of World Autism Awareness Month, the WCPA is Ballarat’s jewel in the crown theatre with seating for over 850.  With question time to follow the show this is an opportunity for an amazing, informative and inspiring night out.

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH EVENT

Footsteps of a Nobody is a powerful one woman rock-musical written, directed and performed by Donna Williams, author of the international bestseller, Nobody Nowhere; Autobiography of an Autistic Girl and musically accompanied by The Aspinauts.   Through characterisations, gestural signing, evocative spoken word and song it traces Donna’s pivotal experiences from a meaning deaf, meaning blind feral child to homelessness and on to her ultimate fight to claim a place of equality among others.

Disabled access is available.  Show is suitable for teens and adults. Question time available after the show.

REVIEWS OF DONNA WILLIAMS’ WRITING:

She allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before.
NEW YORK TIMES

Powerful and unique.
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Powerful enough to make one reassess what it means to be human.
MODE

By turns fascinating and harrowing…
PEOPLE MAGAZINE

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE FOOTSTEPS SHOW:

“The show was outstanding; you are very talented. The Q & A at the end was a great surprise. Thank you for a great night, fantastic performance, amazing music and wonderful conversation provoked afterwards!”

- Kelly O’Brien

“I found your performance last night extremely moving. You have a beautiful voice and your poetry and song lyrics are amazing! Thank you once again for your inspirational show Donna”.

- Jill Young
WHERE: Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, Howitt St, Wendouree, Ballarat.

COST:  Full Price $20,  under 18s  $5.00

TIME: 7-8pm

BOOKINGS: Phone Bookings & payment direct to Booking Office -03 5338 0980
Hours- Tues-Fri -9.00am -1.00pm and 2.00 – 4.30pm

ENQUIRIES: contact Kris on kks(at)netconnect.com.au

• Disabled access available

• Suitable for teens and older children

• Question time available after the show

Proudly sponsored by: Ballarat Autism Network

http://www.donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

The Aspinauts head to Ballarat’s Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

It’s In The Can

This item originally posted here:

Donna Williams and The Aspinauts, released without charge.

Now some people with OCD become caught in involuntary compulsive loops to check and recheck, others to wash and rewash.  My OCD had a blowout when I was about 9.  I already had tics since age 2.  By my OCD manifested in compulsive checking but more severely in compulsions to repeat patterns, to create exact rhythmic repetitions and balance and pairing, until things were indistinguishably ’same’.

Now imagine this in a child with chronic ear, nose, throat, lung infections who is struggling with gunk that pressures the Eustachian tubes in the ears, blocking them, and creating persistently uneven pressure in one to the other.  In me the glue ear and infections and meaning deafness drove me balmy enough but on top of that this compulsion to pop and repop and repop my ears lead to strained jaw and neck muscles, impaired breathing, lack of oxygen and ultimately extreme distress and depression.

At first it was just perplexing.  What was this clicking, this popping in my ears.  I could even do it to tunes.  But then it took control of me, building from a novelty to a compulsion, to something I was compelled to do 20%, 30% finally sometimes 80% of my waking day.  Try concentrating when you are constantly compelled to rebalance the pressure in your ears with this popping strategy.  Try just getting on with it. Compulsive ear popping is an insidious tic or OCD compulsion because the environment can’t see when its happening so can’t help the person divert.

Anyway, I had such a holiday from this hellish compulsion, especially since a Haemophilus infection and 4 months of antibiotics ate much of my Strep, giving me a great holiday from co-morbids.  But after all the nose and ear inflammation, the ear popping compulsion has returned to haunt me.  First 20% of my day, then sometimes 80% then down again.

Some days good, some bad.  Today it is giving me hassle.  But I remember one of the worst things in late childhood was I couldn’t communicate it so I kept hitting myself in the ears and shaking my head.  What of all the kids with this who can’t explain what they’re experiencing.

Once I could communicate in sentences with some fluency by age 11-13 one of the first things I asked was ‘my ears are clicking’.  Nobody understood me, but in those days we had a tape recorder and mic so I grabbed the mic, stuck it to my ear and clicked away.  My aunty was well amused and perplexed.  She had me do it again this time with my mouth open.  I remember she declared, ‘it really is coming from her ears’.

Still, it took me until the age of 46 to know exactly what was happening.  I had the voluntary ability to open my Eustachian tubes in my ears, to pop my ears, and my OCD had taken that and played havoc with it, making something truly innocuous, even helpful, into a form of torture.  Hopefully, when I lay off the bananas (they raise Dopamine which contributes to tics and OCD) and maybe take some Taurine (which is known to reduce OCD) this annoying flea will get off my back.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Compulsive ear popping

From the beginning it was a real buzz to find our events attracted not just those in the autism community but also those with other disabilities.  I made a point of choosing venues for our shows which had disabled access but more than this, people knew they could be themselves at our events, that we’d always see the person, not the label (that’s also a lyric in the song Mirror that we perform in Footsteps of a Nobody).

People knew I supported and advocated for a not just a more disability friendly society, but a more diversity friendly society.  Not hard to tell with songs like Beautiful Behavioural Mutations , the anthem of Broken Biscuit the plea for equality in Simply Be or the bitey satire of All Be Happy.

From the beginning our events felt rather ‘John Lennon’ and we were proud of that atmosphere.  Luckily, it hasn’t changed.  At the end of the shows, you can actually talk to us, meet us, ask us questions.  There’s no us and them, no walls.  I’d like to keep it that way.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

A disability friendly band; Donna and The Aspinauts

Dear Donna,

The earthquake and its aftermath in Haiti have touched all of our lives. Many in the CD Baby family have already contributed as individuals, but we wanted to do more to help the victims of the horrible earthquake tragedy. By selling your music on CD Baby, you can help raise funds towards those affected by the disaster.

Starting on Monday, January 25th and continuing for two weeks, we will donate $1 of our cut from every CD sale through our website, and $1 from every download sale over $8.99 on our site, to the American Red Cross and to Mercy Corps, a Portland-based relief organization with a large presence in Haiti. With your help, we hope to raise tens of thousands of dollars. Since the donation will be taken out of OUR cut of sales, you will still earn the normal amount per CD and download sale. If you’d like to help out as well, consider letting your fan base know that a portion of your sales will go to these fine organizations.
On behalf of all CD Baby employees, I thank you for helping out during this time of great human tragedy in Haiti.

Sincerely,
Brian Felsen
CD Baby President

I  have two albums, Nobody Nowhere

and Mutation.

If you’ve ever wanted to buy the albums, now is a good time to do so.

You can listen to and buy my albums here and here .

You can also help have Haiti’s international debt canceled by signing this petition.

Thank you

Warmly,

Donna *)

–
Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

$1 per album will go to Haiti

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Taking Autism to the Theatre

I’ve got 2 pay per view lectures up on Autism Hangout you might find of interest.
They were made for Rita Rubin’s LA audience when I was unable to make it because immune deficiency and pneumonia complications meant I couldn’t fly.

I’ve made the lectures only $10 so they are affordable and accessible, particularly to those who can’t normally afford the time, travel or expense of attending conferences.  Purchase entitles you to 60 days of viewing.

You can view them here:

‘Meaning Deafness, Meaning Blindness, Body Disconnectedness;

agnosias in the context of autism’

http://www.autismhangout.com/education/details.asp?id=32

‘Navigating Involuntary and Managing Voluntary Behaviours on the Autism Spectrum‘

http://www.autismhangout.com/education/details.asp?id=33

Hope you find them useful.

Warmly,

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Affordable Autism Lectures

Over on my facebook page someone asked …“If you had to explain what is autism in simple terms to a person who knew nothing about it what would you say? “

It was a great question and putting autism in simple terms… well that’s so hard because the word is misused for SO MUCH.  For example among the conditions I identified in The Jumbled Jigsaw as part of an autism ‘fruit salad‘ were… Agnosias = the brain fails to put meaning to what the senses perceive.

Alexithymia = where the brain can’t easily process emotions.

Aphasias = the brain fails to connect thought to verbal speech.

Selective mutism = anxiety severs the connection to verbal speech.

Oral dyspraxia = the brain fails to co-ordinate articulation.

Motor dyspraxia = the brain fails to co-ordinate physical co-ordination.

Dyspraxia = there parts of the brain are not processing information efficiently, resulting in mono-track, partial and delayed information processing with related information overload and potential for meltdowns.

Co-morbids = the brain’s chemistry is imbalanced resulting in involuntary mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders, attention deficits, mental confusion and sometimes psychotic episodes.

Gut/immune/metabolic disorders = where genetic and/or environmental physical health disorders effect information processing, behavior, interaction, communication, development and functioning styles, levels and abilities.

Brain damage = where genetic or environmental damage to the brain has resulted in loss of functions, inability to use existing functions in an integrated way or leads to such needs to adapt the use of the body and senses that it sets in motion altered developmental paths.

Seizures = electrical surges in the brain which are generally identified as epilepsy and which can include atypical epilepsies and complex partial seizures resulting in staring spells, involuntary movements and utterances and disturbing sensory perceptual and physical experiences.  Seizures can also result in progressive brain damage, learning disability, loss of functions, inability to consistently use the functions one has and interfere significantly with development.

Personality disorders = where particular personality traits have become so extreme under a range of different environmental, physical or genetic circumstances, that the personality trait has made the person unable to function to their greatest potential or so disrupted their environment as to make it unsustainable.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder = where someone (with or without autism) who has a strong self-confident personality trait has become so over indulged that their natural tendency to presume rights over those of others has reached disorder proportions.  NPD would be complicated if the person was raised in a situation of ‘emotional incest’, particularly where the parent has become co-dependent to their child’s personality disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder = where a person is so details oriented, perfectionist, achievement driven and afraid to lose control, that their life is built around their obsessive interests.

Reactive Attachment Disorder = where due to early separation, severe health issues, significant sensory perceptual deficits or due to abuse or neglect, the bonding process was interrupted severely enough to result in later social-emotional development

Exposure Anxiety =Involuntary avoidance, diversion and retaliation responses resulting in difficulty doing as oneself, by oneself or for oneself.

Autistic withdrawal = temporary or long term, acute or chronic reaction to distress, overload and vulnerability in which one shuts down or closes off to communication, interaction or consideration or others.

Autistic encapsulation = where a range of conditions and circumstances result in extensively diminished ability to consider, turn to, relate to, trust or need the involvement of others.  This may be to the degree that the individual either ignores all needs or desires which might require or involve others or the behavioural/neurological pattern has become so ingrained it cannot naturally occur to them as to how they might involve or want to involve others.

Autistic culture = where a group with a shared diagnosis or identification with a shared diagnosis, see themselves as a distinct social group.

Autistic pride = where a group with a shared diagnosis or identification with a shared diagnosis, focus and embrace the perceived shared traits that adhere to popular autism related stereotypes.

And so… what’s autism?

Well that’s usually the diagnosis when a most diagnosticians meet someone with an autism fruit salad and can’t differentiate, recognise or label the individual parts or when there’s no funding for the sum impact of those parts which has presented itself ‘autistically’.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Explaining autism in simple terms