I used to be a dreamer, a romantic, a person of ‘if only’ who believed the word ‘maybe’ held the promise of ‘yes’. Then I became an idealist, someone who developed the warriors visions of a better world or worlds, the way things should be, could be, with all the dogmatic passion of a rebel. Read the rest of this entry »
I was never one to wear shoes as a kid and didn’t think much of socks either. I felt they were suffocating my feet. It was like being blindfolded or having your hands in gloves all the time. So whether the ground was covered in frost or the Australian summer tarmac so hot the tar stuck to your feet, those shoes came off! Read the rest of this entry »
This month’s artwork is titled “Cat’s Home”. It’s a painting about homelessness and being a citizen of community. It’s about feeling like a stray cat and having a past full of memories of the places and people who contribute to who you ultimately become along your journey. It also relates to the song, Stray Cat’s, Stray Children which you can find here.
It is 62cm x 92cm, stretched canvas with wooden blocks, collage and acrylic.
I hope you enjoy the painting. You can see it and others in my online gallery.
Warmly,
This month’s art work is titled “The Velveteen Rabbitâ€.
Its from my Dreamscapes/Faceless collection and features a Rabbit and his Person in a cradle like boat on a lagoon. Each appears waiting for the other to navigate and because neither do, the water itself navigates them. They drift in silence, just ‘being’.  The Velveteen Rabbit was a book by Margery Williams about a stuffed rabbit who longs to be a real rabbit.  The work is acrylic on paper, 31cm x 41cm.
I hope you enjoy the painting. It is one I did this week, the rest of which you can see in my online gallery.
Warmly,
baloombawop
Written and produced by Donna Williams
and performed by Donna and The Aspinauts
Once upon tough time, there were Grumpy Gallumphies who didn’t like strangeness it made them quite grumpy. Then a magical train arrived from a dream and those who could dare, they had dared to get in. It was off to Baloomba-wop where they had purple rain, and a shop that even sold new replacement brains!
They would meet Charlie Warmton whose best friend was a blanket, and the Brookenstein Fox who lives up on a shelf, and Bluster-McFluster with his technical gadgets and the Gimmety-Gimme with everything for herself. They’d meet Booger-Looger who picks his nose to perfection and the Whirly-twirl-girl who lacks any direction. And Gadoodleborger who runs a magical shop which just happens to be where the train is to stop.
But deep in Baloomba-wop, a Grumpy Gallumphy, the notorious Dame Grumpty-Doo-bee-the-Fourth. She is looking to change Baloomba-wop for forever. She’s determined to make all these weirdoes quite plain. Will she be stopped before everything’s ‘normal’, I wonder. Or succeed making all be exactly the same? Read the rest of this entry »
Once upon a time I was in Toronto, a place with icy ponds and mother of pearl rainbows sparkled in frost. I was taken to CBS radio station to meet with a journalist, Peter Gzowski. He was a toasty man, a voice like an open fire, a manner like Read the rest of this entry »
This month’s art work is titled “Life on Earth”.
It features two of my faceless people standing in a forest at ‘the edge of the earth’. Whilst they are grounded in a tangible reality, beneath them is a realm of intangible emotions. One is tentatively asking the other a question but the other person is unable to answer. The work is acrylic on paper, 31cm x 41cm.
I hope you enjoy the painting. It is one I did last week, the rest of which you can see in my online gallery.
Warmly,
Donna and The Aspinauts have an adult version of the Barbie song, but I’ve reworked the lyrics for a kids version. Enjoy Read the rest of this entry »
 Now the topic might totally turn you off, but a percentage of so called ‘low functioning’ kids with autism engage in this obsessively, occasionally even into adulthood. In fact Temple Grandin cites herself as having been one of those children Read the rest of this entry »
Footsteps of a Nobody is getting a 2nd showing!
Footsteps of a Nobody is a powerful one woman rock-musical from Donna Williams, author of the international bestseller, Nobody Nowhere; Autobiography of an Autistic Girl. 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 life as a domestic prostitute and on to her ultimate fight to claim a place of equality among others.
REVIEWS OF DONNA WILLIAMS’ BOOKS:
THE NEW YORK TIMES: She allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: By turns fascinating and harrowing…
WEEKEND REVIEW: …evocative, poetic…compelling, shocking, gut-wrenchingly moving…
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Powerful and unique.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster.
BOOKINGS: 9329 8821
Donna Williams is an Australian born adult with autism who was assessed as psychotic at the age of 2 in 1965, labelled disturbed in the 1970s and diagnosed as autistic in her 20s in 1991.
She acquired functional speech in late childhood and went on to become a qualified teacher with an honors degree in Sociology and a degree in Linguistics. She is the author of two international bestselling autobiographies and has 10 published books including 4 text books widely used in autism education and two books of poetry and prose.
As a screenwriter, she wrote the screenplay to “Nobody Nowhere”, the first book in her 4 book autobiographical series. That screenplay is currently under option to become a Hollywood film. She is an professional artist, singer-songwriter and published poet as well as a world renowned public speaker on autism now living with her husband in Australia. In her presentations she draws not only on her own experiences but on international experience as a professional autism consultant since 1996.
Donna’s is a speaker in demand around the world due to her unique perspective and ability to share her feelings and experiences on a very personal level. More information about her and her life’s work can be found on her website at http://www.donnawilliams.net .