Michael Lindsay describes the color blue as “peaceful and calming,” but it was excitement he felt most when his painting Full Circle in Blue won the People’s Choice Award this month at the Falls Church Arts’ Full Circle exhibit.
“Full Circle in Blue represents the good and hard things in life,” the 22-year-old Arlington resident wrote in an email response to questions—an interview format his mother, Debra Lindsay, says is easier for him.
“As someone with autism who has trouble expressing themselves, I often feel like I’m talking in circles, with no one understanding,” Lindsay says. “But I’m in here. Expressing yourself through art is so freeing, and these circles [in the painting] are free, never ending or giving up. They are also Blue, which to me is the most beautiful color.”
Lindsay, who also has epilepsy, painted the acrylic-on-canvas piece last summer under the guidance of Randa Fakes LoGerfo, his art mentor. They were studying paint pouring, a technique that creates flowing patterns. When Fakes LoGerfo learned about the show’s theme, which centered on “the circle or the concept of coming full circle,” according to the organization’s website, she thought Full Circle in Blue would be a perfect fit.
She and Lindsay’s mom submitted it for consideration without telling him. His mom worried that he would be disappointed if it wasn’t accepted. “He [had] tried many times, but never got accepted or won anything,” says Fakes LoGerfo, who lives near Seven Corners.
The juried exhibit ran from Jan. 11-Feb. 23, inviting visitors through Feb. 6 to cast a vote for their favorite of the show’s 45 artworks using a blind ballot.
When Lindsay found out he won, “he was just really, really happy and proud,” his mom says. “People with special needs, when you’re competing, you don’t win that often. He’s even said that, so this just felt like people really saw his art and reacted to it.”
“I’m really surprised, happy and grateful” to win, says the artist. “I want to keep learning, become a better artist and enter more exhibits to share my art with others.”
Debra Lindsay says art has long been an outlet for her son. “He’s been doing art since he was a little kid” at public school and through private lessons, she shares. When it comes to “people with autism or a communication impairment…it’s easy, I think, for people to either assume things about them or not really get to know them, know their thoughts and know who they are. They have a quieter presence, a quieter voice…. But through art, he’s seen.”
A graduate of Yorktown High School, Lindsay works at Washington Golf & Country Club’s restaurant through the Arlington Career Center, part of Arlington County Public Schools. Once a week, Fakes LoGerfo joins him in his dedicated art room at home for a lesson. (During the summer, when their schedules are more flexible, they meet every day.)
The two began working together three years ago, when Fakes LoGerfo got an email from the Arlington Artists Alliance about a mother looking for a teacher for her son. Having run the art department at an international school in her native Jordan, Fakes LoGerfo says she “felt so confident being with Michael because I…could tell which stage he’s in and how can I help them improve.”
“Michael and I have a passion for blues,” she adds, “and this is how we clicked from the beginning.”
For the first year, the pair focused on painting replicas of masterpieces by famous artists, including Lindsay’s favorite, Van Gogh. They explored different media, such as charcoal and pencils, the next year. Most recently, they have homed in on acrylic painting.
Debra Lindsay hopes painting will be something her son can do for the rest of his life and perhaps turn into a business. He’s already sold three pieces: Full Circle in Blue sold for $125. Family friends bought a Van Gogh-inspired painting he made of a church, and another of a beach.
For now, she says, “this is just something really happy in his life that he can do right now, regardless of all the limitations.”