Excelsior's 'Art On The Lake': Art & Autism
EXCELSIOR, Minn. (WCCO) -- If you're not "Going to the Lake" this weekend, you can still head out to Lake Minnetonka.
"Art on the Lake" in Excelsior is back for the 35th year. Local musicians will also take the stage both Saturday and Sunday afternoon for "Music by the Bay." It's not just a chance for you to meet local artist but to taste local cuisine.
Cars, cityscapes, and streets those are the staples of artist Thaddeus Jameson's work.
"The old ford station wagon, it's based off an old street in NYC," Jameson said while drawing in his Edina studio. "They've slowly kind of taken off, simple lines, black and white and color pencil have been the most recent."
Jameson's drawings are all about the details, thousands of lines: some straight, others crooked, and some squiggly, but all placed perfectly.
"I'm doing everything; this is velar finish it will make the color pencils really stand out," Jameson said.
The 31-year-old is smart, too. He has a photographic memory and he was diagnosed with autism at a young age.
"He has regressive onset type, which means he had a period of time lost all ability to communicate," said his mother, Laura Sweeney, "It went from being wild abstracts at two, to almost story telling with his friends at school."
His source of inspiration as an adult comes from the streets of Manhattan. Self-taught it wasn't until Jameson attended Dowling college in New York that he finally accepted a little instruction.
"He never took any art lessons; he didn't want to be told what to do when this was how he relaxed," Sweeney said.
Slowly his speech returned and his talent got even better. Jameson was even nominated for a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, but opted to return to Minnesota. Rather than living in London, he brought a piece of it home.
"This is a tribute to London; the more will be a lot like the rest of my work, any city anywhere," he said, showing us the intricate murals he is currently working on in his Edina apartment residence.
He's currently the "Artist in Residence" at Artist League Studios -- a think-tank studio for emerging artists.
Jameson is currently making series of 10 pieces and, once complete, he will have an exhibition in New York. Give him a pen and he'll pretty much draw anywhere anytime.
"Every wall in the staircase is my own license to do whatever I want visually," he said.
The program was founded by native Minnesota painter Edward Lentsch.
If you'd like to check out Art on the Lake, click here.
