Mansfield, OH – Young adult with autism, Aaron Beers, calls his learning difference a gift. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of two when his mother Linda Beers, noticed he had regressed from walking, back to crawling and babbling. It was hard to communicate with him but once he got his glasses at age three, his world expanded.
Since then his head was tiled back to mentally drink the structure of buildings. At age four he was drawing full blueprints of the houses he visited. Linda Beers told Mansfield News Journal:
“The way he does things is vary orderly. He sees details others miss.”
Arnold tells it differently. While he likes the big picture, his lens captures a different story, focusing on a small detail. Arron also met with Mansfield News Journal and said:
“I don’t know how it comes to me, but some nature in me says take a photo there. I don’t know if I could have done this without my ‘disability.’”
He later added:
“That’s the thing about disabilities, people label it, say you can’t do something, but it should be changed around. They can do it, and sometimes even better than others.”
He thinks people should focus on the beauty that learning differences bring out, much like the beauty he brought out in Coney Island’s North Main Street sign. It’s his most popular piece and copies of it, along with others, are available at Elements of Art Studio/Gallery. Coney Island liked it so much that they even bought a copy.
As Aaron improves his craft he’ll put his work online.
To see his work in person go to 96 North Main Street Mansfield, OH 44902. It’s Open Tuesday-Friday 10AM-5PM and Saturday: 10AM-3PM.
Contributed by Audrey L. Hollingshead.
Source: on the Mansfield News Journal: Youth photographer calls autism gift, not disability