Edwin Spiers Art

I have to post everything I do here before I let myself move on to the next thing. no more getting rid of things half way because I don't like them, let's call it something fancy like "an artistic journey" 

[edwinspiersart]

doubts doodle

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this is my great grandad and his parents, photographed in a studio in the same UK town I live in now. if anyone wants to say anything bad about mixed couples or say anything racist in my company I’m done with it, no more! there’s a reason for my mother’s maiden name and it’s not because we’re scottish, it came from the name of the plantation owner whose plantation my relatives escaped from. in the plantation they were given “new” names that were English words as first names and the plantation owners names as second, like “Mustard Stewart” and “Dandy Stewart”. I look white, I know that, I know because of the difference between me and my brother. when I was 6 my brother was in the nursery attached to the school and they did family photo day. I was told my brother couldn’t be related to me because our skin was different, it took a teacher who knew my family to intervene and make that photo happen. imagine being a 6 year old having that argument, I held my brother in my arms hours after his birth, I didn’t see a difference, I saw my brother. when I was in high school I was pulled up by teachers for having “styled” hair because my hair grows in curls. no matter what I said it would mean calls home before they would actually believe me. when people make comments about race in front of me, because I have pale skin (and a short haircut that doesn’t show the curls) they get surprised when I challenge them, they thought they were in “the right company” or “just having a laugh”. hearing how my family escaped the slave trade, became circus workers then railway builders before finally becoming tailors and earning the respect of the community, it’s not a laugh to me. hearing what people called my brother and what people said about us being related (the constant adoption jokes) is not ok to me, what people said about my hair and my face and our family is not ok to me. hearing what people say when they think they are in “white” company and think they are not going to offend anyone IS NOT OK TO ME! this history exists, my family exists, and I exist. intollerance shouldn’t.

[sapphire-rosa]

Because someone blocked me as a response to being called out on shit before I could post my reply to a particularly nonsensical argument, here is my response to anyone who says that strict parenting can teach autistic kids not to melt down in public. 

While in some ways that is true - compliance training (otherwise known as ABA) is known to have superficial behavioural effects - the fact of the matter is that it is incredibly damaging to teach your child that they cannot respond to pain or sensory overload in the way their body demands. 

Also this makes the unbelievably ignorant assumption that meltdowns are just ‘bad behaviour’ that needs to be trained out of the child in order for them to be socially acceptable to an uninformed public. 

This could not be further from the truth.  We need to be teaching the public, not forcing children to bend to their ignorance! 

My parents were extremely strict. I got away with exactly nothing (they were actually abusive as well, but we won’t go into all that here). Guess what? I still, as an autistic adult, have meltdowns and shutdowns in public when my body and brain can’t take any more stress and stimulation.

This isn’t to say that compliance-training your autistic kids does nothing. On the contrary - what teaching them to worry about other people’s disapproval does is make them more anxious and therefore more susceptible to sensory overload. It’s a horrible Catch-22. 

Just don’t. 

Teach your kids to have good manners, of course - but please don’t train them to suppress their pain and overstimulation for the sake of being inconspicuous. You can’t imagine the damage you are doing. 

Oh, and one more thing: 

Just because you have a sibling/relative/friend whose parents trained them not to melt down in public doesn’t mean 

a) it’s a good idea or 

b) it works for all autistic kids. 

Your second-hand experience does not negate the firsthand knowledge of thousands of autistic people. 

Step off. 

[autisticrevolution-deactivated2]

More thought should be put into taking meaningful steps to eliminate the possibility of melting down in the first place instead of trying to beat it out of someone.

If a kid’s meltdowns are usually caused by sensory overload, work on ensuring that they won’t get overloaded. If it’s caused by last minute changes in routine, maybe try to find better ways to cope with that to relieve stress.

I have always advocated using cannabis, because smoking weed is to a meltdown what an inhaler is to an asthma attack (based on my personal experience). Stim toys, headphones, etc can also be very useful.

And if the goal is to prevent them from melting down in public, what exactly are you accomplishing? They’re still autistic, they’ll still melt down (just behind closed doors), and it’ll give them that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feeling that they need to repress their autistic traits. This is akin to putting LGBT youth through conversion therapy. This results in self harm, suicide, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and so on.

Would you rather have a dead child than an autistic child?

[edwinspiersart]

I have something to add to the points above. autistic people are people. don’t just “cope with” or “deal with” them, help them, teach them to help themselfs. don’t make them feel ashamed or like they shouldn’t be feeling certain ways, help them to realize that they are feeling certain ways and that it’s ok to be feeling that way and here’s how to help yourself BEFORE it becomes a major issue. for example if it is too loud for them it IS too loud for THEM! it doesn’t need to be too loud for everyone, they don’t need to try and cope with noise the same way everyone else will, and it is OK for them to take a break or use whatever strategey they need to to help themselfs. tell people it’s OK to help themselfs, not shamefull or wrong or embaresing.

to go with what other people have said, it’d be like telling a person with ashma not to use their inhaler because everyone else can breath fine, and that they should pretend their ok untill the point where they can’t breath

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this was somehow a funny joke in highschool? so I drew it because it’s midnight why not

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old cigarette card, welsh springer spaniel

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misty mountain

digital doodle, using only black and white, GIMP airbrush tool

Edwin Spiers

19/03/2018

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

[maxknightley]

mr. blobby is an scp and this is maybe the most cursed footage that exists of him, which is saying a lot

[illuminatiswag-deactivated20180]

“Your influence will spread throughout the land” thanks, that’s really nice and not at all terrifying, I’m really glad that this is a real thing that exists

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

there was a mr. blobby theme park that was shut down in 1999, and has since been abandoned to the forest and ravers

i’m pretty sure that it’s the most cursed plot of land in the whole of western europe

[samwiselastname]

excuse

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the smurfs covered it….. THE SMURFS DID A COVER OF THE MR BLOBBY SONG

[edwinspiersart]

for the uninitiated, and yes, that is mr blobby’s wife

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

[maxknightley]

mr. blobby is an scp and this is maybe the most cursed footage that exists of him, which is saying a lot

[illuminatiswag-deactivated20180]

“Your influence will spread throughout the land” thanks, that’s really nice and not at all terrifying, I’m really glad that this is a real thing that exists

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

there was a mr. blobby theme park that was shut down in 1999, and has since been abandoned to the forest and ravers

i’m pretty sure that it’s the most cursed plot of land in the whole of western europe

[samwiselastname]

excuse

[edwinspiersart]

the smurfs covered it..... THE SMURFS DID A COVER OF THE MR BLOBBY SONG

[edwinspiersart]

THE GOOSE

23/05/2016

GIMP

by Emily Spiers

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Grumpasaurus Rex

23/05/2016

GIMP

by Emily Spiers

for Becky

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tv logo doodles

11/6/15

wax crayon on printer paper

by Emily Spiers

[edwinspiersart]

25 posts!