FW: Autistic high school student has painting in Metropolitan Museum of Art

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From: Tom P

Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 11:28 AM

To: Toast

Subject: Autistic high school student has painting in Metropolitan

Museum of Art

Autistic high school student

has painting in Metropolitan Museum of Art

BY Jake Pearson

Originally

Published:Tuesday, May 11th 2010, 8:22 AM

Updated: Tuesday, May 11th 2010, 8:23 AM

Fevelo for

News

Amoako

Buachie, 18, with art teacher Audrey Lacy at Public School 370. At right is his

painting, 'My Friend Andre.'

This Brooklyn artist is

going to the Met.

Amoako Buachie, 18, a gifted

autistic artist from Flatbush, first featured

in Brooklyn

News last December, will have one of his paintings displayed in the

world-famous Metropolitan

Museum of Art next month.

" When I do my artwork, I

feel very excited inside when I use bright colors to express myself, "

Buachie wrote in a message attached to his brown-and-blue watercolor portrait

titled " My Friend Andre. "

" I love to draw and paint. "

Buachie's portrait is one of

75 pieces from K-12 public school students citywide that were selected from

among 800 to hang in the Met, as part of the Department of

Education's annual P.S. Art program.

" Being an artist makes

me feel very special and talented, " Buachie wrote.

A 12th-grader at Public

School 370 in Brighton Beach,

Buachie suffered from aggressive midnight fits and tantrums that caused him to

yell so loudly neighbors called police.

" Before, he was fighting

me in the morning, and he wouldn't go to sleep at night, " said mom Akosua

Mainu, 46, a housecleaner who immigrated to Brooklyn from Ghana 15 years ago.

But after working with the

special needs school in February, Mainu got her son placed in a smaller class

with four other students where extra attention is placed on artwork and

Buachie's fits have since stopped.

" He's doing great

now, " said Mainu. " I see so much improvement... it is not as

before. "

Buachie can stay at PS 370

until he is 21, and while there can continue to practice art, study the art

business and work on general social skills.

It was actually a social

class exercise on maintaining eye contact - a skill that is often a struggle

for autistic children - that resulted in Buachie's acclaimed portrait.

His art teacher, Audrey Lacy, sat students directly across from

one another and instructed them to maintain eye contact, telling Buachie and

others to draw the person across from them.

" Amoako made really good

sustained eye contact and based on the way he was looking at [Andre] he made a

very accurate portrait of him, " said Lacy, 25, who works with Buachie

three times a week.

When she saw the final

product, Lacy knew she had to submit the watercolor to the P.S. Art

competition.

" He's so creative and

very talented, " said Lacy. " Art is his outlet, and he's very proud of

himself. "

The painting will be on

display at the Met from June 8 to Aug. 8.

" It's the greatest

feeling, " said his mom.