Alistair & Angela Morris

Able Artists 2015

Alistair Morris is a visual artist who is deaf and autistic. Drawing became a way in which Alistair was able to clearly communicate information. If he wanted to visit friends in Napanee, he would sketch a perfect picture of their Victorian house on the calendar. If he was looking for something, and couldn’t make himself understood in sign language, he drew the object he was looking for and the problem was solved. An obsession for light bulbs, with intricate and interesting filaments, showed an eye for detail and Alistair was guided to make stained glass and Japanese dolls.

Angela Morris is originally from England and now lives in the village of Bath near Kingston, Ontario. Three of her four children have a hearing loss and her youngest child, Alistair, was born profoundly deaf and autistic. She decided to return to university in 2006 to study for her M.Ed. and developed a workbook for parents and professionals living and working with children who are autistic and deaf. The workbook is based on her family’s experiences. In 2010 Angela developed a presentation based on the information in the workbook and began talking to university and college students, teachers and other professionals working in the area of Special Education. She has found, as many do, that living with a child with autism was, at times frustrating, often exhausting, hilariously funny…and an experience she would not have missed for the world! She presented the talk “Helping Hands: Raising an Artist who is Deaf Autistic”.