For 13-year-old Luke Barton, snapping pencils is a release; and for his mother, these pencils have served as artistic inspiration.
A year ago, Moorestown resident Amy Barton began finding broken pencils in the pant pockets of her son, Luke, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in 2016, while doing his laundry. As these lead-filled discoveries continued, Barton began to collect the snapped pencils and soon found artistic inspiration from them.
“It dawned on me that this was not an accident,” Barton said. “It was much bigger. It intrigued me, and I started to save the pencils by the dozens.”
While she wondered why her son would snap the pencils into so many pieces, Luke had no answer. Yet each time she asked him why he would snap them, her son would give her a big heartfelt smile, and soon she began to realize that for Luke, snapping these pencils was a kind of release for him.
“Luke needs a lot of body movement and pressure to stay focused, which is typical of children with Sensory Processing Integration Disorder and ADHD,” Barton said. “He craves heavy, physical pressure, including hugging, lying under several blankets or pillows, high-fives or physical contact sports, so snapping the pencils just feels good to him on a tactical level.”
As the broken pencil collection grew, Barton thought back on a series of paintings that her uncle and favorite artist, Joe McAleer, had produced decades ago that featured pencils. Wanting to put her son’s collection of broken pencils to use through her passion for art, she began to create unique canvas works of her own.
“[The pencils] have such meaning to me because they channel Luke’s energy. I was taking a phone call at my Aunt Milissa’s house and looked up and realized I was sitting under one of [Joe McAleer’s] pencil works while Luke’s pencils were in my hand,” Barton said. “It became clear to me I could use the pencils to help tell Luke’s story and the wild world of Asperger’s.”
Although Barton was unsure how her son would respond to her works of art, she was surprised by his reaction — he loved them. Luke told his mother, “Mom I know you did this for me, it’s your way of loving me.”
“I didn’t know if he would be upset because he still denies much of what we know to be true about his personality. It’s a protective approach to his own self-esteem,” she said. “Luke completely understands my intent. I wanted to be sure he was okay with me discussing his challenges because there is a risk there for him.”
Along with the pencils in her new collection, Barton has also incorporated small pieces of mirror into all of her works for the past 14–15 years. She believes the reflective element makes each piece “truly original” because the person viewing painting becomes part of the image themselves.
Feedback Barton has received based on her art has been extremely positive, and she attributes this reaction to the artwork’s unique and emotional components. Barton also noted that when people learn the premise behind the work, they realize everyone has story, everyone is a little misunderstood, and the art drives the point that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Fellow Moorestown resident Pam Reagan from Bluestone Fine Arts Gallery in Philadelphia noticed Barton’s original work online and agreed with this thinking, inviting Barton to participate in the MoorArts Gala that was held on Saturday, Jan. 28. Within a month and a half, Barton put together six pieces to showcase and sell at the event, which her family attended to show support.
Adjusting a family to Asperger’s
Changing their family dynamic forever, when Luke, who is now 13 years old, was just 2.5 years old, his family began to realize he had some developmental delays, and in response they involved him in various therapies. After a two-year wait, in 2015, the Bartons were able to have Luke see a doctor at Nemours Dupont Pediatrics, and approximately a year ago, the combination of all of Luke’s challenges led his doctor to the diagnosis of Asperger’s.
“I knew years ago after doing a lot of my own research and reading many books on Autism and Asperger’s that Luke was on the Autism Spectrum, so it was somewhat of a relief to be able to explain it better to everyone,” Barton, a 49-year-old originally from Delran, said. “Asperger’s is different for every person, and it remains a complicated diagnosis.”
Complicated as it may be, through her latest works of art, Barton has found a way to effectively advocate for her son’s disorder. As with many artists, Barton initially felt very vulnerable making her work public for fear of judgement, but the driving force behind these works, to help her son, gave her the courage to start exhibiting. Due to her desire to help Luke love and accept who he is, and to help him build the bridge of self-awareness and self-love, she has used her artwork as an opportunity to help others understand Asperger’s.
“I’ll never forget one of his teachers in second grade explaining to me that ‘it takes Luke 400 percent more energy to do something you and I do instinctively,’” Barton said. “That sticks with me to this day. He is the bravest kid I know.”
Barton says to her other children, “If Luke were in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t ask him or expect him to walk, but when you expect him to respond perfectly or be ‘normal,’ you are not being mindful of his disability.”
Barton believes society has a major epidemic on its hands with Autism and Asperger’s, and raising a child successfully with the disorder has become her focus. Barton’s husband and Luke’s step-father, Ed Vidal, has remained a patient and loving partner, who is a positive, calming influence on her children and handles Luke in stride.
Luke’s siblings Juliet, 9, and Cali, 15, are his best friends, and the remainder of his family, including father, Jeff Barton, step-siblings Alec, 18, and Rebecca Vidal, 16, have all assumed roles within his “fan club.” His grandparents, Renee and Wayne Slaughter, lead the “club” with the roles of “president” and “vice president.”
Together, the family works to ensure Luke receives the support he needs in school, while taking a high level of advocacy for Asperger’s. In doing this, Barton works closely with her son each day to show him the way he is perceived and to master a few coping skills, to not only help protect his self-esteem, but to build good relationships and connect. She reminds him daily that how he reacts to something will either help or hurt his relationship with that person.
“[Luke] occasionally asks me why he was ‘born this way’ when we have a truly frustrating day. It breaks my heart,” Barton said. “I spend a good deal of time just making sure he understands that every human being is unique, and in my eyes, he is perfect and has the most beautiful heart.”
To help others understand the struggles her family has experienced in relation to Luke’s disorder, if Barton could share one message with other mothers of children with Asperger’s, she commented that she would explain to them that life for children on the Autism spectrum can be a rocky road, isolating and often self-absorbed. Depending on a child’s abilities and maturity, parents should be honest about the lens in which they view the world, be open to the details and, without wanting them to be someone else, teach them how to understand their unique strengths, teach them how to consider others’ feelings, and make sure they know what gift they can bring to the world.
“He is the most misunderstood kid, and I truly feel that if my paintings can make even one person more empathetic about this awful disorder and treat people kinder, it would make me very happy,” Barton said.
As for the mothers of children without Asperger’s or another neurobiological disorder, Barton wishes to tell them to please stress to their children to constantly put themselves in someone else’s shoes and to always be kind.
“Not everybody understands the world the same way and everyone is struggling with something,” she said.
