People with Autism have brought light and shade to our otherwise routine world. That's why we take every chance we can get to celebrate these colorful individuals whose intelligence and unique perspective has already begun to change our world. Come back often as we add new faces to our virtual community. Neil Sanders // Podcast Personality When Neil Sanders speaks you get the feeling that you're listening to a broadcast personality. Actually, you are. Neil has made guest appearances and has been featured on several radio and television broadcast stations, including WIVB Channel 4, WGRZ Channel 7,  WNED ThinkBright, WBFO and WUFO . Neil garnered this attention by launching his own podcast back in April of 2008. Since that time Neil has used the internet as his platform for everything from real world reports to ridiculous rumors on the celebrity landscape. He has also committed to memory just about anything you could possibly want to know about the history of television and its revolving door of programming. As if his anchorman antics weren't enough, Neil has also made a reputation for himself as something of a satirical artist. The majority of his artwork revolves around celebrity worship. Wether intentional or not, Neil's paintings of such celebrities as Nicky Hilton and Maria Menounos are anything but glamorous. The crude representation of his "sexy celebrities" is enough to make any PR agent shudder. Considering that Neil takes great joy in spoofing the names of popular TV shows, it's possible that his portraits are part of the ongoing pranks that Neil enjoys playing on himself and the public. Every now and then you'll catch Neil smiling to himself. Ask him what he's smiling about and he'll start laughing before responding with something to the effect of "Beyoncé Knowles...Come on Down! You're the next contestant on the Price is Right."  Never mind that Beyoncé has never been on the show. That alone describes Neil's singular sense of humor, and we'll never know if the man is laughing with us...or at us.   Ricky Nesbitt // Artist, Photographer When Autistic Services, Inc first began its Arts Work program, Ricky Nesbitt flatly refused to walk into the agency’s art room. Six years later, he is being acknowledged as one of only two Best in Show Awardees in CEPA’s 2009 Members Exhibition. Though Ricky communicates primarily through sign language and written notes, the arts have become a third mode of expression for this emerging Buffalo artist who is nonverbal and deaf. From a once reluctant artist, Ricky has since embraced the arts whole-heartedly, working non-stop until someone reminds him that his art session has ended. The past two years, in particular, have been especially productive for Ricky. His portfolio has not only increased in numbers, but has also physically expanded into “color field” works that measure as high as two hundred feet in length. Ricky now turns these expansive color fields into landscapes for his surreal wildlife photos comprised of miniature plastic animals taken from his personal collection. It was this inventive juxtaposition of mediums that caught the eye of CEPA’s Exhibition juror, and recent Albright-Knox curator, Heather Pesanti. Using a tripod and RCA jacks, Ricky plugs his camera into a television to give himself a large screen view-finder that allows him to place his models into a deliberate and sophisticated use of color and space. The resultant narratives range from serene and humorous to predatory and violent.  Ricky is a program participant at Autistic Services and a regularly featured artist in the agency’s travelingexhibitions. His work will have a permanent home at Autistic Services’ two recently opened Arts Work for Autistic Services' galleries in Buffalo and Williamsville. Introducing The Math-Master Mr. Michael Segal Michael has written, “One thing is amazing about my life. Even more amazing than my passion for math, I am autistic; I have Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a “milder” form of Autism. Among other things, it means that I think on a very literal level. While this sometimes makes communication challenging for me, it makes my ability to understand the logic of math exceptional. Not a bad trade off, since I love math.” Michael Segal offers tutoring services through the Pearls of Life Foundation and Autistic Services, Inc. As a tutor, Michael creates a most pleasant learning experience for the student. He is available to help you understand math and how to apply it to your academic courses and your daily life. Although Michael has Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of Autism) and has had to face many challenges in his life, he is a talented and creative mathematician with exceptional tutoring skills. The fact that he has had these challenges has enabled him to understand the challenges of others. He has sensitivity for the needs of others, and the strong desire to help them learn to cope with their peers and the world. If you're interested in Michael's tutoring services please contact Veronica Federiconi A Poet. Writer. Scientist and Mystery Maven. Meet Elizabeth Harzewski Liz is truly a woman of all seasons. Her persona comes in several shades, stretching from the introversion that is characteristic of Autism, to the extroversion that is characteristic of Liz. When she speaks, you can almost see the exclamation points beaming from her mouth. Getting your attention is not a problem for Liz. There are common characteristics that help us identify Autism. So you can find behavioral cues that repeat from person to person. But in no way does Autism rob the person of any singular qualities, especially not in the case of Liz. In fact, Autism has gifted her with three or four helpings of personality. There’s the Liz who adores the Three Stooges, and makes no attempts to hide her crush on Moe. There’s the Liz who missed her calling as an office administrator: she frequently hands out notes that read more like a memo. There’s the Liz who walked right out of a Bette Midler movie, always on and in full speed. That's the Liz that most of us at Autistic Services are used to seeing. Her presence is almost always known when she's walking by.  She has a knack for both self-promotion and persistence, and so she usually stands in the foreground of our community. In between Liz's one woman parades, she retires to her poetry. A prolific writer, Liz's restless mind jumps from ode's to The Three Stooges and Gumshoe's, to personal projects such as cracking the mysterious collapse of The Schoellkope Power Station. Such mysteries aren't the least bit interesting, until you hear it from Liz. "I'm trying to solve a mystery." She says. A perfect opening that is characteristic of Liz. No matter what the story, whether we like it or not, Liz is sure to demand our full attention.   DAN C. // Artist Dan has become one of our most prolific and focused artist over the past year. His progress has been rapid and he has been able to create a large quantity of different types of work using a variety of mediums and resources.  He has worked on paper and Plexi-glass with xeroxes, stickers, tape and magic markers. He has created large-scale paintings on canvas using projected images that he chooses and manipulates in his own style and manner.   Dan’s work is strongly influenced by late 70’s and early 80’s television shows.  He has completed a series of large-scale works that are based on the characters from the classic TV show Barney Miller.  Dan writes cryptic messages around the canvas where he uses character names as pseudonyms for things he has been conditioned not to do over the years like "Hal Linden is going to pull your hair" or "Jack Soo is going to punch you in the face."  Dan also uses these names to express things that he enjoys doing like "Abe Vigoda looks in the reflection" and "Abe Vigoda looks at his CD."  Dan enjoys looking at his own reflection and can be seen carrying a compact disc around with him in order to do so. Beyond Barney Miller, Dan has created work based on M*A*S*H, The Greatest American Hero, Eight is Enough, All In The Family, The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels and he recently sold a large scale painting of the cast of Alice entitled, "Alice Was Head Butting".  It was purchased during ASI’s August 2008 exhibition at Elmwood Avenue restaurant Brodo.   Dan’s work has been exhibited at Impact Art Gallery in Buffalo, Langston Hughes Institute in Buffalo, WNED’s Herizon Gallery, Partners in Art Gallery in North Tonawanda, Gallery 51 and B West Studios in Buffalo, Brodo’s restaurant on Elmwood in Buffalo and the Oliver Street Art Festival in North Tonawanda, NY. LISA H. // Artist Lisa is a 42 year-old woman who is tireless when it comes to making art. She is a self-motivated individual who works diligently on her drawings, paintings and paper collages. She loves to work with warm and vibrant colors with red being her favorite and most frequently used. Her earlier work consists of floating child like figures that float around giant flowers, trees and houses with smoking chimneys. Recently, Lisa has been concentrating on mixed media paper collages that she creates with tissue paper painted on cardboard boxes, sheets of wood, railroad board, jewelry boxes and a series that she is producing on diamond shaped flag cases.  There are no limits to Lisa’s resources. She will experiment with anything she can find in the art room. She has worked with glass tiles, stickers, color samples, paper filters, glitter, pipe cleaners, wooden blocks, polaroids and xeroxes. If it sticks with glue and paint, she will use it. Lisa’s work exudes a positive energy and warmness that originates from within her.  The process, the motion, the act of making art is what truly makes her happy.  She revels in the texture and scent of her creations and finds comfort in the journey of bringing her vision to life. Lisa’s work has been on exhibit at Karpele’s Manuscript Museum, Gallery 51, Langston Hughes Institute, Partners in Art Gallery, B West Studios, WNED’s Herizon Gallery, Impact Gallery and Brodo Restaurant.