Artistic Realization Technologies

Welcome to A.R.T. Confidential

No TV crew is going to capture the intimacy and intensity of the A.R.T. artists in a half day visit.

A.R.T. Confidential will reveal the real thing. The deeper hearts and souls of these amazing artists.

Our years spent one on one with them through the good and bad times empowers us to share the real essence, the essence that is missed by news crews looking to shoot yet another puff piece.

Curious, moving, awesome and at times hilarious, the complex lives of the A.R.T. artists and the Trackers who work with them will take you inside an intimate world so rich it makes pop culture feel like empty calories.

No one in America has seen the stunning breakouts from utter passivity to the realization of fiery volition we have.

We are going to share these moments of joy and tears with you. It will be just between you and us. A.R.T. Confidential.

The Call

Using the A.R.T. techniques, those who had gained access to them were supercharged. They were seen a new way. People could see proof of the amazing depth and breadth of their inner lives. When we saw these stunning, deeply moving breakthroughs the first A.R.T. artists were making, we knew we had to share what we […]

Renee

Middle aged, always gracious, and surprisingly blunt when it came to the truth, Renee was one of our famous artists at United Cerebral Palsy of Philadelphia. When she discovered she could connect curves, she created a painting that garnered much praise from the staff. Referring to this painting of tightly writhing skinny curved lines that […]

Michael and the Ladder Slam

One thing A.R.T. artists crave is action of the physical kind. The Tracker asking “Who’s next?” two of the eager artists made their amazingly fast and powerful electric wheelchairs leap for the studio workstation. The violent impact made a crashing sound, both their heads thrown back, the other artists cheered. Clearly sensing their desire for […]

Vicki and the Swinging Wrists

Free to go on and on and on lasering on transparent variations of green to her painting, some might have thought the applications redundant. No other colors but green. So many sessions later, the painting finished, it was a knock out. Ready for any gallery in the world. At the opening reception, Vicki and her […]

Lee and the Carpet

Well before Skype and Zoom, A.R.T. had cobbled together a system we called the Flying Eye. It empowered A.R.T. artists to be physically in Princeton and direct a camera somewhere far away. In this case the furthest an artist had operated from our studio was Disney World in Florida. Personally you couldn’t pay me to […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Elijah

We have to trust they are bringing us all those right for A.R.T. That they are not leaving behind the somber nonverbal somnambuelent little boy. When we have had enough new artist beautiful breakouts so we know the staff will carry on with the program once we fly back to New Jersey I ask for […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: X-Man!

Being blind I never knew when to shut up. Unaware of who might be around me, I said what I said and would live with it. But if my bloviation would jeopardize the job or the studio program we ran? Our Tracker would hiss, “X-Man!” Being their employer this was much easier to take then […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Dennis in the Sky

The camera person somewhere on the streets of Princeton. Artist extraordinaire Dennis up in the studio seeing everything the camera sees, non-verbally directing the camera. The Super Tracker Darren McMannus communicates Dennis’s directives to the camera person. “Point higher. Higher. “ Darren says into the mic. “Still higher.” “I’m already pointing above the building the […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: A little night music

For her composition Lee did not use the musical notes of the synthesizer. Commanding the process from her wheelchair, she opted for sound effects only. No music, just sound samples. And to such effect! Her composition completed, the first full playback left us all fairly upset, it was that unsettling. That close to the home […]

Overleaping the Lockdown

A.R.T. artists across the country are living without being able to get to their day programs and schools. Being quadriplegic this must be pretty hard on them. And their families. Until they are able to return to the centers where the A.R.T. studio offers them the greatest degree of creative autonomy ever, which means exploration, […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Sammy

Sammy was one of those young folks the staff led us to believe was incapable. When I whispered in his ear: “Screw them. Right?” he grinned from ear to ear. Sammy took off with our systems. When he eye signaled he wanted to create a curved line and one of the points he plotted was […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Tammy scares the boys

The first day of the technique nicknamed ‘Wheelism’, the artists used the weight and movement of their electric wheelchairs as drawing tools. A canvas taped to the studio floor, slathered with one layer of color then a different layer of color, covered with clear plastic to protect the wheels. Their first session the young men […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: LASSY in the morning

We love to tell you about the artists but this time I am going to give you a glimpse of a breakthrough we created that very few in the world know about. It is the A.R.T. L.A.S.S.Y.: Light actuated synthesizer. Seeing the amazing creative power the head-mounted laser brought the artist’s paintings, I asked, for […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Dennis and the Cha-cha

Dennis is a genius. His medical issues are so acute we worry for his life. To those who do not know him he seems out of it. That is just his body. He is so together. Acutely aware. His first sessions with us, on the second floor of Princeton’s Dept. of Art, across the street […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Flipping the Blowing Sax

Most of you know that beyond our painting program A.R.T. has systems for photography, music and sculpture, that are a quantum leap ahead of the pack. Why? How? Because A.R.T. comes from Art, not art therapy. The artist with severe mobility challenges wants to get out what’s inside them. To get at the real thing. […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: The Name Game

In the excitement of the few days prior to their show the artists rolled along with our Tracker. All the paintings that would be in the show set on the floor of the gymnasium, their backs resting against the walls. As a group they moved from painting to painting, stopping at each, the painter of […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world: Michael and the Wooden Chair

We have worked with a good number of Michaels. This Michael is Michael Davis. Michael was unique in our experience in how he could walk but did not have the use of his hands. He could not open a door. It is always a thrill when a new artist locks in to painting with our techniques with the immediate […]

A.R.T. Confidential, an inside look at a hidden world

The phone call that brought A.R.T. the fabulous Brit, Suzie Boyd, went so well, feeling easy enough with her to confess I smoked cigars and wore wrecked paint clothes and this and that in a list of things a prim person might find objectionable, Suzie chimed in none of that would be a problem for her, […]

Simply Bovine!

With their own gallery in the local art museum the A.R.T. artists were fired up. At the same time their opening was taking place, a larger gallery in the art museum hosted another opening reception featuring a group called ‘The Art Group’, a coalition of amateurs who specialized in water colors and drawings of still lifes and local landscapes. Compared […]

Apology of the Converts

At the end of the two day intensive jam session studio workshop, the staff, at first wary of us, formed a line so all of them could shake our hands and say a word to us as we were leaving, headed for the airport. One of the staff told me, “We really liked the introductory talk […]

Michael and the Diamond

At first you might think Michael Dove took our studio program for a joke. The way he found everything amusing. Although he demurred each time we asked if he was up for trying the techniques, he kept showing up, just hanging out with the artists, watching the paintings being created. A week and another week, and another […]

Lane and the Big Champagne

Amongst the crowd at the gallery opening reception, a former employee of the school, an employee who had recently been fired, an employee who knew and loved all the A.R.T. artists, did not, look, happy. Let’s refer to him as Ricardo. Big, beefy, strong, and mercurial, this being why he had been fired, among all of us only Ricardo […]

Rafael, A Portrait of My Man

With our techniques, an artist without the use of their hands can gain perfectly exacting control. They can place the tiniest point of color on their canvas, exactly where they want it to go. What I am saying is, if they wanted, they could make a photo-realistic painting using the A.R.T. systems. The two of us in the studio, […]

Deerie Me

Some of the things we have seen or been told in our years of starting A.R.T. programs is scandalous. Some of the diagnoses of the A.R.T. painters are so wrong its insane. So obviously wrong, a guy like me can disprove them in a second. It’s ridiculous. And it’s serious, these diagnoses limiting what an individual will be […]

Vimaris/Paint it Black

To us, Vimaris was V. Her one wandering eye and her not walking, talking or able to use her hands, many, most?, everyone? failed to see the depth and breadth of her mind and the fine, fine sense she had for painting. I mean fine. I mean the real thing. I mean our Tracker and I were humbled by the paintings V created. […]

Tucker

Tucker’s mom raised the money to cover the costs of Tracker Marybeth Hill and I to fly to West Virginia. First session little Tucker cried like a baby and voooosh his mom wheeled the little boy out of the studio. That afternoon Tucker returned and rolled up to the workstation he, you guessed it, started crying like […]

Roy Wakes Up

The A.R.T. team had such fantastic success with those we worked with at a disabilities center in Florida, we knew we had blown the staff’s minds. Having proven the efficacy of our approach, having so clearly demonstrated how A.R.T. is a giant leap beyond other current approaches, I asked the staff, “Who is the hardest […]

La La Laser

Nicole, nine years old, was fixated watching her schoolmates use A.R.T. for the first time. She saw what her pals who lacked the articulate use of their hands were doing. How they were choosing the colors, the brush, the size of the canvas. They were in charge and they were guiding rich bright colors with a flourish onto their […]

JR, Part 4, JR and the Disarmed Alarm

At this certain residential care facility, we had a battle going with the head of maintenance. The artists enjoying fresh air, we kept the studio door open to the courtyard. Normally if you opened that door an alarm would sound. Guess they needed to know if any of the quadriplegics were trying to escape. We […]

JR, Part 3: JR’s Relaxation Therapy

We did not care for the way staff from other programs felt free to pluck our artists from the A.R.T. studio as if their program was of higher value than ours. In our opinion, there was nothing the center offered that gave the residents more meaningful consequential choice-making than working in the limitless creative freedom of […]

JR, Part 2

For a young man in his early thirties JR was very small. As small as a child. This size of his body belied the fierce drive alive within him. Thoughts and feelings you would have if you could not walk, talk, use your hands and were unable to express any of this and so were treated by staff […]

Meet JR

Atop a lonely hill they live, year-round. Those who came to our studio, those who experienced the shocking blast of uncompromised individual creative power, ignited a firestorm at the residential care facility. All the while there was a young man who wanted more than anything to get in on the action, on the breakthrough, on the […]