Seth Chwast, who was diagnosed with autism as a very young child, has lived for years in a world of roller coasters, haunted houses, and classical music.  A dramatic change came at age 20, when he took an oil painting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seth, who rarely speaks, began describing his world in paint.  It turned out that he has an innate ability to mix colors and create amazing, large oil paintings. 

Because of his autism, Seth is unable to be anything but direct, honest, and authentic.  Some people find his very presence to be healing.  Quite a few people have mentioned that they find his artistic work, paradoxically, both soothing and exciting.

Many of his early paintings have a lower section that is contained, precise, and methodical, and an upper section that explodes into colors and organic shapes.  Seth lacks the words to explain this.  Could it reflect the tension between twenty years of autistic silence and his new artistic voice?  Or could it be an artistic expression of a universal human condition – of the tendency to feel confined and constrained, and the capacity to break free and explode into creativity?  Does Seth, who rarely speaks, understand and capture what we all already know, even if we have never articulated it?

Seth’s early work revealed a gift for color and form.  Through passionate discipline he has evolved his paintings into spectacular landscapes with aurora skies and mysterious forests.  He recently translated his early obsession with horses and love of repetition into immense color grids.  After two years of resisting the suggestion, Seth painted his first self-study, thus giving others further access to his world.  The self-study is now one of his recurring subjects, along with auroras and horses.  His work has been shown and/or discussed at the following sites:

EXHIBITIONS

1. The VSA Juried Art Show (February 2004)
2. Penn State College of Medicine, where he was featured at the Pennsylvania Medical Humanities Consortium, a conference of clinicians and academics who focus on the Medical Humanities (May 2004).  For this event Seth painted “The Red Fantasy Horse,” a 6’ x 7’ oil painting.  An 8-minute DVD, called “A Different Kind of Journey,” of Seth painting this horse, was shown to attendees. 
3. Cleveland Public Theater (November 2004); also where Seth’s DVD was accepted for the Ohio Independent Film Festival.
4. Kalliope Stage, where Seth’s art was featured in a Bellefaire benefit (July 2005). 
5. Piccadilly Gallery in Tremont, where Seth was featured in a Bellefaire benefit (September 2005).

PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA

1. “The Hungarian Horse & Peacock,” an oil painting 70” x 84”, feature in the AGC Publication’s 2004 desk calendar.
2. National Public Radio, “Artist as Unique as his Painting,” Jayne Eiben (November 26, 2004).
3. “An Outsider Comes In,” Jayne Eiben, THE PLAIN DEALER (November 7, 2004). 
4. “Faces of Autism, Giving Kids a Life,” Marilyn Karfeld, CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS (February 18, 2005).
5. “The Town’s a Jumpin’”, Violet Spevack, CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS (July 29, 2005)
6. PBS, “IdeaStream” with host Elaine Faulk (November 10, 2006).
7. “Starving Artist No More?” Jane Dery, CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS (January 27, 2006).