How art has made a difference in the life of a northern Ont. man with severe autism
The family of a non-verbal Sudbury man with severe autism is sharing the story of how art has made a remarkable difference in his life as he heads to Toronto to display his paintings.
Morgan Kitching is a 21-year-old who discovered his love for painting four years ago during a power outage at the family cottage in Killarney, his mother told CTV News in an interview.
Pierre Sabourin, Trish Jokat and Morgan Kitching of Sudbury. March 27/23 (Alana Everson/CTV Northern Ontario)
His mother, Trish Jokat, believes the combination of colour and creating has led to incredible positive changes in him, including his eating disorder.
"The more he painted, the more he ate. It seems like the colours would imitate the food," Jokat said.
"For example, the red, he is eating cranberries now. The green, he's eating salads. His whole diet has changed."
Pierre Sabourin is Jokat's partner and a landscape artist who has sold his work all over the world.
He also teaches art and said over the past four years, Morgan's artistic talent has blossomed along with other abilities too.
"Seen some incredible changes in Morgan," Sabourin said.
"When I first met Morgan, I couldn't communicate with him at all. And all of a sudden, we were able to communicate through colour. And that's an amazing experience just in itself."
With World Autism Awareness Day on Sunday, Kitching will be displaying 200 of his paintings at Queen's Park on Monday and the family said it hopes the exhibition will shine light on the power of art.
"I hope they take away the fact that there is more therapies out there than just one or two and that they should just let their children explore, use lots of paint," Jokat said.
"'Don't ever give up hope,' is the typical standby statement and just allow them to create."
"The things that I learned teaching school was that children that are dealing with life skills have a propensity to art and I think that is very important to explore," Sabourin added.
A short documentary about Kitching's journey with art and autism is available on YouTube.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.