How art has made a difference in the life of a northern Ont. man with severe autism

Art making difference for Sudbury man with autism A 21-year-old Sudbury man with autism is headed to Queen's Park in Toronto to show how art has made a positive impact on his life.

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.

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.