TEAM-MATE - A Commentary On Comradery

TEAM-MATE - A Commentary on Comradery

The First in the series of Twelve "NOTEWORTHY CONCEPTS" that I intend to paint exploring the suffix "Mate". My goal is to illustrate Abstract Concepts in Representational Style. If I can make you (the viewer) think for a minute and perhaps chuckle, then I have succeeded in my mission.

Here the Knight and the Bishop are two Chess Pieces - equal in value but equipped with quite different personalities. Knight is the most misunderstood yet intriguing piece in the game. It would be prudent to notice that they are both in Red belonging to the same Team or Family but assigned to perform different functions. Both chess pieces are equally essential to have in a Team to get the mission accomplished. It kind of reminds me of the movie "The League Of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen".

"You have to get along with people, but you also have to recognize  that the strength of a team is different people with different perspectives." ~Steve Case~

Growing up in a Nuclear Family of five, I was often compared to my older siblings (My sister who is a Medical Doctor and my brother who is an Engineer). It only complicated the matter even further when my family refused to understand or accept that I have Asperger's Syndrome - a developmental disorder related to autism and characterized by higher than average intellectual ability coupled with impaired social skills and restrictive, repetitive patterns of interests and activities. This disorder gave me an edge in many different areas such as Foreign Language acquisition and Visual Arts. To this day my biological family is in denial and expects me to change and conform - at Forty One. I am totally serious.

"It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage both because it is so powerful and so rare." 
~Patrick Lencioni~

This Painting is therefore a tribute to Artists with Asperger's Syndrome.  My way as a Visual Artist to raise awareness and to explain that just because we are different akin to the Chess piece Knight who looks unlike the rest of the other Abstract Chess Pieces and moves awkwardly, we are still part of the same team. We are just wired differently or perhaps our mothers dropped us on our heads as babies (it is a possibility). We are therefore quite focused, obsessed and fascinated with ideas that occupy our minds and we don't rest till we have explored all the possible ways of analyzing the same topic in a dozen different ways that most of you find dull and boring. This really should be counted as a virtue don't you agree? Our inner world is rich with imagination and just about anything is possible there.

If you are reading this blog, please do not count us out just because we may be socially awkward, devoid of empathy and clumsy at times. We are very much human just like you even if we appear a bit snobbish with a Poker Face akin to Spock then the beloved Captain Kirk. Just imagine how boring the movie "Star Trek" would be without Spock. We are Team Mates. We are Aspies!