Customer Reviews

Flying Colors: The Story of a Remarkable Group of Artists and the Transcendent Power of Art

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Everyone on my gift list is getting a copy.

Whether or not you have any experience whatsoever with the world of disabilities or the world of art, this is one profoundly inspiring story. It will challenge even the most ingrained misperceptions about people with difAbilities.

From my perspective as the parent of a young son with difAbilities, I can clearly see the impact that the methods of creative expression pioneered by A.R.T. will have on all aspects of his life. We're going to get started right away. There's a soul to unleash!

There are so few heroes in today's world. Tim Lefens is one of them.

Everyone I know who has read this book has used the same words...inspiring, moving, uplifting-and they are all true. But its more than that. Its a story of a remarkable group of people who became a group and produced marvelous creations. The amazing thing is that the students were basically people of whom nothing much was expected. Yet, they had so much to say, if only they could learn how to express themselves. Tim Lefens gave them a way to do it....and the results are amazing. I have been to some of the shows and met some of the artists, and came away awed both by the beauty of their work and their justifiable pride in their accomplishments. In a way it made me sad though-imagine just how many other people are out there who are in the same position these artists were in before Mr. Lefens came into their lives. Reading this book made me realize that you should never, ever assume that someone can't do something because they have some kind of disability. They CAN do most things...they just may need to do it in a slightly different way. There is a lesson in this book for all of us. Despite the fact that the book is inspirational, it is not inspirational in a "preachy" sense of the word. Its a good, fun, interesting book to read, and its a book I have been recommending to many friends and one that I may give as a Christmas present this year as well. So one, go out and read this book, and two, try to catch one of these shows-you won't regret doing either.

This book is like entering the silent world of the nonverbal and severely disabled and seeing through the words of the author's excellent descriptions what a few hours a week were like in the art room at Matheny.
We have always wondered, and now finally are able to "see" and "hear" the process, from novice to pro, that these young adults enjoyed so much, but were never able to explain because of their physical limitations.
One of these artists is our daughter, Cindy.

Tim Lefens may suffer from failing vision but his artistic sense is visionary. His techniques deserve to be broadcast across the nation and around the world - they give the power of expression in its purest form to those who have been profoundly denied that opportunity through no fault of their own.

The interplay between Lefens and The Matheny School & Hospital provides an entertaining counterpoint to the personal growth of the disabled artists: two forces who are very good at what they do, both jealously committed to the welfare of their charges and uncompromising in their belief of rectitude. It is a shame they cannot rejoin forces - they are opposite sides of the same coin.

If you have the chance to view the exhibitions of these artists, do not pass the opportunity by. You will have glimpsed the unquenchable fires that spark our humanity.

For those who have a big case of the "I can'ts" this book will help you realize you can do more than you think can.
The true story of Tim Lefens work with the physically handicapped, this book is an inspiration.
Lefens, an artist, had never taught, but started an art class for people in wheelchairs. Most were not able to move their hands. He started out by putting canvas on the floor, painting over it, then put a plastic sheet over that. The patients then would roll their wheelchairs over it to create abstract art.
This led Lefens to try other methods on the cerebral palsy patients. He found them intellgent, creative souls.
The works have been displayed in gallery showings.
Handicapped? Perhaps just not able to do some things, but still very much capable of choosing what to paint, what colors to choose, and of expressing their emotions through the medium of art.
This will bring tears to your eyes, a warmth to your soul, and the knowledge that you can do more than you think you can.

Post 9/11, it seems that most people are looking to fantasy adventures or some other kind of escapist fiction to deal with their angst. More likely people aren't reading at all and simply plop themselves in front of CNN or MSNBC or Jennings or Brokaw, zombie-like, cabernet in hand, nightly, hoping that something good happens.

Well, something good has happened. It's Flying Colors by Tim Lefens. If you're looking to wrench yourself from years of predictable garbage---whether from t.v. or from a pretentious novel---read this book.

Mr. Lefens paints a vivid portrait of all of his characters,so much so that many of the most challenged individuals in this book aren't in wheelchairs. Angel, for example, the tough, unlikely assistant from Trenton is masterfully described. At one time he's described by Lefens as the king of diplomacy and b.s.; the next moment he's the most brutally honest person in the book. Natalie, Chet, James and the rest of the students teach those of us unafflicted by CP that we are, often, afflicted with worse problems. The way Lefens describes, throughout the book and through different circumstances, how pitiful the "normal" people of the world are for not "getting it," is hilarious.
Pack all of the characters together, certainly not just the students, and I think Lefens has begun to touch on the essence of being, if I dare say so. Invigorate yourself and read something worthwhile! Laugh, cry, fight crying until you laugh, get angry, and then LAUGH again. Oh, and may Ring of Keys repent!

Tim Lefens is a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci: painter, poet, teacher, inventor. Genius of this brilliance is rare in our world and will necessarily receive some opposition: opposition from those unable to concede the space that such talent requires, and opposition from those who need to feel a sense of superiority but suddenly are confronted with people of decidedly inferior bodies but through the genius of Lefens are now demonstrating a creative power definitely superior to that which most of us possess.
"Flying Colors" is a once-in-a-lifetime literary gem. I am not suggesting but demanding that all of my friends read it.

I loved it! Yes it is well-written, yes it is moving, and yes it is inspiring and eye-opening. All the things that the reviewers have said are true. But it is more. It is the fundamental connection between human beings illuminated skillfully at the most elemental level. It plays a look, a touch, a gesture, an expletive here and there, speaking volumes to those who are open to it, against the mechanical gestures of those who may be well-motivated, but who will probably never connect in such a true sense. Lives have and will be changed by this, doors and minds alike have and will be opened. But there is more...

The Abstract: I see it in a new light. It is woven through the threads of this book in a shimmer of silver. It was always poised on the edge of my creative spirit, but it seemed to me a scary thing to embrace. These students got it without trying! Perhaps it is BECAUSE no one saw them. They were spared the regimental persistence of a formal education that teaches us not to be children; a system that strives to gradually close our minds to our imagination and replace it with the body's reality as experienced by individuals, states, nations and indeed the entire universe. The students only have their own creative energy for fuel, and there is nothing holding it to earth once it is released. Art and A.R.T. have released it for us all to enjoy. There is no limit to where this new approach may take us. I am eager to see where it leads.

The author, Tim Lefens, is an abstract artist who is troubled by a growing physical impairment. He writes how he accepts an invitation to show slides of his work to severely disabled people in a hospital/school in New Jersey. The power of the individuals' spirit, communicated mostly through their eyes, bowls him over, and he can't stop thinking about their excitement and interest. The well-meaning but insensitive employees of the school treat the patients like children of zero intelligence and do everything for them, to the point of choosing saccharine TV shows about purple dinosaurs for these thinking adults. Lefens tells how he feels propelled to liberate the residents from the prison of their bodies and others' misguided babying through the medium of art. He begins by working with patients who can operate wheelchairs and sets up a way to paint by driving over the painting with wheels. From there the thrilled artists move on to ever more expressive techniques. The story of how Lefens fights a stultified and hostile bureaucracy, finds legitimate art galleries for the artists to show their work and liberates them in unexpected ways is riveting. It should help readers put their own prisons in perspective and think about ways to accomplish the impossible in their lives, too.

This is one fabulous book. I loved it, absolutely could not put it down and am enjoying reading it again. I find it exceptionally interesting and inspiring and wildly funny. It gave me so many insights about the tremendous power of art and what modern painting, and painting in general, really is about. It is a wonderful, finely written love story and I could not recommend more highly.