Artist with ‘passionate commitment’ at Hunt Library

FALLS VILLAGE — John Hodgson’s new art show opened at the David M. Hunt Library on Saturday, Jan. 16, with nine new paintings.

Hodgson, of Falls Village and New York City, is autistic. He participates in a program for young adults who are developmentally challenged, to varying degrees.

The Connections art class in New York is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. A group of six students came to Falls Village in the summer of 2015 to show their work, Hodgson among them.

At the July 2015 show, Barry Gordon, a professor of neurology and cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said the idea was to expand the art program so that the participants (and their families) could experience more social interaction. (The people in the program often have difficulty expressing themselves.) 

The program also includes a cooking class, which requires considerable cooperation.

Boris Gokturk is the Connections art teacher and has been working with Hodgson for several years.

He said Hodgson “works a lot with layers” of painting and collage.

Sometimes the two decide a piece is finished “when the surface is loaded with information or material.”

“John is serious about the group,” Gokturk said. 

And he is the senior artist in the group, both in terms of number of pieces and overall experience.

The current show’s works are thick with paint and collage elements, much more so than those in the 2015 group show.

That is because the group works in a classroom, with limited access to “splashy” materials.

Hodgson, however, also works with Gokturk in a studio, where he can use bigger canvases and a wider range of materials.

Olivia Pullara, the director of the program in New York, said there are about 10 students in the program, not all involved with the art class.

She said the art students exhibit “passionate commitment,” often working on their pieces between other classes.