07-06-2005, 07:54 PM
A diagnosis of Asperger's tipped balance
Ted Hinman looks every bit the blacksmith. He's big and burly, with long hair and large, weathered hands. He wears heavy black boots and a necklace fashioned from sheet metal.
Hinman is also a sculptor and teacher. And he's a person living with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.
''I always felt like I was different," said Hinman, 42, who was diagnosed three years ago. ''On one hand, I could do things, but on the other hand, I wasn't fitting in. People would take me like I was stupid."
People with Asperger's have difficulty with social interaction and communication, but they have normal intelligence and, often, exceptional skills and talents.
Having a name for his disability, Hinman said, ''takes off the pressure of having to be normal." And, it has allowed him to blossom as a blacksmith, toolmaker, sculptor, historical reenactor, and teacher.
''It was a huge breakthrough," said his wife, Armene Margosian, 40, originally from Swampscott. ''He felt like a freak before. This allowed him to have contact with other people."
The first solo exhibit of Hinman's sculptures is at The Gallery at Southside, at North Shore ARC, through July 15. A large metal squid floats out from the corner of the gallery. Sculptures of steel and wood, based on the design of outrigger canoes, line the walls.
The gallery, opened 15 months ago, features the work of artists with disabilities.
''It's giving these people an outlet for their expression," said Peter Flister, ARC's director of recreation services. ''They have the creative spark in them, and it's a vehicle through which they can communicate and find a great sense of pride."
Hinman grew up in New York, the son of Charles Hinman, an artist well known for his three-dimensional canvas abstractions. His work is in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His mother, Christy Park of Gloucester, is a former art educator and artist.
After graduating from a residential program at the Linden Hill School in New York in 1982, ''I couldn't find work," Ted Hinman said. ''I tried McDonald's, but they fired me because I wasn't fast enough at the grill."
He later moved to Boston with his mother, who got a job at the Massachusetts College of Art. Hinman found work as a janitor, a job he held for 12 years.
''It was a dead-end job; I was getting nowhere," he said. ''I didn't feel I was being treated right. I couldn't keep up with the pace they wanted."
In 1991, Hinman found the New Life Community Church in Concord, where he designed and built sets for plays. It rekindled his childhood love of metal and woodworking.
''My artistic skill was recognized, and that was a renewal of wanting to be an artist," Hinman said. He began taking continuing education courses at the Massachusetts College of Art and building a portfolio.
He was accepted to the college full time in 1995, graduating in 2000 with a degree in sculpture.
Meanwhile, he became acquainted with the Saugus Iron Works and Pioneer Village in Salem, both sites of the National Park Service. In 1997, he was hired as a blacksmith and historic interpreter at Pioneer Village and stayed five years.
He also made hardware and fixtures for the replica of the schooner Friendship, docked in Salem Harbor. And he began doing blacksmith demonstrations at the annual Salem Maritime Festival, to which he will return on July 16 and 17.
''He provides a great demonstration," said Mike Parr, chief ranger for the National Park Service. ''He sets up on the beach with his forge and creates some art, some knives, and utilitarian tools. He's a jack of all trades."
Parr said he didn't initially know of Hinman's Asperger's syndrome. ''I sensed something was there," he said. ''But it never impeded his operation. He's a great guy to have at the festival."
In 2001, Hinman met his future wife at a blacksmith meet, which she was attending with a friend. It was, she said, love at first sight.
Later, she said, ''I asked him what his diagnosis was, and he said, 'What are you talking about?' He kept telling me that people just didn't like him."
She helped him get insurance and took him to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was diagnosed with Asperger's.
''My wife deserves a lot of the credit," Hinman said. ''If I was not married to her, I don't think I would have gotten this far."
Gail Kastorf -- director of the autism support center at North Shore ARC, which serves 1,400 families throughout northeastern Massachusetts -- said Asperger's is sometimes overlooked because it is on the ''less involved end of the autism spectrum."
''Many folks with Asperger's can keep up academically and seem to manage OK, so nobody identifies it," she said. ''Or they are identified as having a learning or emotional disability."
She said adult diagnosis is not unusual for someone of Hinman's generation, but now children with Asperger's syndrome are being identified earlier.
When Hinman married Margosian in 2002, he moved to Montague, a town in Western Massachusetts where she had been living for 13 years. He got a job as blacksmith and historical interpreter at Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center.
''He's transformed our living museum by creating a working blacksmith shop," said Kerry Buckley, executive director of Historic Northampton.
When Hinman gives demonstrations for visitors and school groups, ''he really engages them on so many different levels," Buckley said. ''They are mesmerized by the process. Ted really makes a connection."
Hinman also teaches group and private blacksmith classes.
And, Buckley said, he reaches out to adolescents who ''haven't meshed with traditional education.
''He has given them confidence and skills and provided an outlet," he added. ''For many kids, if it was not for that, they wouldn't have had a place or an anchor. Ted has been a real gift."
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Ted Hinman looks every bit the blacksmith. He's big and burly, with long hair and large, weathered hands. He wears heavy black boots and a necklace fashioned from sheet metal.
Hinman is also a sculptor and teacher. And he's a person living with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.
''I always felt like I was different," said Hinman, 42, who was diagnosed three years ago. ''On one hand, I could do things, but on the other hand, I wasn't fitting in. People would take me like I was stupid."
People with Asperger's have difficulty with social interaction and communication, but they have normal intelligence and, often, exceptional skills and talents.
Having a name for his disability, Hinman said, ''takes off the pressure of having to be normal." And, it has allowed him to blossom as a blacksmith, toolmaker, sculptor, historical reenactor, and teacher.
''It was a huge breakthrough," said his wife, Armene Margosian, 40, originally from Swampscott. ''He felt like a freak before. This allowed him to have contact with other people."
The first solo exhibit of Hinman's sculptures is at The Gallery at Southside, at North Shore ARC, through July 15. A large metal squid floats out from the corner of the gallery. Sculptures of steel and wood, based on the design of outrigger canoes, line the walls.
The gallery, opened 15 months ago, features the work of artists with disabilities.
''It's giving these people an outlet for their expression," said Peter Flister, ARC's director of recreation services. ''They have the creative spark in them, and it's a vehicle through which they can communicate and find a great sense of pride."
Hinman grew up in New York, the son of Charles Hinman, an artist well known for his three-dimensional canvas abstractions. His work is in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His mother, Christy Park of Gloucester, is a former art educator and artist.
After graduating from a residential program at the Linden Hill School in New York in 1982, ''I couldn't find work," Ted Hinman said. ''I tried McDonald's, but they fired me because I wasn't fast enough at the grill."
He later moved to Boston with his mother, who got a job at the Massachusetts College of Art. Hinman found work as a janitor, a job he held for 12 years.
''It was a dead-end job; I was getting nowhere," he said. ''I didn't feel I was being treated right. I couldn't keep up with the pace they wanted."
In 1991, Hinman found the New Life Community Church in Concord, where he designed and built sets for plays. It rekindled his childhood love of metal and woodworking.
''My artistic skill was recognized, and that was a renewal of wanting to be an artist," Hinman said. He began taking continuing education courses at the Massachusetts College of Art and building a portfolio.
He was accepted to the college full time in 1995, graduating in 2000 with a degree in sculpture.
Meanwhile, he became acquainted with the Saugus Iron Works and Pioneer Village in Salem, both sites of the National Park Service. In 1997, he was hired as a blacksmith and historic interpreter at Pioneer Village and stayed five years.
He also made hardware and fixtures for the replica of the schooner Friendship, docked in Salem Harbor. And he began doing blacksmith demonstrations at the annual Salem Maritime Festival, to which he will return on July 16 and 17.
''He provides a great demonstration," said Mike Parr, chief ranger for the National Park Service. ''He sets up on the beach with his forge and creates some art, some knives, and utilitarian tools. He's a jack of all trades."
Parr said he didn't initially know of Hinman's Asperger's syndrome. ''I sensed something was there," he said. ''But it never impeded his operation. He's a great guy to have at the festival."
In 2001, Hinman met his future wife at a blacksmith meet, which she was attending with a friend. It was, she said, love at first sight.
Later, she said, ''I asked him what his diagnosis was, and he said, 'What are you talking about?' He kept telling me that people just didn't like him."
She helped him get insurance and took him to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was diagnosed with Asperger's.
''My wife deserves a lot of the credit," Hinman said. ''If I was not married to her, I don't think I would have gotten this far."
Gail Kastorf -- director of the autism support center at North Shore ARC, which serves 1,400 families throughout northeastern Massachusetts -- said Asperger's is sometimes overlooked because it is on the ''less involved end of the autism spectrum."
''Many folks with Asperger's can keep up academically and seem to manage OK, so nobody identifies it," she said. ''Or they are identified as having a learning or emotional disability."
She said adult diagnosis is not unusual for someone of Hinman's generation, but now children with Asperger's syndrome are being identified earlier.
When Hinman married Margosian in 2002, he moved to Montague, a town in Western Massachusetts where she had been living for 13 years. He got a job as blacksmith and historical interpreter at Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center.
''He's transformed our living museum by creating a working blacksmith shop," said Kerry Buckley, executive director of Historic Northampton.
When Hinman gives demonstrations for visitors and school groups, ''he really engages them on so many different levels," Buckley said. ''They are mesmerized by the process. Ted really makes a connection."
Hinman also teaches group and private blacksmith classes.
And, Buckley said, he reaches out to adolescents who ''haven't meshed with traditional education.
''He has given them confidence and skills and provided an outlet," he added. ''For many kids, if it was not for that, they wouldn't have had a place or an anchor. Ted has been a real gift."
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