Two Can Art
Two Can Art is the collaboration between artist, Patti Gay and her son Noah who is autistic. Noah creates all of the painted textures that become Patti’s palette to create images from.
For Noah painting is a whole sensory activity. It has been part of his program since he was young. He uses sponges, brushes, fingers, rollers, spray bottles and even bubbles to create textures. He also has a variety of different paints including acrylics, watercolor, gouache, finger paints and foam paints. After the painted textures are created Patti scans them and then manipulates them into images using Photoshop.
“I have always thought his paintings beautiful. It seems only natural that we would combine into Two Can Art.”
Inspiration comes from the textures themselves as well as nature and animals in abundance from their home in the Santa Cruz mountains.
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Q&A with Patti Gay
How did the idea for Two Can Art come about?
Noah has always had a tactile relationship with paint. He loves the way it feels as he is working with fingers, sponges, brushes, and even bubbles. I have always thought that the textures were beautiful and would make cards from them for family and friends. One day when looking through all the saved paintings, I had an idea for a specific image using his textures–after that, it just took off. We now have hundreds of images in the collection.
How is the art made?
Noah’s textures work as my palette. I take his textured paintings and scan them into the computer. Using Photoshop, I create images from them. There are sometimes 40 or 50 layers of texture pieced together to form the image.
What do you like best about this collection?
The best part of this (for me as a mom) is that Noah and I have something that we both love to do together. A big bonus is that Two Can Art brings awareness to autism. Some of my licensing partners generously donate a percentage to autism causes, which reaches beyond our family. That’s just great!
