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July 13, 9:13 PMLA Books ExaminerLaura Frazin Steele
This month the autism community mourns the passing of Clara Claiborne Park (1923-2010), a groundbreaking author and parent of a daughter with autism. Clara Claiborne Park’s autistic daughter, Jessica Park, has provided us with a beautiful book filled with her own paintings, entitled Exploring Nirvana: The Art of Jessica Park.
Jessica Park was born in 1958 and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. At that time, very little was known about the disorder. Today, autism is widely recognized as a neurological disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate. People with autism have difficulty with complex social interactions and often have rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior.
Jessica Park’s mother, the late Clara Claiborne Park, assumed the role of psychologist and tutor to help her daughter overcome some of her neurological difficulties to become the nationally recognized artist that she is today.