Flying Colors

By: Tim Lefens

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

When Tim Lefens walked into the Matheny School in New Jersey to show slides of his paintings, his one-hour visit became a life-changing experience. The students he met had severe physical challenges: only one of them could talk, none could walk, and all lacked the use of their hands. As a painter facing his own gradual loss of eyesight, Tim had come to fully appreciate the power of art, and he was determined to enable the students to paint despite their physical limitations.

Lefens created breakthrough techniques for these students that gave full, exacting control of the creative process for such remarkable young artists as Natalia with her brash wit, the brooding Mike with his Harley-Davidson hat, the mischievous Chet, the passionate cowgirl Cindy, and Angel, the volcanic Latino.

Flying Colors, an immensely inspiring story about leaping over obstacles, reveals the passion and determination of one man, his student-artists, and their emergence together from a virtual silence to luminous expression.

©2002 Tim Lefens (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks

Great subject, bad writing

This audiobook has a lot of good things going for it, but the writing is not one of them. It's a nonfiction book written by a visual artist, not a writer. He writes about how he began a adaptive arts program for disabled people to allow them to paint. He starts the careers of many talented artists some of whom had never spoken or been able to communicate much in their lives. The narrator is excellent, but the writing style is not very mature. The author doesn't use contractions, even when reproducing very informal dialog, and the narrative is frequently punctuated with thinly veiled self-congratualtory commentary. But the subject of his story, and it's narrative, are really very worthwhile -- if you can put up with a few imperfections.

Wow!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book pulls you in and you do not want to let go.... best I have read "listened to" in years!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Flying Colors?

The wheelchair painting....

What does Grover Gardner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His tone and intination were wonderful!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, very extreme emotianlly intense!