My Artwork on cover of New Book: Been There, Done That, Try This.

book cover by Stephanie Tihanyi

I am excited, honored and very happy to announce one of my paintings was chosen to grace the cover of a newly published book. The book has just been published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It has been co-written by world leading Asperger's (Autism Spectrum Disorders) expert, Dr. Tony Attwood and community organizer, Craig R Evans, who himself parents a child with Asperger's syndrome and is also the founder of the online autism community Autism Hangout. The third author is Anita Lesko, mentor, advocate and author of When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade. She is also a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, in addition to, a published military aviation photojournalist and has flown an F-15 fighter jet and a Navy helicopter., she also has Asperger's herself.


'The Visitation' a painting by Stephanie Tihanyi (all copyrights held by the artist)

detail of painting by Stephanie Tihanyi
(all copyrights held by artist)

The painting is one of my earlier works called "The Visitation", oil on Masonite ( 30" x 48"). The publishers felt it was best suited to illustrate one of the many books chapters: Accepting Change & Transformation as well as the actual cover. My personal feelings about my painting also coincide with this. I was trying to express the struggle and effort it takes of going through the process of transforming from a difficult past to perceiving and building a new future, full of hopes, possibilities and greater happiness and life fulfillment . I did this painting at a particularly difficult time in my life, when I felt very much in an emotional crisis. It was an emotional therapy for me, as is much of my artwork, it helped me to express feelings and thoughts I did not have words for, or even concepts to clothe them on. In the painting, the angel/child is balanced at the intersection of a corner of a building. One side is on fire, cracked and broken and in pain, the other side is whole and beautifully colored with the angel's one-wing. At the bottom of the painting, sits a
cat on the door step, (we used to have a cat in our family home), like a friend, who is waiting to be let in. Above, startled birds rise up into a deep blue sky with a crescent moon, as if showing the way to liberation.


'The Visitation' a painting by Stephanie Tihanyi
 (all copyrights held by the artist)

This book is the start of launching a mentorship movement within the autism community to help each other find success in life, this is an inspirational guide to life by Aspies for Aspies. Its a straight forward, clear, how to manual, chock full of perspectives, life stories and advise, not only just survive, but to thrive and reach your full potential, build self -esteem, be accepted for who you are, find support with each other and learn how to share your gifts with the world. I have not had a look inside the book yet. Its only just been released to the UK and Australian markets (21/2/14) and in the USA in March. I am really looking forward to reading this and reading all the wonderful advise , tips and support these other aspies are giving. Its great to know you do not feel alone and there are others that share, have struggled and found solutions for the unique challenges we experience, which is often invisible and not easily understood by others around us. I hope my copy will not take too long to get here.

From reading the reviews I can see it contains as many as 180 essays from 30 Aspie Mentors, including internationally well-known figures such as: DrTemple Grandin, Stephen Shore,  Liane Holliday Willey, Jennifer Cook O’Tool,  Lars Perner and Anita Lesko.

You can see more of my Visionary and Surreal painting on my website: HERE