By Andy Dreisewerd
For all intents and purposes, or should I say “Purr-poses?” My name is Andy, I am 32 years of age, I have been doing artwork since I could pick up a pen or pencil. About 3 years ago, I had an experience that lead me to further polish my love for drawing what most consider to be mythical creatures.
Two and a half years later, I attended my first art fair and sale in California where the seed, as it were, was planted. As far as the other things I do in my spare time – I am an avid reader, retro gamer, and sparse role player when time permits. I also have a penchant for writing, which is a key reason for starting this blog. There may not be much happening at the home-front in life, however, the small nuances of one day to the next bring interesting surprises.
I have a Youtube channel that I don’t have as many ways to update as I used to due to lack of a webcam built into the laptop and lugging a large one around that looks like ET with the occulus eye from small soldiers(tm) can be a pain. On my youtube channel, I post some of the advocacy work that I do, and my public speaking. I also post what may seem like wild and out there theories connecting the seemingly unreal world of “Video games” to our modern world and experience through tangential learning. This is not unlike what the Youtube creator “MattPat” does in his weekly show “Game theory.” On a side note, I am still thinking about doing a “The Legend of Spyro” lets-watch AKA “Let’s play” on live stream at some point. However, for this to happen, I will have to acquire an actual Game Cube and a video out to my laptop. We’ll see what becomes of that in the near future.
For those of you who are interested in my work as a self advocate/Advocate AKA “Advo-cat” I can furnish you a brief (or somewhat brief) history on that. My parents, of all people, alerted me that there was an emerging “Autism rights” movement hitting the internet and that these people shared some of the same opinions and feelings about treatments, therapies and group homes that I had. In the following years, I became a frequent presence on the chatroom channel “#chatautism” for a few years. A year after, I joined an organization called “CTIC” in Anoka, Minnesota. I have been giving speeches at Meridian services staff meetings and at other functions, as well as speaking at High Schools around the local area about autism. I am also the acting president of Meridian’s in-house advocacy group “Team Advocacy.”
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Originally posted on Andy’s blog.
Andy’s Facebook page is called Cattydragons. He would appreciate those reading this page to like his FB page. Andy’s art is for sale and he is available for speaking engagements. You can message him through his FB page. Andy’s website is called The Art of Catting because Andy displays cat mannerisms. He describes himself as a therian. He provided this definition. “Therian short for therianthrope – a therian is somebody who feels a connection with an animal. Not necessarily an animal from this plane either, although most accepted therians tend to be animals such as wolves or big cats there are some who believe themselves to be unicorns or other mythical creatures. The connection the person feels with the animal can range from feeling they have been born into the wrong body (similar to those with gender issues) to simply a belief that they were an animal in a past life and still retain some memories or behaviors of said animal. Therians do not physically become the animal they have a connection with, although some do describe ‘mental shifts’ where they feel their whole thought process becomes that of the animals.”
