Natural Born Artist

Biographical details of any artist’s life will inevitably inform the artwork to some extent. For Dietrich Sieling, one of those biographical details is that the 23-year-old Minneapolis artist, , was diagnosed with autism two decades ago at age three. 

It’s no secret. The briefest of internet searches will present this fact almost immediately. It’s also not the beginning, end or point of the story.

“His autism is part of him, like that he is 23 or Caucasian or grew up in Minneapolis,” Shelli Ainsworth, local filmmaker and Sieling’s mother, said. “It’s a piece of the whole; it doesn’t supersede and it’s not equal with his work.” 

A Mother’s Intuition 

Around the same Sieling was diagnosed with autism, Ainsworth saw another unique quality emerge: her son’s innate artistic ability. 

“There was something there so early; it resonated with me on a level that lead me to believe he’s an artist. Time has supported that,” Ainsworth said. 

Childhood doodles proved early indicators of a deeper, intrinsic inclination to creating art. And it has persisted in the years since. 

“When he was four, I remember him drawing a fork,” Ainsworth said. “He was interested in forks and the idea that sometimes there were three tines, four tines, two tines. It was such a simple thing to draw but there was something there that was really interesting.”

After a childhood and adolescence of exploring art, Sieling spent his final two years of high school at Perpich Center for Arts Education and has since become a full-time working artist. Language and communication are challenging for Sieling, but through art he explores narrative, telling visual stories about his fears and curiosities, his friends’ lives and his own. Certain themes are catching and Sieling will focus on specific and varied topics, from African hoofed animals to public restrooms, until he has thoroughly explored them.

“A lot of people who have autism really perseverate on a particular subject or a theme. Artists often do that as well–you sort of exhaust a subject in an interesting way. That’s certainly what he does,” Ainsworth said.

Markus Lunkenheimer is Sieling’s art assistant. He has had the opportunity to witness firsthand the kind of fanciful escape art offers Sieling.

“Dietrich knows that art is where you can pretend anything you want,” Lunkenheimer said. “If he's wondering what grape-flavored Oreos with purple frosting would taste like, it will end up in a drawing. If he wants there to be a licorice-flavored emergency vitamin packet for him to mix into a glass of water while at a swimming pool where everyone is topless, it will end up in a drawing. He has invented many treats, creatures and situations within his artwork and when he is in the moment of invention, his focus on his work becomes all encompassing.”

Some Good Cards, Some Bad

Shelli Ainsworth said it was Sieling’s struggle with language that prevented him from being accepted into an art school after high school. Instead, Sieling has taken classes on his own and continually striven to surround himself with other creative people and share in artistic energy. He’s carving his own path, and finding success at a young age.

“I think we all get dealt some good cards and some bad cards, all of us,” Ainsworth said. “A really good card he got just through the doing and interest [was that] he discovered something he really wanted to do with his life,” Ainsworth said.