Nadia - The Autistic Child Who Could Draw Like Picasso

The story of Nadia Chomyn (1967 - 2015) is remarkable. Born to Ukrainian parents who moved to England in the 1960’s , she was diagnosed as severely autistic.  She needed help dressing and feeding and was unable to effectively communicate and yet from the age of 3 was able to draw superbly.  She broke all the accepted rules of the development of graphic representation in children.  That is, she never went through the usual childlike stage of scribble, stick figures etc and was able to draw seemingly without motivation.

Once finished she would push the drawing away or draw over it.  Her drawings raised questions about the relationship between the conscious and instinctive mind.  She was at her most productive between the ages of 3 & 9 and when her drawings were published in 1977, they created quite a stir.  She came to the notice of the renowned neurologist Oliver Sachs and her remarkable talent is still frequently cited in textbooks on developmental psychology.

Her inspiration seems to have come mainly from picture books, especially the Ladybird series, whose pictures were often based on photographic images.  Her drawings show a clear understanding of single point perspective, overlapping and the correct use of proportion.  Throughout this period, she was very passive and totally unresponsive to social engagement.

From about the age of 9, Nadia gradually lost the ability to draw realistically and eventually her drawing ceased completely. Whilst there have been other autistic artists and savants identified and studied over the years, none have shown such a prodigious talent at such a young age.

 “As yet there is no single explanatory theory for her prodigious talent. But, without question, Nadia’s drawings introduced many psychologists to the conundrum that is autism.” THE GUARDIAN

Hello, my name is Geoff. You may be interested to know that I am a fulltime artist these days and I regularly exhibit in galleries in Victoria, but particularly in Melbourne. You may wish to check out my work using the following link; https://geoffharrisonarts.com

Sources: The Guardian

: The Secret of Drawing - BBC 4

Cardiac Surgeon Inspired By Art

In his series “The Secret Of Drawing”, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon discusses with prominent British heart surgeon Francis Wells the significance of the anatomical drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci . Wells has used the drawings of Da Vinci to assist him in developing new ways of repairing damaged hearts.

Francis Wells

Wells uses drawing to not only help him prepare for the details of a heart operation, he produces small drawings on paper using the blood from the chest cavity to give a “replay” of the procedure to his team.

Leonardo was fascinated by how the mitral valve closes and produced a glass bulb in the shape of an aorta and pumped water through it. He put grass seeds in the water so he could trace it’s movement. Through his drawings, Leonardo developed the worlds first artificial heart valve. All this in 1513, when he he had no one to talk to, there was no heart surgery or meaningful medicine, and to most people it wouldn’t have made any sense.

These experiments of Leonardo, and the drawings he produced from them have enabled Wells to work out how to restore the normal opening and closing of the mitral valve.

Francis Wells describes Leonardo as a flat out original thinker and a genius. He has spent many years studying the anatomical drawings of Leonardo and encourages significant interaction between artists and scientists.

Baldessin/Whiteley and the curator

Sometimes a 'curator's perspective' can lift ones appreciation of an exhibition from moderate to considerable.  Emeritus professor Sasha Grishin's talk on the Baldessin/Whiteley show at the National Gallery of Victoria (Federation Square) is a case in point.  Both Brett Whiteley and George Baldessin were born in 1939, both had difficult childhoods, both enjoyed considerable success in their respective cities; Melbourne (Baldessin) and Sydney (Whiteley), and both had relatively short careers.  Baldessin's was ended in a fatal car accident in 1978, Whiteley died in 1992, although the last decade of his life was somewhat unproductive.

Whiteley The Spray At Bondi (1981)

I was aware of Whiteley's difficult childhood, largely the result of being sent to a boarding school at Bathurst when he was 8.  He hated every minute of it.  But I was not aware of Baldessin's.  He was born in Italy and his mother left for Australia shortly after with the intention of finding work and then bringing her family over - but the second world war intervened and George was shunted around from relative to relative, not seeing his mother again until he finally arrived in Australia at the age of 10.  They were never close. 

Baldessin Part of his MM (Mary Magdalene) at Rue Saint Denis series 1976

Both artists rejected the abstract expressionist movement of the time and focused on more figurative work.  Both of them were concerned with the human condition and the duality of human nature.  One of Whiteley's more celebrated series of paintings was based around the serial murderer John Reginald Christie in his 10 Rillington Place series.

Both artists explored themes of sexuality in an urban environment and witnessed the rapidly changing world following WW2 including the cultural upheavals of the 1960's and 70's.  Both artists were sculptors and well as 2D artists and both were strongly influenced by British artist Francis Bacon.

Whiteley Black - The Get Laid Totem

The highlight for Whiteley fans will probably be his 22 metre long "American Dream" which was painted in the late 1960's while he and his family were living in New York - a savage critique of life in America, which as Grishin points out, seems just as relevant today in Donald Trump's America.  Overall, a powerful exhibition.

Baldessin The Performer

The ABC's Token Gesture To The Arts

Not him again!  Yes, it's him again.  Anh Do's brush with bullshit makes its return to ABC television.  As I've argued before, there must be hundreds of thousands of visual artists in this country and just one guy gets all this exposure.  Why?  So what if he is a refugee who made good.  It's time we got over it and focused attention on other artists in this country.

What makes me sad is I can remember the days when there was very good arts coverage on the ABC and SBS.  I have the DVD's to prove it (many of them dubbed from VHS - some of the programs being THAT old.)  

I'm sure the more enlightened of you would have figured out that Anh's Brush With Fame is not about art at all, it's about the "celebrities".  The attraction of the show for the ABC is that it's cheap to make as there is no research, just a friendly chat show whilst the guy is painting and it might as well be a morning cooking show.  All very sad really and it represents a dumbing down of arts coverage on free to air TV.

Networking And The Introvert

I became aware of this book via another, Justin Heazlewood's "Funemployed: Life As An Artist In Australia".  In one chapter, Heazlewood discusses the challenges facing artists when it comes to networking, and he includes quotes from Cain.  She argues that in the modern era people have to prove themselves in a crowd of strangers, so qualities like magnetism and charisma become very important. Trouble is, most artists are introverts who feel at their most alive when they are in quieter, low key environments.

"It's little wonder artists find the concept of networking and self-promotion confronting, as industry demands are in direct opposition to there psychological makeup." HEAZLEWOOD    He argues the notion of the social artist is problematic on several levels.  It assumes a one-size-fits-all approach where introverts must adapt or die to an extroverted ideal.  It shifts the priority from an artist's work to their personality.

"Solitude matters", says Cain. It's where artists gain their inspiration.  I like Heazlewood's comment that artists, once the cultural beacons and outsider innovators are stripped of their context as they become high profile participants in a Big Brother chatroom.  "This peer-pressured social matrix threatens to hijack an artist's creative brain."

So is the internet the answer?  Given I've recently sold a painting online and rented another online, perhaps the answer is yes.  But only if you know how to use it.  Heazlewood describes Facebook as allowing you to experience social anxiety from the inconvenience of your bedroom.

After viewing Susan Cains TED talk, I intend to get hold of this book.

The White Canvas

There was a time when the white canvas totally intimidated me.   I’m pleased to report those days are gone.  But I felt rather better about my initial hesitancy after seeing a program on Russell Drysdale.  Shortly before I acquired my first VCR (if only…) the ABC screened a program dating back to 1966 when Drysdale received a visit from an old pal George Johnston, a writer and journalist who wanted his portrait painted.

I once heard Drysdale described as the artist who ran away from the canvas.  Did he what!!  He would get Johnston into position in a chair and then faff about looking for distractions.  They would go fishing one day, then visit an old mate at the local boozer the next.  I can recall the camera focusing on the near blank canvas regularly. 

After about 2 weeks, Johnston gave up and returned to Sydney convinced his portrait would never be completed.  Drysdale must have made some progress during Johnston's stay because I can remember him saying it was as if Drysdale gone into a trance in front of the canvas.  Some 6 weeks later, Johnston gets the call, “I’ve finished”.

These days the white canvas represents possibilities and I focus on just getting something happening as quickly as possible.  So the next time I walk into the studio I can see I’ve made at least some progress – there is so much psychology involved.  To a point, I let the painting develop a life of its own although I do have a final image in the back of my mind.

A City In Flux

The city of Paris during the reign of Napoleon III underwent massive changes due, in part, to the migration of hordes of rural workers into the city as a result of the industrial revolution.  Artists such a Eduard Manet witnessed these changes and depicted them in their art.  According to a recent Four Corners episode on the ABC, Victoria's population grew by one million in the 10 years to 2016.  I'm not sure if this transformation is the motivation behind the painting below, but it may have been.

The Roar Of The Approaching Night           Oil On Canvas               75 cm x 150 cm

Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in the docklands area on the west side of Melbourne's Spencer Street where an entirely new central business district seems to be evolving housing, so it seems, a new class of the upwardly mobile.

Melbourne's Docklands today

Presumably, recreation for these residents would involve visiting the various restaurants and other attractions of the inner city, or jetting off interstate or overseas, rather than hopping in the car for a picnic in the countryside which, lets face it, would take all day to get there, given the suburban sprawl.

West of Spencer Street viewed from Transport House, 1985

Another motivation for my painting could be my brief and disastrous return to the workforce in 2008, when I discovered the recent trends to toxic working environments to be a reality, not a myth.  Anyway, Melbourne is a city in flux that I have trouble recognising, and this painting is intended to represent my increasing alienation from it.  The title of the painting is a line from the song "Tender Is The Night" by Jackson Browne.

To The Tortured Artist.....Get Over It

The recently departed author/actor Bob Ellis once claimed that artistic talent is not something you are born with, it's grafted onto you by a wound.  As much as I admired Ellis, in this instance I believe he was talking bollocks. 

And why?  Because many people who have suffered injustices (either perceived or actual) respond by inflicting harm on others rather than resorting to art.  The question as to why different people respond in different ways to adverse circumstances is something I wouldn't even contemplate answering.  All I know is that if I'm feeling down about aspects of my past, the last thing I feel like doing is picking up the paint brush.  To me it's logically impossible.

In her book "Big Magic", author Elizabeth Gilbert has some interesting thoughts on the topic of the tortured artist.  Gilbert argues that we must love our art and our art must love us.  "Nature provides the seed, man provides the garden, each is grateful for the other's help."

I have no doubt that some remarkable art has been the product of delving into the depths, but I doubt if the artist was wallowing in it at the time.  To me it's like looking back inside a tunnel from the outside, "yes, it was like that but it's not like that now".  To  me, the work of the tortured artist relies on past issues never being resolved, which begs a question.  What would happen to the art practice if he/she was suddenly at peace?

Gilbert quotes Francis Bacon "The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than feelings of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch  your whole sensibility".   That may be the case but I bet Bacon wasn't feeling desperate whilst he painted.  Mark Rothko apparently wanted people to break down and cry in front of his paintings.  Then when he became ill and couldn't work any longer, he committed suicide. 

The price some artists pay for their pain!  Gilbert believes that many young artists today are told that if they want to become creative, they must open up a vein and bleed.  "Trusting in nothing but suffering is a dangerous path.  Suffering has a reputation for killing off artists.  But even when it doesn't kill them, an addiction to pain can sometimes throw artists into such severe mental disorder that they stop working at all."

I particularly like this comment of hers; "I believe our creativity grows like sidewalk weeds out of the cracks between our pathologies - not from the pathologies themselves.  But many people believe it's the other way around."  So I come back to an earlier comment - love who you are and what you do.