Schizophrenia And Art

Friday, 11 November 2005

Cinderella
Mood:

happy
Topic: art in progress

This is the latest painting I am working on. It looks rather scary in the first stages. What you are looking at is just an underpainting. I pick 4 colors and paint with them. Naples yellow green, naples yellow red, serves green and indanthrene blue. Those sure aren't colors any art teacher would say to start a painting with.

I am just trying to understand where the light and dark colors will go. And since I am working with photographs (magazine pictures of real clothing or digital camera pictures of feet, facial expression and the Chinese table) as well as a drawing of the entire composition, I am more worried about place of shape than color of shape.

The girl peeling an apple is wearing an outfit designed by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton.

Her top will be, as Jacobs intended, a sky blue with a white ruffle. The skirt is a hunter's red with black puff netting at the bottom.

Why paint with green and blue when the objective is a red skirt? Good question. All I know is that red alone would be boring. There should be a lot of change in any one solid panel of cloth. Oil paint is often translucent and what you put underneath will receive light. Green will twist that light and then send it bouncing back through the red to your eyes.

If I just mixed green and red right there on the canvass the resulting color is a rather exciting brown. I think. But if each color dries, one on top of the other, then you start getting from your color, what I call, "the sensation of velvet". Velvet is a pile of fibers that capture light like other cloth cant. Velvet is not flat, somehow, it gives us visual clues about that.

Human skin has layers of translucence that light passes through and back. Skin gives its own clues that it is alive.

I never start a painting with the "right" colors. In the end I promise that you will say, "of course the skirt is red". But if I've been successful there will be something delicious about the skirt. Delicious paint? You bet. At some point words start to fail to describe and we pull in description from a cross sensation - taste in the case of delicious. Or velvet paint - a touch sensation.

It is exactly the use of opposite or wrong colors that teases the mind to start talking in terms of nonsense and paradox.

This painting has a long journey ahead before it is finished. I can only work in tiny increments. And I don't know if the sale price can reflect the time and numerous mental choice contained within it's 11"x14" boundary. But this is often the lot of the artist.

Posted by dignifyme at 6:36 AM EST

Updated: Friday, 11 November 2005 1:28 PM EST

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Tuesday, 18 October 2005

A Letter to Me
Mood: on fire
Topic: art in progress
I got this email from a schizophrenic friend. He is a cheeky guy. Reminds me of a little boy playing inside the cab of a gigantic crane and wrecking ball.

"Why did you switch to different medicine? Are you really schizo, or do you just like sitting around making art? Ponder these questions. You will
be graded."

I hope he will still be my friend after what I wrote back.

"So, I'm being graded? ok.

Fuck you for being so pretentious as to know what it feels like to be me. Fuck you for not understanding my achievement being an artist. I got this disease the old fashioned way - no fun with hallucinogenic drugs like you, Stand, and Webster. Have you any idea what a dork I feel like because you three all can work? My schizophrenic uncle can stand and spit on the ground for hours on end. Fuck you if you don't know how this disease - not the fun drugs you took - how this disease can rot out the brain.

You seem to be saying that I rather be sick so I can paint instead of going to work. You have no fucking idea what life is like for me without the medication. I know what I would have without the medication. I would have big problems with my family. I would not be getting married because it would be very hard to live with me. I'd be unpredictable. I'd be fun, fabulous, weepy, poor, toothless, aimless, in and out of the hospital and yes, probably not half the artist I am today.

I was somebody really going places before I got sick. My brain got me into Barnard College and on the dean's list. You have no idea of the awards I won or for what. Then it was like a bomb exploded in my brain. All I had was pieces of thought and delusions. I had to learn how to read and write all over again. I am disciplined. Get it? Look how well I can write today. And I work hard at what little I can do. I don't only paint. Tonight I vacuumed half the apartment. I'm going to do the other half in the morning. If you think that is because I am lazy then you just don't know much about this disease. Tonight I also cooked two ears of corn and steamed asparagus. Again. Victory! And hard work, just like the vacuuming. My goal before bed is to wash the dishes. In preparation for this task I am visualizing myself doing it to get up the willpower and energy to indeed do it. I will succeed. I know I will. Because I want to. And when they are done, yes, I will be proud of myself.

I took two pictures for you today. The first is my painting before work on it. The second is my painting after today's work. Painting is very slow, disciplined work. There is no frenzy of creativity here. And frankly, there is very little advancement. I do a little every day and day after day my small efforts add up. Frequently, just like doing the dishes, I must visualize myself painting before I can actually find the energy and willpower to paint. Yes, I look forward to making art. But often I look forward to doing it because when I paint - I prove - that I exist. Again, this illness rots out your brain. I have to scratch and claw for every small task that defines the kind of person I am. It is true that what you do makes the person that you are. If I grow several beautiful, flowering, deep purple African violet plants, does that make me less sick? Yes. Yes it does. I'll have to take a picture of my African violet plants for you. They bring peace, love, and joy into our apartment. And that they live and thrive, this is proof of my control over my illness. God doesn't care if what you do is big or small. He only wants it to be good.

You aren't an anomaly. Probably most people think like you. So, how am I ever going to get you all to walk in my shoes?

I still think you are a darling. But please, can you think of more creative ways to satisfy your curiosity. Was your question kind? I mean, was there another way you could have asked me about medication and why I paint and don't work? It would be nice if you assumed first that I wasn't a scam artist.

Oh, I'm not really mad. Mostly, I'm sad. Sad about everything I lost when I got sick. They were things that were inside of me. I lost invisible things. I didn't even know I had them until I had lost them."

Posted by dignifyme at 9:02 PM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 18 October 2005 9:14 PM EDT

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Sunday, 16 October 2005

Hello
Mood: spacey
Topic: mental health

This is me today and the latest painting I am working on. At the bottom, that is an original song I wrote. And that machine on the right side of the canvass is used for causing brain damage in monkeys and then dissecting them afterwords. It's science.

It might be a lazy Sunday. Except I am going through a medication change that causes me a lot of anxiety. It isn't normal anxiety. It is chemically created and it feels like the world is constantly made out of glass and constantly shattering.

I'm starting a new medication that hopefully does not have the side effect of making me hungry. This is the way my nurse practitioner is monitoring the change.

First my old medication dose is reduced about 16%. It is only a small reduction in mg. At the same time I am given 75% of the target dose of my new medication. As this new medication starts increasing in strength, I become literally over medicated and start experiencing side effects.

The nurse is pleased by the level of anxiety I experience because this is proof that the new medication is working. She says the side effect is not the problem, the worry is, can I endure it? I pace. I cannot read. I cannot watch t.v. I can clean - vacuum, do the dishes and sort out the pantry. I can bead a necklace. As I write this my arms feel a bit on fire and I want very much to stop writing - but I won't until the topic is completed. And I can paint in short spurts.

Oh, how I hope next Friday when I see the nurse again she will bring down my old medication more. Although, I am afraid that since the new medication will be brought up to 100%, I am going to have to live about 3 more weeks of this half life.

This sort of medical service you get if your nurse practitioner has seen several decades of service at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. The complete and utter hardening to suffering. It is, simply, necessary suffering.

Posted by dignifyme at 6:41 PM EDT

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Tuesday, 4 October 2005

New Drawings
Mood: bright
Topic: art in progress

"You will fly, whether you like it or not."

"Ugly and Luck are more familiar than you might imagine."

Posted by dignifyme at 7:51 PM EDT

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Wednesday, 28 September 2005

The Marriage Picture
Topic: art in progress
The first sketch for the marriage picture was made just from my imagination and I like it the best. In it I tried to do a rough estimate of my own wedding dress. However, Mike was disappointed that the horse didn't look sexier in her dress. Of course he had no idea he was insulting my own gown. So I went to the library and looked at designer gowns in a Vogue magazine. And at that black tie event there were tuxedos too.

Now, it is very easy to draw a cat in a tuxedo. Just a head and four paws. But a horse in a dress? Her arms would have to be akimbo and her legs knock-kneed. Still, the animals were right, in the ways that the stars move across the sky at a speed that is right. Mike is the Kindly Cat, and cats do adore him. Any cat from any neighborhood. I've seen it happen again and again.

Another thing about Mike, you can't quite pin who he is down. He has that cat mysteriousness. The cat is content so much of the time, their lives seem lazy and effortless. Mike would be one of those cats who would like to curl up against your arm while you read a book.

Mike never ceases to amaze me what he can teach me about affection. He once warned me, "you can break a kitty-cat's heart" when I left the new cat from the rescue pound in a dog crate for too many days. Logic says the cat is used to being caged, but as it seemed, she knew that she had been rescued and she desperately wanted to live with us. When I ignored her pitiful cries, yes, I was breaking her heart. At the time ignoring a little mewing seemed like the strong thing to do. But after Mike spoke I felt very ashamed about my former "strength". Unable to hear the need in the cat's voice for whatever reason, it really was a weakness of my capacity for love.

It is harder to say why I am represented at my wedding by the Noble Horse. I had a strong dream about six months ago and in it I was rescued by a man on a horse. Only, I never saw the man in my dream, except his red boots! What I remember were the large liquid brown eyes of the grey horse. I suppose that I was sitting on the ground and it was the horse's head that reached out to me first.

Horses seem so strong to me. And the way they can march bravely, relentlessly into battle. They go forward without aggression. I think the reason they go forward is for love of speed and love of determination. When I go forward into life it does feel like I am going to battle. For who, and for what cause I can only guess at. But I do want to be nobel. and I can't think of the subject without attaching it to a good deed.

Mike and I will be printing a small icon of the cat and the horse on our wedding invitations. But the best part is that this image, once it is dry, (because it is made from oil paint and that dries slowly!) will be taken to a giclee printmaker. The thank you presents for all the guests at the wedding will be a 5"1/2 x 7"1/2 silver framed print of, "The Mystical Marriage of the Kindly Cat to the Nobel Horse".

And oh. The colors of the January wedding (I do hope for snow) will be white, silver, and indigo.

Posted by dignifyme at 6:44 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 28 September 2005 6:55 PM EDT

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Tuesday, 20 September 2005

Do What Hasn't Been Done
Topic: building business
The Vermont Department of Mental Health puts out a quarterly newspaper. In it was an advertisement for essays of "personal account", which would then be published in a medical journal called, "Psychiatric Services". So, if people want to write about their life experience with mental illness, their stories would be of value to people who treat the mentally ill. The address of a Doctor in the medical education department at the University of Massachusetts was included in the advertisement. This magazine is for professionals. On their on-line archive, their articles have such titles as, "Symptoms and Deviant Behavior Among Eight-Year-Olds as Predictors of Referral for Psychiatric Evaluation by Age 12", and "Risk Factors for Psychosocial Dysfunction Among Enrollees in the State Children's Health Insurance Program." The readers of this magazine no doubt have developed excellent abstract cognitive skills. Probably what the educated reader is searching for in this magazine is an improved theory of mind. A theory of how the mind works could be the most important tool they need.

My SCORE adviser, Mr. Lewis, thought that it would be excellent work experience for me to answer the ad, and see if I could get an essay published in this magazine. I don't know what SCORE stands for. But the best way to describe them is that they are an association of retired businessmen who help mentor people looking to start their own business.

His proposed project made good sense. It was a suggestion rather like "Lets have you jump into the deep end of a swimming pool and see if you can swim." My abilities are an unknown thing, most certainly to him, and because I lack experience with society-at-large, I am unknown even to myself. For our first meeting I had come prepared with a list of sources to answer a tough question that Mr. Lewis had asked doing a phone call.

"What have people with your illness done?"

I know, that if anyone wants to do some library research, then they can find a world out there of schizophrenic persons reflected in statistics of work, disability, and recovery. But then there is also my world, and the sick people who I know. Some schizophrenics are my predecessors, and some still help to guide me. I have several heroes. Others give me warning, for in their lives I can see some of the different hells that are open for me too to attend. It is a point of pride for any schizophrenic when they develop savvy skills about taking care of their illness.

On my list of achievers are the the schizophrenic artists Ken Grimes and Aaron Holliday. The above drawing of the twin mermaids is a work by Aaron Holliday. The large scale acrylic painting below is called "We Must Have A Common Matching Spirituality" by Ken Grimes. The artists are both represented by the esteemed New York City gallery, Ricco and Maresca. Long before I found out who Grimes and Holliday were, I had read and re-read the library book, "American Self-Taught- Paintings and Drawing by Outsider Artists", by Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco. It is these two passionate collectors and sellers of unusual art who I first heard say, loud and clear, "the strange is beautiful." In fact, it is true that their book gave me permission to be a sick artist. By seeing what others had done, I understood that there was room for me to do as I can do. Odd, childish, and distorted thought is embraced by the arts.

Besides artists, the two important groups of schizophrenic achievers who I look to are published writers and maverick website creators.

Bill MacPhee is the publisher & creator of "Schizophrenia Digest". It is a high quality magazine designed for people who have schizophrenia. MacPhee chooses to frequently publish short articles by persons with schizophrenia. It's great fun to see what these writers look like, pictures of them sipping coffee in a New York City bistro or standing in the middle of a stream fly fishing. And then, how I love to read their crisp, clean prose.

"Look", I think, "they wear ordinary clothing. And Look! They can think straight, they write coherently."

At first I called the creators of independent schizophrenic websites, the "Boy's club". All I can guess is that most schizophrenic women don't have the computer skills or home P.C. needed to make a website. Boys like electronic toys, so they lead the way on the internet. While there are numerous single page schizophrenic websites, in order to be a member of the Boy's club you must have a substantial amount of quality content. Two of the Boy's club are professional computer programmers.

There may be another reason why boys lead the pack. This disease makes it difficult to learn new skills. Because of it, everything you have been taught or independently explored before the onset of the illness becomes very important. They are the first skills to recover. And they will be the skills that you most desire because when you use them they connect you to good memories of health and ability.

The members of the Boy's club are spread out round the globe. Ian Chovil is Canadian, Bono is German, and Stand lives in South Korea. In the United States Jason Ratcliff if on the West Coast, Zachary Odette is in the midland, and I am on the East Coast.

It was my female website, schizophreniaandart.com that was first to crack the Boy's club. But unlike the self-taught or professional computer programmers, in order for me to gain access to the internet I am completely indebted to the computer skills of my brother. I stand on the shoulders of a man. My is a simple example of the old adage, "Two heads are better than one."

It is important to know that everything done by the Boy's Club was done on their own initiative. Their writings about schizophrenia were not influenced by drug company money or the politics of government health care. Their integrity and honesty is not for sale.

The one influence that none of us can escape is our moment in history. Even in a global society, psychiatric theories of mental health and mental illness don't vary much. In most well read societies any schizophrenic is influenced by the theory of chemical imbalance and genetic inheritance. None of us hold any degree in psychology. But there are times when we see ourselves as if though the eyes of a contemporary, conservative psychiatrist. The originality of our writing is in the telling of who and what we are, rather than our theories of why we are.

The members of the Boy's club who I would most like to write like are Ian Chovil and Zachary Odette. During my preparation research into the content of the journal "Psychiatric Services" I discovered a "personal account" essay by Ian. It is titled, "Help-Seeking Preferences of High School Students: The Impact of Personal Narratives" and can be read on-line in the August 2004 issue.

This article confirmed my impression of two years ago. Ian writes with charming vulnerability. His account of psychotic thought and misadventure has just enough objectivity and dry wit to keep us hooked. Sometimes reading this type of narrative can be sad and overwhelming. Apparently most writers cannot tell a good story if they are emotionally over-involved. The poets Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton would be examples of writers who can use the pain of their mental illness effectively. There is great skill in making the reader feel pain, because most readers do not willingly allow themselves to feel another person's pain.

Ian is a gentleman. He always remains aware of the polite "I - thou" perspective.

In a recent email to Zachary Oddett I said, "You horny devil!" and that made him laugh. Zachary is at the wild age of twenty and he has a lot of hormones cruising through his body. Sometimes Zachary doesn't understand what a delightful, typical young man he is. On his webpage you are greeted by this proud banner;

Part of Zachary's gift to the world is his courage to love life and pass on knowlege to others. I think he knows, on a gut level, that "knowlege is power". The drinking and drug binges worry me a bit, and this fellow still has the hard task of finding a place for himself in the adult world. But for now he has created a website where research into schizophrenia carries the exact same importance as pretty girls, school, two overweight beagle dogs, and the fantasy video game, "Mortal Kombat". As Zachary updates and expands his website the quality and variety of his links and posts improves. The young man is relentless in his effort to reach out into the world and bring home new knowledge and new information.

Hats off to you Zachary, I can't wait to see what your future brings.

The following is a list of websites that connect to people and information quoted in the above essay.

Psychiatric Services Journal - http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/

Ricco/Maresca Gallery - www.riccomaresca.com

Ian Chovil - www.chovil.com
Zachary Odette - www.zacharyodette.com
Stand - www.h13.com
Jason Ratcliff - www.angelhaunt.net/schizophrenia/
Bobo - http://home.arcor.de/pahaschi/welcome.htm

Posted by dignifyme at 4:29 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 21 September 2005 3:05 PM EDT

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