You would be amazed at the who’s who of dyslexics…Right off… let’s name this one… not that he needs anymore attention… Picasso. Yes he and some other pretty well-known artists were lucky enough to be blessed with dyslexia. Just to name a few more in the world of art Ansel Adams, Da Vinci, Rauschenberg, Rodin and Pollock.
Because I happen to like Pollock’s work and because I have always been fascinated by Lee Krasner’s art I started reading Lee Krasner a biography by Gail Levin. I was surprised to learn, although I should have guessed it, Lee was a member of the exclusive club of dyslexia. It seemed like she had to deal with art not only in a man’s world but at times her dyslexia may have created self-doubt in her own abilities.
Lee Krasner - A Biography by Gail Levin
Learning of Lee Krasner’s dyslexia prompted me to explore the topic further I had to look back on my own life with dyslexia. Unfortunately when I was growing up not much was known about people with dyslexia. Most often we were labeled as having a “learning problem/issue”. Makes me wonder how many blessed children ended up not pursuing their dreams because they were stigmatized as being “slow”. I guess the good thing is a lot of these children compensated in other ways and learned to become resourceful and what they couldn’t go through they would go around.
Thinking that you think differently? Well if you have dyslexia you probably do. You wonder why when you are driving a car you navigate by landmarks, not by streets. When you’re asked to describe an object you look at that object from every possible direction, not just straight on utilizing a lifetime’s worth of experience and mental images. Makes me think that Cezanne must have been dyslexic. After all he would paint a bowl of fruit straight on, but rendering it from multiple angles and perspectives at the same time. Everyone thought he was begin so innovative, but if he had dyslexia that’s how he actually saw the world. Could this also apply to Cubism? It certainly was conceived in the world of perspectives…and in some cases movement ala Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Stair Case No 2.
Marcel Duchamp - Nude Descending a Staircase No 2
For artists dyslexia can be a real blessing in disguise. You end up using parts of your brain that many others simply never used or stop using all together. A good example… most dyslexics think in pictures not in words. Children use a good part of their brain when they’re playing, that’s why they have such phenomal imaginations. Most people as they get older stop using a chunk of their brain, dyslexics virtually spend their whole lives in picture thoughts and comparisons.
A picture thinker, could think a single picture of a concept that might require hundreds or thousands of words to describe.” So Ansel Adams was a dyslexic and no doubt countless other photographers. In the mind of a dyslexic a picture is worth a thousand words…and probably a dyslexic coined this phrase.
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Pablo Picasso
How does dyslexia directly benefit us artists?
For me it took awhile to understand that I actually had dyslexia primarily because I just didn’t know what was going on. At first I thought everyone thought this way, and then as my life evolved I realized that my thinking wasn’t always in sync with those around me. I’ve always had a phenomenal memory but now I realize that memory is all about having photographs of your experiences in my mental filing cabinet. I spent a good part of my life as a commercial photographer. Dyslexics are amazing problem solvers and anyone who has ever executed a complicated shoot rather it be still or video knows that you are constantly solving the issues of compatibility between all of the elements so you end up with a cohesive interpretation. When I shifted to brush art I made a conscientious effort, albeit not an easy one, to create art that wasn’t representational, nor influenced by outside stimuli like natures patterns and shapes (I still have a long way to go here).
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Pablo Picasso
One thing for sure, once I started to better understand dyslexia it seemed like a ton of bricks was taken off my shoulders and I learned to adjust and trust my own perceptions. Taking the time to really understand dyslexia has been a life changing experience. I wish I would have dealt with this early on in my life. Once I clearly understood what dyslexia was all about my life has become way more pleasurable. It’s increased my tolerance and provided me with a better understanding of how our own thinking can be an amazing thing when the energy is directed.
You may want to pick up a couple of books on the topic. I found that these two books were very helpful.
The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A. & Fernette F. Eide, M.D.
The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Braun
Books on Dyslexia
I’m sure there are many more. A quick look on Amazon or Google will be of great benefit. There are organizations out there to help parents better understand children that are born with dyslexia. I would encourage every parent to learn as much as they can and maybe even join an organization for parents with dyslexic children. This can change the outcome of your child’s life into something wonderful.
I would never not want to be dyslexic. There are a million rewards all attached to internal and external perception. I call it peripheral thinking.
“I can step into a painting and walk around and come home with a thousands images that are embedded in my brain for life. ” Rod Jones Artist
Celebrate your dyslexia…you are in some pretty amazing company.
Walt Disney, Agatha Christie, Richard Branson, Bruce Jenner, Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, John Lennon, Jay Leno, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, Salma Hayek, Ludwig Van Beethoven.
I’m sure you can find a whole bunch more and you’ll find some heroes and heroines that you can relate to.
When Rod Jones Artist & Dyslexia Merge
Just a peek…not quite done yet!
Far, Far From Being Completed - Rod Jones Artist in Studio
How Not to Be Influenced in Your Creativity
Not but a day or two ago a veteran Verizon DSL Technician visited our studio office. While he was working on boosting our DSL speed he looked at some of the paintings in the office and commented, “What was your inspiration for this painting…and again for that painting?” I replied in what could have been interpreted as a smart A** reply. NADA. His eyes widened, “What do you mean you are not inspired?” So I explained, “I do everything humanly possible to not be influenced by what I see…and in some cases what I hear, read or touch”.
I personally think many artists and those who look at art are hood-wigged into thinking that in order to be creative you have to be stimulated by some outside force. Art teachers promulgate this lure so their students become dependent on searching for some elusive muse that will get inside their brain and feed them with profound creative thoughts. To make things even more complicated, artists and those who view art have constantly defined and re-defined the nomenclature of art, to some known as “art speak”.
When I look at Hans Hoffman who in no short way influenced hundreds of successful and not so successful artists to become dependent on theory. Hans was a master at creating the Techniques of Critique. He even is credited with specific art theories like PUSH and PULL and many others.
http://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/push_and_pull_001.html
Loosely paraphrasing Mercedes Matter who was a friend of Hans, he admitted to her that he was becoming depressed for all those years of teaching and not creating. It seems to me that he was creating a lot of vocabulary for artists to use to justify their own artistic value. I suppose that is a creative outlet onto itself. But it wasn’t until he had to face that blank canvas on his own that his OWN inner thinking had to look at the creative side of being innovative without outside influences.
This is a divinely fine line. How can you be an artist and not be influenced?? If you are an interpretive artist you can start with a subject and then begin to bend the rules. A horse becomes blue…a tree becomes pink in the shadow areas. So the subject dictates your creative interpretation. But…to be truly creative, you have to move into non-interpretive art. There you are all on your own…and the self doubts abound.
I have studied the works of many abstract artists and for some reason they always need the security of inspiration, rather it be nature or a poem.
I knew the Verizon man was a bright cookie…very articulate. Seeing how I would not give him a rationale for a particular painting, he gave me his…what fun! Not another self-proclaimed art aficionado…but a real gut level input from an innocent. His descriptions reinforced my own desire not to lead a painting, but to let the viewer interpret on their own. This is somewhat contradictory because I do name my paintings giving the viewer a clue as to how to think. I can’t stand the idea of giving them a number. For me naming a painting after it’s completed allows me the luxury of interpreting my own outside influences.
I know there’s people out there who insist that I was influenced by Albers (i.e. Homage to the Square), but no… when I started painting I did not know who he was, nor had I ever seen one of his paintings. In the opening of my website I do suggest that certain artists had they lived or painted longer might have emulated my Receptive Abstract Patternism style. Which may or may not have embellished their careers.
Josef Albers
If there was one artist that influenced me more than any other, and I can honestly say I find his work extremely disturbing and nightmarish, that would be Francis Bacon. But here is an artist who was truly a original and completely understood the danger of taking art classes.
Francis Bacon - Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
Can you create without being influenced? Yes I believe you can. But you have to approach the canvas without any preconceived notion and you have to let the creativity flow through your body. There are many creative people that are amazed at what comes out of their soul. Writers look back at their writing and are amazed. Artists revisit a painting and sometimes find it hard to believe that they actually created that. A good example of non-influenced painting is Jackson Pollock. His only sin was trying to explain how he created. What is it with us artists that require us to have some justification for what we create?? Wouldn’t it be simply wonderful if we just Did It…didn’t care why or what…or rhyme or reason??? So what if your best painting hangs in your bathroom???
HIgh Desert Fallen Joshua Tree
While looking at a fallen Joshua Tree it’s difficult not to take away an impression that may later try and creep into a painting. I did take a somewhat artistic photo of the Joshua Tree. The Mormon pioneers named this treelike plant after the prophet Joshua, because its extended branches resembled the outstretched arm of the prophet Joshua as he pointed with his spear to the city of Ai.
Joshua Tree - Mojave Desert in Winter
Created this photograph just for fun on my iPod Touch. Nothing special but very few people in the world every see a Joshua Tree. Amazingly this giant is related to a lily!
“Creativity may be cerebral influences that are not necessarily interpreted in the conscious mind. There is simply no justification for certain art. They do not exist in any world that we actually know or can relate to. In the end…The only truth is color.” From a literary work in progress by Rod Jones Artist.
Rod Jones Artist - Tate Cafe - oil on canvas - 36x36
Rod Jones Artist - Dyslexia - Oil on Canvas- 24x30
Rod Jones Artist- Poe's Reign - Oil on Canvas - 24x30