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Stroke of Genius: 10 Abilities Borne of Brain Damage
Article by Steph, filed under Conceptual & Futuristic in the Technolog y category.
Imagine having
a stroke, a
severe brain
injury or a
tumor and
suddenly
waking up one
day to find
you’ve
developed
artistic talents
to rival Picasso.
It sounds
impossible, but
the brain is amysterious
organ, and sometimes, damage causes it to rewire itself in ways
that reveal new talents even in people who could barely doodle a
stick figure. From the engineer on disability who became a
sought-after digital artist after a stroke to a woman whose
dementia spurred remarkable creative output, these 10 artists
were all transformed by neurological trauma or disorders.
Ken Walters
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(images via: The Daily Mail )
Ken Walters was hardly the artistic type before suffering a stroke
in 2005. The former engineer had been severely injured in a car
accident and was left wheelchair-bound and dependent on
benefits to get by. But the cerebral hemorrhage that could have
made Walters’ life much more difficult came with an unexpected
gift in the form of newfound artistic ability and creative drive.
Walters began developing digital art, which led to starting hisown software company and a lucrative job with EA games at the
age of 51.
Jim Chambliss
(images via: Sparks of Creativity )
In 1998, Jim Chambliss suffered a traumatic brain injury that
caused temporolimbic epilepsy (TLE), migraines and temporary
cognitive damage. Unable to continue practicing law because of
these new challenges, Chambliss became a substitute teacher
and one day, while playing with a block of styrofoam, carved a
salamander that earned him praise from students and faculty at
the high school. Chambliss, who never displayed artistic talents
before, discovered that he suddenly had a knack for three
dimensional art and went on to earn a Masters in Visual Art from
the University of Louisville. He now studies the connections
between art, epilepsy and migraines.
Alison Silva
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(images via: The Daily Mail )
Alison Silva has been a painter since childhood, but her work
never stood out until after a tumor began affecting her brain.
Suddenly Silva’s work was darker, deeper and up to 20 times
more valuable. The New Jersey artist found herself faced with an
incredibly difficult decision: have the tumor removed, or keep her
newfound abilities despite the risk of a serious hemorrhage. Her
doctor says that Alison’s condition is dangerous, but not life-
threatening, so in spite of migraines, insomnia, hallucinations and
distorted vision, Silva chose her art.
Alan Brown
(images via: The Daily Mail )
When doctors performed brain surgery on Alan Brown after a
stroke, they thought they were just saving his life. Little did they
know that somehow, in the course of the operation, they did
something that would turn Brown into an artist. Prior to the
surgery, Brown could barely manage a stick figure, let alone a
detailed painting. The father of three was handed a pencil, paper
and a photograph of a dog by a nurse while recovering in the
hospital and reproduced it down to the slightest detail. He’s now
a professional artist with a degree in Fine Arts from Worcester
University.
Jon Sarkin
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(images via: Vanity Fair, Decordova )
Jon Sarkin was a chiropractor who liked golf. Then one day, while
playing a round with a friend, he burst a blood vessel in his brain.
Suddenly, the man whose life had been so socially proper and
orderly became a passionate artist, loud and expressive, who has
not stopped compulsively creating artwork since the first day he
felt the relentless, insistent need to do it. His work blends
painting, poetry and song lyrics with cut-out images to create
collages that convey a sense of mystery and abandon.
Sandy Allen
(images via: Seattle PI )
Sandy Allen’s left brain guided her life, from her career in
bookkeeping to her medical studies at the University of
Washington. Then, part of Allen’s left brain had to be removed
along with a golf-ball-sized tumor buried deep in her temporal
lobe. That’s when her right brain took over, and art therapy
sessions revealed her blooming talent. Allen jokes, “It’s like I’ve
had my inhibitions surgically removed.” While she no longer hasthe language, math and science functions that once seemed to
define her, she’s now an artist and has turned her entire home
into a studio.
Lester Eugene Potts, Jr.
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(images via: The Brain Matters )
Dr. Daniel C. Potts, a neurologist, witnessed a remarkable
transformation in a man who had Alzheimer’s disease and
suddenly bloomed into a remarkably talented, acclaimed artist.
That man was his father, Lester Eugene Potts Jr. Prior to enrolling
in a care facility, Lester Potts had stopped smiling and was unable
to perform simple tasks. But an assortment of stimulating
activities – including art – brought out a side of him that nobody
in his family knew existed. Potts became a nationally recognized
artist, creating 75 watercolor paintings – all after his diagnosis.
He so inspired his son that the neurologist began writing poetry.
Anne Adams
(images via: Now Public )
A rare brain disease, Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), slowly
transformed a scientist into a prolific artist who produced more
than 1,000 paintings. Anne Adams of Vancouver became aware
that something was wrong with her in 2000, when she suddenly
lost her ability to speak properly or add simple numbers. After
that, Anne spent every day from 9 to 5 in her studio. Her
paintings are orderly and methodical, a seeming holdover of her
former abilities as a scientist. She continued to paint until 2004when she could no longer hold a brush, and passed away of FTD
in 2007.
Anton Räderscheidt
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(images via: raederscheidt.com )
Anton Räderscheidt was already an accomplished artist when
he suffered a stroke at the age of 75, with a career spanning
several different styles as he escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s,
settled in Paris, moved to Switzerland and finally returned to
Cologne in 1949. But after the stroke, Räderscheidt had to
completely re-learn how to paint. The changes in
Räderscheidt were dramatic; he had disturbances in spatial
orientation and in his vision and left-sided hemineglect. He was
unable to recognize faces – even those of close relatives. That led
him on a quest to regain his abilities, and he painted more than
60 self-portraits. By 1974, five of these portraits indicated that
his condition had improved, but his style had changed more
dramatically than ever.
Stephen Wiltshire
(images via: stephenwiltshire.co.uk )
Stephen Wiltshire is another example of extraordinary artistic
talent coming from abnormalities in the brain, but his
neurological condition was present from birth rather than
developing later in life. Wiltshire’s autism has been the source of
many challenges in his life, but it also gave him an amazing gift:
he can draw buildings and landscapes from memory after seeing
them just once – he even drew all of central London after viewing
it from a helicopter.
Wiltshire was mute, communicating only through drawings, until
the age of nine, when teachers encouraged him to begin
speaking. He has been the subject of many documentaries and
was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his
services to art. He now has a permanent gallery in the Royal
Opera Arcade in London.
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