If anyone can find a list of other cities where these will be exhibited, please point me to it. I spent all morning turning up dead links and gave up.

The bit in the article about his knowing what was going wrong with teh paintings but not being able to access the part of his brain that could correct it was chilling.

I was very excited to read this article in the Times this morning, as the Other Half has an interview this week for a great job with an Alzheimer's organization and because he's a) a painter with b) a family history of the disease. It was all very serendipitous, in addition to being a fascinating series of paintings.

Wow.

Oh, that's incredibly powerful and depressing. Damn. It's unbelievable that his perception of himself changed so radically, even within that one year, 1996. Looking at the slideshow is like getting a punch to the gut. I felt like that looking at Louis Wain's paintings, too.

Excellent find pups! I really like art brut and the way that some people have a completely different way of looking at the world, as opposed to "normal" people. I think it may have been a post on MeFi about people with different types of brain disorders who aren't really "damaged", it's just they think differently than most of the rest of humanity. This different way of thinking and viewing the world reflects directly on their art. I've always thought it a good lesson on perception and what it means and what happens if you start really distorting it. There are truths in all ways of seeing, and I've found quite a few people don't, won't or can't readjust their way of thinking for a small amount of time to see things differently than normal.
Basically, different ≠ bad. art brut/outsider art..... i have more links to some people i like, but i don't want to hijack. :)

"different ≠ bad" in this case it is true. Alzheimer's is a very ugly thing. I don't see it but my girlfriend does on a regular basis. Just today see ran into a patient who beckoned her to his wheelchair. He has not seen her for a few months. He took her hand and kissed it. A moment later a nurse came by and said don't get close to him as he has started beating anyone who comes close to him. He will probably soon end up tied down all day if he can't get control. It is very sad.

It also scares me as in the past week I have posted replies to mecha threads like this one and when I come back my post is gone. I am sure I hit post after preview but I am not sure. It's creepy.

Great and disturbing post.

"i have more links to some people i like, but i don't want to hijack. :)" please do post them.

see = she

Yup, added the "different ≠ bad" as I realise that Alzheimer's and the like are not anything to be put up on a freakshow - my mother's had similar experiences to the one you've described as she's worked in the Short-Stay Assesment ward of a hospital dealing with people who are old and have had drastic changes in their thinking processes. (Funny thing is... they were always nice around her, not the doctors or nurses. She'd never take any guff from them, which maybe why. :)

Links. k. Adolf Wölfli - wiki (follow the "Adolf Wölfli Foundation" link for more pictures.
Nick Blinko: he was 1/3 of a band that went by the wonderful name of Rudimentary Peni. They've since broken up, but info on them, and his art can be found here, and here (RP wiki). Nick Blinko wiki, info page, and Google image search.
oh, that reminds me - i'll put some RP into my halloween mix!
General site on art brut.
Info on Outsider Art (US site), and a Russian site.

It is because these people see things so differently that the surrealists embraced them all as being able to see what others couldn't, and perhaps what the surrealists wanted to be, after all, few of the "insane" ever came up with manifestoes (though the SPK were an exception). JG Ballard said in his notes to his novel, "The Atrocity Exhibition's original dedication should have been "To the insane." I owe them everything."

Thanks for the links Zack. Damn, I had lost Outsider Art. Love that place.

It is good, isn't it? I'm of the opinion that more artists could be great artists, were they to give themselves over to their manias. Though that's a double-edged sword though, isn't it? There are many artists (visual, aural, etc.) that did amazing art, and once they got rid of the demon on their back that drove them, it's never quite the same. I hate that, as I don't like to see great artists destroy themselves, but in doing so they create amazing works of art. Those that can do it, do it well and those that can't fall to the blade, I suppose (meaning one walks the edge of a blade - thoughts and dreams lie on either side, and reality lies in between).

Razors edge my friend. We all walk toward it in some degree I believe. Not just in art but in business and anything else we chose to pursue to sate and feed ourselves. The line between hero and fool is so very thin. It is sometimes place, sometimes skill, sometimes luck, and sometimes timing.

Following your muse, destiny, path, voice, way, or god, can lead you to greatness or great loss.

Truth. You roll the dice, you move your mice.

;)

Heh

great link mudpuppie.