A friend asked me why Seraphine was such an important movie to me. The following was my response.
I have been fascinated by the correlations between visionaries & mental giftedness & development my entire life. The artistic/spiritual world is full of both as you know, as though one might not be present without the other. I do not know one great artist/visionary who does not have something they need to 'work through' when they are creating 'great' works of art, including myself. When all is right with the world, I rarely create; when all is wrong I become prolific. Many I've known have taken themselves off of their psychotropic meds at times in order to return to that aching place where deep connection with spirit/art isn't masked behind a pharmacutical wall.
Those like Seraphine or Picasso, in her time period didn't have the luxury of a medicated world.What I really appreciated about her was that she was oblivious to what might not be the 'correct' way to be, but knew deep inside what she needed to DO in order to create & to fly under the radar. She wasn't creating for herself anyway; she was in touch with a deep sense of spiritual connection that carried her through to enormous creativity, until there was an intrusion on her life from the outside 'art' world. Suddenly she was broken open & her vulnerable heart/art/spirit was trampled by expectations of a world she wasn't a part of in the first place. How many of these people then & now end up abandoned, poor & alone, where death might actually be a welcome relief? They are too much for the world.
My son Gabe is an example of someone who is largely oblivious to the opinions of those outside himself, yet carries enormous telepathy & empathy. His intelligence has always reminded me of a heart monitor screen. There is what appears to be a flat line, then a blip up, flat line, blip up. The kid has a break through in the back seat of the car that astounds me sometimes where he comes out with something that peaks past my intelligence for a few moments, a sentence or a thought, then is back to his humming tourette's behavior like it never happened, until the next time it does.
I have been fascinated by the correlations between visionaries & mental giftedness & development my entire life. The artistic/spiritual world is full of both as you know, as though one might not be present without the other. I do not know one great artist/visionary who does not have something they need to 'work through' when they are creating 'great' works of art, including myself. When all is right with the world, I rarely create; when all is wrong I become prolific. Many I've known have taken themselves off of their psychotropic meds at times in order to return to that aching place where deep connection with spirit/art isn't masked behind a pharmacutical wall.
Those like Seraphine or Picasso, in her time period didn't have the luxury of a medicated world.What I really appreciated about her was that she was oblivious to what might not be the 'correct' way to be, but knew deep inside what she needed to DO in order to create & to fly under the radar. She wasn't creating for herself anyway; she was in touch with a deep sense of spiritual connection that carried her through to enormous creativity, until there was an intrusion on her life from the outside 'art' world. Suddenly she was broken open & her vulnerable heart/art/spirit was trampled by expectations of a world she wasn't a part of in the first place. How many of these people then & now end up abandoned, poor & alone, where death might actually be a welcome relief? They are too much for the world.
My son Gabe is an example of someone who is largely oblivious to the opinions of those outside himself, yet carries enormous telepathy & empathy. His intelligence has always reminded me of a heart monitor screen. There is what appears to be a flat line, then a blip up, flat line, blip up. The kid has a break through in the back seat of the car that astounds me sometimes where he comes out with something that peaks past my intelligence for a few moments, a sentence or a thought, then is back to his humming tourette's behavior like it never happened, until the next time it does.
A wonderful piece Diane. I have half a tourette gene and my youngest brother has a full blown one. All my children, including myself, are deeply empathic and telepathic. Being out of sync with the world is our cross to bear - I do not mean this melodramatically, but metaphorically. I have found a wonderful website that supports highly gifted and highly sensitive people. It is on my blogs as well. Here is one of the links : www.highlysensitive.org. Douglas Eby runs this and other websites and an excellent blog - you will find the links there. Blessings, Hettienne
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