There are rumors going around the internet that several ‘alternative’ artists from the past, suffered from migraines with visual-auras. We’ll never know for sure, but I’m skeptical that an artist could have migraines on a regular basis, and no one would record them as being ‘poorly’ in their biographical notes. With Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), however, who DID spend a lot of time in his room suffering from an array of documented physical and mental health issues… perhaps… it could be possible.
The theory is that the way a painter sees the world through migraine visual-aura influences the way they paint the world when they’re feeling better. Smudges and swirls, pixelation, jabbing lines, abstract forms, folded faces… they remember the oddness from their illness and bring it into their painting style.
[Image source: File:Vincent van Gogh Starry Night.jpg – Wikipedia]
Van Gogh’s paintings were not considered ‘normal’ at the time that he painted them, but they don’t scream migraine to me. In my mind’s eye, there’s a softness that doesn’t speak of pain. Others, however, see only pain. Still others, see pain-and-beauty combined.
A few years ago, a Doctor Who episode imagined van Gogh time-travelling to our contemporary times and visiting a gallery where his art works were all over the walls, and a curator was talking of van Gogh as the most important painter in history. Remembering that van Gogh apparently only sold a handful of paintings during his lifetime, and that he died imagining himself a failure, the clip of him seeing his belated value had me sobbing. My favorite line is delivered by Bill Nighy (coincidently the draft-dodger in a prior post):
“He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty.”
The video is below / and the link is here – but have your tissues ready: Vincent Van Gogh Visits the Gallery | Vincent and the Doctor | Doctor Who (youtube.com)
The moral of the story is, pain can still create beauty, and whilst you may not feel a success today, your presence still causes ripple effects that might make the future amazing whether you know it or not – so keep going and keep growing!
I believe in you and your inner beauty – here’s hoping you do too.
Take care, Linda x
[PS – for those of you inclined to wonder, here’s a Journal article which suggests Vincent van Gough DID have vestibular migraine (which affects people’s vision and balance). They say it is evidenced through his documented ailments, his letters saying he found it hard to paint in bright sunlight (photophobia) and the left-ward slant of details within his images (looking at it again, the tree and church steeple in the “Starry Night” painting above have a hint of this ‘leftward-lean’): Vincent Van Gogh and the elusive diagnosis of vestibular migraine – ScienceDirect]
The Mindful Migraine 
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