Product Description

Chronic illness may feel like an impassible barrier, but it can become the doorway to a new and more creative existence. Leonardo da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, Michelangelo, and Georgia O’Keeffe are among the many artists whose physical disorders enhanced their creativity and transformed their lives. Illness shaped their work, and their masterpieces changed our world. In the face of pain and disability, they showed perseverance and ingenuity, revealing that life’s lowest moments can hold great potential for creativity and growth.

The artists profiled in this book came from many different backgrounds and worked in a variety of media. But all of them experienced a transforming illness by using creativity to triumph over challenges. A transforming illness can happen to anyone at any time, from early in life to its very end. It can even happen more than once. Whether it is a single episode of poor health or a chronic condition, things are never the same afterward. When Tobi Zausner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1989, her doctor didn’t think she would last the year, but her life was transformed. For Zausner and the other artists discussed in these pages, the wall of illness became a door of opportunity.

Using fascinating and well-documented life stories of artists and drawing upon her own experience, Zausner offers us methods for accessing our creative abilities and ways to turn a time of poor health into achievement and a more meaningful new life. Creativity is a basic human capacity extending across racial and cultural boundaries, as shown by the artists in this book. In their diversity and their determination they demonstrate that the transforming illness is fundamental to the human condition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629244 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-30
• Released on: 2007-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In her intriguing book about illness and its effects on creativity, artist Zausner writes: "Most of us swim on the surface of life until a storm of illness impels us to dive within and discover new sources of inspiration and strength—yet they were there waiting for us all the time." Zausner found her own life and art transformed after a 1989 diagnosis of ovarian cancer. This meditative and perceptive read is enriched by Zausner's wealth of knowledge about the lives of many artists she believes underwent similarly transforming illnesses. The practice of art, in her view, is healing, and convalescence can prompt budding artists to explore and more experienced artists to deepen their mastery. While Zausner discusses many contemporary artists, the sections on historical figures are the most vivid and surprising: looking at Leonardo da Vinci's work, she concludes that the great Renaissance artist struggled with ADD and dyslexia. Zausner also cites scholars who say Rembrandt had partial red/green color blindness and had to make do with a limited palette of mostly yellows and browns. The determination and ingenuity of these and many other artists in the face of physical problems is a humbling reminder that behind great art one can find painful—and inspirational—human stories. (Feb.)
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Review
" marvelously heartening look at how illnesses and disabilities may have a creatively enlivening and even transformational effect on us. Expansive, broad-ranging and packed with often intimate information about artists. . .the book will be inspiring and helpful to anyone with health issues." -- Susan G. Wooldridge, author of Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words and Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing

"The book shows that what appears to be misfortune can become the opportunity to engage in a challenging process of deep creative flowering that could not have occurred without it." -- Phyllis K. Stein, Ph.D., Director, Washington University School of Medicine HRV (Heart Rate Variability) Lab

"This book is wonderful - a real treasure of information." -- Bruce L. Miller, M.D., A.W. & Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor University of California at San Francisco, School of Medicine

"This informative, insightful, and extensively researched study of how various illnesses transformed the lives of different artists, some famous others not, will educate, inspire, and gratify any reader." -- Garabed Eknoyan, M.D., Professor of Medicine Section of Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston

"This may be one of the greatest books about art ever written." -- Marianne Macy, Investigative Reporter

From darkness to light, from pain to beauty; seeing how these artists transform illness can change lives. -- Ruth Richards. M.D., Ph.D., Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco and Harvard Medical School

About the Author
TOBI ZAUSNER brings a unique combined perspective to this book. She has an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in art and psychology, is an award-winning artist, and is also an art historian. Dr. Zausner’s paintings, drawings, and prints have been exhibited in major museums and are represented in collections worldwide. She is on the board of A.C.T.S. (Arts, Crafts, and Theater Safety), a nonprofit organization investigating health hazards in the arts, and was chair of Art/Art History in the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences. Born and educated in New York, Dr. Zausner writes and lectures widely on the psychology of art. She teaches at the C. G. Jung Foundation and frequently speaks at charitable events and academic conferences.

Customer Reviews

Not Another Book Like It!
Of course, I had to flip right over to the chapter about Vincent van Gogh - having attended one of Dr. Zausner's lectures on the subject, which is so fascinating to me! Vincent seems to always be THE ARTIST we run to when we think of overcoming terrible odds and "combating [his] sickness with creativity."

Tobi's empathy for these suffering artists is evident on every page, for this book is a very personal elucidation, which absolutely goes hand-in-hand with her own masterfully transcendent paintings. It's easy to feel her deep and soulful compassion with every word and brushstroke.

You'll be so inspired with each anecdote, and all the carefully researched data, and understand the creative process more profoundly than ever... and all at once you'll discover she offers not only the problems but the solutions. Artists, by nature, CREATE - they making something out of nothing. But herein Tobi teaches you how the depth of the human spirit truly glows in the countless examples she has found to flesh out her thesis.

Her cover of Vincent's 'Wheatfield and Cypress Trees' is so appropriate for this wonderful book because it is filled with all the juxtapositions of serenity and conflict, harmony and pain... I can't wait to read her next book!

From darkness to light
This book is inspiring and, also, well-researched. Dr. Zausner is both an artist herself, and an art-historian/psychologist. Here are stories and vignettes about artists, both well-known, and not so well-known, for whom illness has brought unsuspected gifts and opportunities. This occured for them in part through good fortune but also by their ability to seize and transform a situation or a life. What makes this possible? Here is the challenge. We can learn from these accounts ourselves as we face our own life trials. Many categories of illness and disability are covered. I just gave this book as a gift to a friend with her own serious illness, to give her new hope. It adds to the power of this book that Dr. Zausner, herself, has had transforming illnesses, and she shares these as well with the reader.

courage and creativity
This remarkable book by Tobi Zausner, artist and psychologist, is principally a compendium of people whose lives have been transformed by illness or injury, from one of adversity to one of productivity and fulfillment through art. It includes psychological insight and some autobiographical elements. Besides introducing us to some remarkable people, and stimulating our empathy for them, it tantalizes the reader to explore their art (Googling makes it easy. Visits to real museums and exhibits are, of course, more rewarding). For those of us who may not be as creative as her artists, is may give us the courage to become more creative and fulfilled. Thank you, Tobi. You've created a book that, like your art, is truly great.