The Power Of The Creative Spirit

And the resilience of creators including Rembrandt - and Bono

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The Power Of The Creative Spirit

For the creative person, sight is paramount. However, as my research on this subject has shown, it’s not essential. My eyesight began deteriorating in my forties when I needed glasses for close work and, eventually, for distance. During a regular eye test in my early seventies, I received a diagnosis of ocular hypertension, a precursor to a genetic eye disease: glaucoma.

I had no symptoms, so it was a shock. A year or so later came a cataract diagnosis in each eye. Both my grandmothers went blind, my paternal grandmother from glaucoma, and my maternal grandmother from type one diabetes.

Physically, my health continues to be excellent, but my eyes are a cause for concern. It’s a battle to keep the eye pressure within acceptable limits, which could lead to full-blown glaucoma if it rises above the upper limit, and the cataracts are beginning to affect my vision.

As a writer and painter, I wondered about the number of successful creators who have suffered from or experienced eye conditions and investigated the issue.

Artists

I learned about Claude Monet (1840-1926) from a television series. Monet is known as the father of Impressionism and for his scenic oil paintings. However, he suffered significant vision loss from cataracts, which impacted his output. His most famous work, ‘Water Lilies,’ a series of 250 oil paintings depicting his flower garden at Giverny, shows the effect of the cataracts on his vision. In 1923, he had surgery on his right eye to remove the cataract and restore vision.

Art historians have suggested that the Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-1669), my favourite portrait painter, may have suffered from cataracts as his later work shows reduced detail evident in his earlier paintings. The American Impressionist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) had cataracts and possibly advanced macular degeneration, an eye disease that damages the macula, the part of the retina that controls central vision. She had several cataract operations but could not paint for the last dozen years of her life.

A study by Georges Seurat for ‘A Sunday on Le Grande Jatte’ 1884 courtesy of Canva.com

This man's unique view of the world spawned a revolutionary painting technique called pointillism because of his unique way of seeing, with a condition called strabismus. It caused his eyes not to work together or focus properly. The post-impressionist artist Georges Seurat developed the technique by applying paint to the canvas with small dots, capturing how his eyes processed visual information—as individual points of color that merged rather than blended smoothly.

The result was paintings that appear almost abstract up close but coalesce into a coherent scene when viewed from a distance. Seurat's unique visual perspective became a new artistic style. Other artists participated in the pointillist movement, and even Van Gogh experimented with it.

Photo by Beth Jnr on Unsplash

Writers and Musicians

Light and words on a page; the two things blinded writers mourn and reminisce over the most. Jorge Luis Borges from his poem “On His Blindness”.

The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He suffered from chronic and irreversible blindness from childhood and eventually lost his sight completely at age 55. Amazingly, he became director of the National Public Library and professor of English literature at the University of Buenos Aires around that time.

Writer John Berger wrote the book Ways of Seeing. It contains the famous quote about women seeing themselves through what Laura Mulvey termed ‘the male gaze’ in her essay ‘Virtual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. Berger later wrote a book titled Cataract about his ironic loss of vision. He had cataracts in each eye. In the book, he writes about his experiences of temporary blindness as the cataracts eventually took his sight, which then returned after each was surgically removed.

Other writers affected by eye conditions include Sue Townsend (1946-2014), the British author of the Adrian Mole series. She lost her sight from diabetes and wrote the last books in the series while blind, dictating the text.

Two writers lost sight in one eye due to a childhood accident caused by a sibling. An arrow shot by his brother blinded the humorist James Thurber (1894-1961). He wrote the famous story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The other was writer Alice Walker (1944- ), author of The Colour Purple. The offending weapon this time was a BB gun wielded by her brother.

Social media widely considers Bono, the lead singer of the Irish band U2, to wear tinted glasses because his rock star credentials have gone to his head. The reality is that 30 years ago, he was diagnosed with glaucoma during a regular eye check. In 2014, the singer said in an interview that he’d had the disease for 20 years. He’s now 64.

Two more musicians with loss of sight are the pianist, Ray Charles (1930-2004), who was blind from childhood because of untreated glaucoma, and Stevie Wonder, the American singer/songwriter (1950 - ), who went blind at six weeks old caused by retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Images of one of my favourite composers, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) invariably show him wearing glasses. He was so short-sighted that rumour has it he always wore his glasses, even in bed. He died very young, 31, so his short-sightedness was not due to ageing. Judy Dench, the 89-year-old British Actress who played M in 7 Bond movies, has advanced macular degeneration but continues to work with her significant sight loss.

These examples of creators affected by vision loss show the strength of the creative spirit. Even with compromised sight, writers, musicians, artists, and actors still find ways to perform their art. I discovered that a decline in the ability to see is a casualty of genes, accidents, and disease as well as ageing. It’s inspiring to know of creators through the ages who have overcome visual impairment to continue their creative work.

Sources: 
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/john-berger-cataract
American Academy of Opthalmology - Vered Hazanchuk, March 17, 2020
Vision Australia.org - 5 Writers You May Not Know Were Blind Or Had Low Vision

Leave a Comment:

Did you know the reason for Bono always wearing tinted glasses? Me neither until I came across this information in my research?

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