I am always delighted and impressed when I read things like this because it is outside the oblong…kinda thing. There is I think, a quiet joy in the knowledge that people continue to push past, look further…try something else…so here are some grabs from an article by Douglas S. Fox.
He writes of Allen Snyder at the Centre for the mind Sydney University who has been studying savants who of course can do extraordinary things. What I find interesting and encouraging though is Snyder applying his findings more broadly. He says:
‘Even accomplished artists sometimes employ strategies to shake up their preconceptions about what they’re seeing. Guy Diehl is not a savant, but he is known for his series of crystal-clear still lifes of stacked books, drafting implements, and fruit. When Diehl finds that he’s hit a sticking point on a painting, for example, he may actually view it in a mirror or upside down. “It reveals things you otherwise wouldn’t see, because you’re seeing it differently,” he says. “You’re almost seeing it for the first time again
When Diehl finds that he’s hit a sticking point on a painting, for example, he may actually view it in a mirror or upside down. “It reveals things you otherwise wouldn’t see, because you’re seeing it differently,” he says. “You’re almost seeing it for the first time again.”‘
And we may never know just what is happening for a savant, a person of exceptional and unusual talent. But Fox quotes Snyder as saying with vision and optimism:
“I envisage the day, he says, ‘when the way to get out of a [mental rut] is you pick up this thing those of us with jobs that demand a certain type of creativity and you stimulate your brain. I’m very serious about this.'”
Yeah sounds okay doesn’t it.