In the Sept. 15th issue of The News-Letter, the article entitled "Artist with amnesia enlightens scientists" was published in the Science & Technology section. The exhibit is now examined on a more aesthetic level.
Can you imagine struggling to create a work of art, but hardly being able to remember what you were doing five minutes ago?
This is a difficulty that Lonni Sue Johnson, a respected illustrator for The New York Times and The New Yorker, deals with every day.
Puzzles of the Brain: An Artist's Journey through Amnesia, a special exhibition at the Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon, showcases Johnson's complex works before and after her amnesia developed.
The artist, who contracted viral encephalitis in 2007 and now suffers from both retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia, can neither retain recent memories nor recall memories from her past.
The first set of her works encompasses a few of her most well known cover illustrations for The New Yorker, before her amnesia developed.
These are a pleasure not only to observe, but also to ponder, as Johnson is quite prolific in her use of the visual pun. For example, one of the most clever and interesting covers that Johnson created was the "Christmas Tree Line" in 1985.
In this simple yet effective piece, Jonhson uses the idea of an aggravatingly long Christmas shopping line and organizes it so that it forms the shape of a Christmas tree.
This piece is also created using the medium that makes Johnson's work lively and distinct — watercolor.
In pieces such as "Baseball Stage" and "Fall into Books," which also employ her fantastic sense of irony, her watercolor method allows the vivid and soft colors to blend smoothly and stand out in a visually alluring manner.
These among other captivating works of art reveal the distinct aesthetic and intellectual brilliance of Johnson's mind.
Passing into the next set of pieces, you find yourself face to face with two brain scans and a horrifying tragedy.
Placed in comparison to a scan of a normal brain, Johnson's brain is severely damaged. The damage can be seen especially in her frontal lobe and in her hippocampus.
There is also an image of an attempt at writing her name, with the result being only scattered lines and dots.
At first it is terrible to see this extraordinary artist's inability to even place her pencil against the paper, but then, as the artwork continues, a whole new perception of the artistic human mind is revealed.
Beginning with a few pieces called "Finish the Drawing," in which Johnson completes a drawing after her mother has placed an arbitrary line or two on the page, a return of Johnson's wit and creativity becomes slowly apparent.
What follows is an enormous collection of original word searches, with which Johnson becomes obsessed as her brain functions improve.
These puzzles begin as simple grids, but soon form into various shapes and orientations and grow more and more in both the com plexity of the puzzles and the vibrancy of the illustrations that surround them.
By the final illustration of the exhibition, "Drawing Together," which depicts a man and a woman drawing curtains on their own wall together, it can be said that Johnson's artistic brilliance pre-amnesia has finally returned.
While the brain can certainly be studied intently through our neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology courses, anyone who is remotely interested in the human mind to explore it through art by visiting this exhibit.
By the time you have made a full circle around the room and seen each sketch, watercolor and word puzzle, you will have a whole new perspective on the mystery of the human mind.
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