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In an extract from his new book, DANIEL WOJCIK examines the effect of trauma on the life and work of two artists

Ionel Talpazan at his New York apartment in 1996, photo: Ted Degener

ART AND TRAUMA

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Although there is an extensive body ofliterature on art therapy practice andtheory in the clinical setting, there is much

less written about the spontaneous creation ofart by individuals who, through their owningenuity, have used creativity as a form of self-therapy in relation to grieving over a loss, copingwith traumatic events, confronting stressfulsituations or dealing with mental illness. Painfulemotions and traumatic experiences sometimescannot be communicated in words, but thecreating of things can be a medium for theirexpression, an external manifestation of innerturmoil or overwhelming experiences, and mayhelp clarify issues or restore a sense of self-worth.

To be clear in this context: creativity is notinevitably interwoven with suffering; tragedy andemotional pain are not prerequisites for artisticactivity; and the creative outputs of the vastmajority of individuals labelled “outsider artists”,“visionary artists”, “self-taught artists” and artistsin general are not necessarily related to traumaor life-crisis. Although many of the individualsdiscussed in this study have used creativity as away to cope with misfortune, they are notpresented here as somehow representative ofself-taught or “outsider” artists overall.

The potentially therapeutic features of artmaking are illustrated by the art of Ionel Talpazan(1955–2015), a refugee from Romania who livedin New York City. Talpazan created more than1000 paintings, drawings and sculptures inspiredby his ideas about flying saucers and life in outerspace. He said that he “sacrificed his life to theUFO” and his dream was to share his ideas withNASA scientists; his ultimate goal was to revealthe unknown technologies and hidden meaningsof flying saucers, with the hope of helpinghumanity.

Talpazan’s early work often shows scenes ofouter space and the energies of the cosmos in anexpressionistic style, his canvases thickly texturedwith rich pigments. His later work includes largediagrams of UFOs that reveal the details of flyingsaucer technology, with his theories about theirsystems of propulsion sometimes written onthem (for example, antigravitational, magnetic,antimagnetic, nuclear, vacuum technologies andso on). These drawings resemble illuminated,mandala-like flying machines that radiate halosof energy or vibrate with hallucinatory intensity.With their meticulous details, clarity of form, andTalpazan’s absolute devotion to them, thesediagrams convey a genuine believability.

Ionel Talpazan, UFO: Art & Science, Future To Peace The Earth, 2003, poster paint, marker, pencil, and ink on paper, 40 x 25 ins. / 101.6 x 63.5 cm,

photo: James Wojcik.

Talpazan equated the technology of flyingsaucers with cosmic laws and some sort ofuniversal spirituality: “My art shows spiritualtechnology, something beautiful and beyondhuman imagination, that comes from anothergalaxy. Something superior in intelligence andtechnology. So, in a relative way, this is like theGod, it is perfect”. He hoped that his theories andillustrations could be used for peaceful purposes,to save the environment, avert nuclear disaster,and help create a better world.

Throughout his life, Talpazan encountered aninordinate amount of emotional trauma, from thehardship of his early years (childhood abandon-ment and abuse, oppression, attempted escapesfrom Romania, imprisonment, refugee camps) tothe difficulties of his life in the USA, struggling tosurvive as a refugee in New York City, homelesson two occasions, living on the verge of poverty,and barely able to pay his rent and bills.

Talpazan explained the personal meaning ofhis art in this context: “My life is like a bomb,atomic – it can explode, any time . . . I go into mymind thinking about the UFOs; this is my escapefrom problems. I find my personal freedomthrough my drawings . . . I go into a differentdimension, to forget my life.”

The ideas of cosmic wonder, escape, freedomand being “from elsewhere” were central themesin Talpazan’s life, and the global icon of the UFOsymbolises these notions. As numerous theoristshave demonstrated, vernacular beliefs aboutflying saucers are essentially a religiousphenomenon, an update of earlier ideas about adivine mediator, a syncretism of new gods andsuperhuman technology, offering escape andsalvation. Carl Jung, in his influential book FlyingSaucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies,argued that the circular shape of the flyingsaucer resembles the archetype of the mandalafound in mythology, dreams and iconographythroughout the world, and which often is used tofocus attention, induce trance states and createsacred space. Jung regarded the mandala as anexpression of the self, of wholeness, and of God.He observed that during times of personaltrauma, fragmentation or societal crisis, mandalasare often visualised and created by peopleyearning for harmony, stability and psychicequilibrium. To illustrate his theories, Jungactually acquired some of Adolf Wölfli’sgeometrically-ordered drawings that containedmandala symbolism, such as Medical Faculty(1905). Mandala-like shapes and repetitive

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Ionel Talpazan, Neutra Mystery UFOs, 2013, oil stick, marker and paint on paper, 20 x 29 ins., / 50 x 74 cm,

American Primitive Gallery, New York.

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patterns characterise the art of numerous self-taught and visionary artists, including MartínRamírez, Eugene Andolsek, Paul Laffoley andCharles Dellschau.

One evening when I was visiting Talpazan, heresumed his work on a large piece that he calledSilver UFO. As the evening wore on, I watched himretrace and repaint this mandala-shaped diagramthroughout the night until about 5:30am, on hisknees on the floor, working in serene silence, hisface inches away from the design, with his whitedove, Maria, perched on his shoulder, cooingquietly. Talpazan was not just drawing aspaceship; the process itself was a trance-like andtherapeutic act, a suspension of time and space.Entirely immersed in the creative act, his image ofa flying saucer transported him to another realm,free from the difficulties of his life.

The concept of flow, as a mental state oftotally focused and energised involvement in anactivity that provides a sense of timelessness, wasproposed by psychologist MihalyCsikszentmihalyi after his observations in the1960s of artists who became so engaged in thecreative process that they would ignore theirneed for food, water and sleep, and lose theirsense of time and of self. As Csikszentmihalyidescribes it, the experience of flow is so fulfillingthat nothing else seems to matter: “The ego fallsaway. Time flies. Every action, movement, andthought follows inevitably from the previous one,like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved,and you’re using your skills to the utmost”. (1)

For Vietnam-veteran Gregory Van Maanen(born 1947), art making has become a catharticendeavour, offering a degree of emotionalhealing from trauma. On February 27, 1969, onthe battlefields of Vietnam, the 21-year old VanMaanen watched as his fellow infantrymen werekilled next to him, and he was shot and left fordead. A rescue unit later found him, and he spentseveral months recovering in a hospital beforereturning to his hometown in Paterson, NewJersey. Back in the States, he was tormented bymemories of Vietnam; a bullet is still lodged in hisshoulder, a reminder of wounds he sufferedduring the war. For a time he had difficultyspeaking about his experiences, but then hebegan painting and sculpting as a way to deal

left: Gregory Van Maanen in Patterson, NJ, c.1990, photo: Ted

Degener.

opposite left: Gregory Van Maanen, Untitled, 2009, acrylic on

board, 5.75 x 3.75 ins. / 14.6 x 9.5 cm,

Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York.

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Daniel Wojcik is professor of English and Folklore Studies atthe University of Oregon. His books include Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art; The End of the World as We Know It: Faith,Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America; and Outsider Art:Visionary Worlds and Trauma.

This article is an edited extract from Outsider Art:Visionary Worlds and Trauma, by Daniel Wojcik,University Press of Mississippi, 2016.

1. Geirland, John, “Go With The Flow”, Wiredmagazine, issue4.09, September 4, 1996. 2. Morris, Randall, Full Moon, White Light, New York: Cavin-Morris Gallery, 2010, p. 23. 3. Wolf, Jeffrey, Gregory Van Maanen: A Spirit in a Spirit World.The Kohler Foundation/A Breakaway Films Production,2007.

with his ongoing struggles with post-traumaticstress. He says that for him art is a form ofmedicine and ritual, a way to “release the scenes”in his mind and purge negative energies,sometimes in “a natural flow”. (2)

Like many other veterans, for years VanMaanen experienced panic attacks, flashbacks,hypervigilance and insomnia – commonsymptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Heavoided crowded spaces and ventured outsideonly when he had too, spending most of his timepainting in his basement, which he calls his“safety bunker”. His initial work often expressedthe anger he felt after the war; the process ofcreating thousands of drawings, paintings andsculptures that depict spirit skulls, all-seeing eyes,ghosts, blasts of light and nightmarish creatureswas cathartic and “cleansing”. Some of his morerecent work expresses a sense of peace, rebirthand thankfulness; a number of these pieces aremandala-like in their design, characterised bybold circular forms and precise symmetricalshapes. Having gained some measure of controlover war trauma, Van Maanen’s art has become ameans of personal power, self-revelation, andtranscendence. He says he no longer thinks of hiswork as “art”, but as medicine and prayer createdfor the purposes of healing and helpinghumanity, especially other veterans who canrelate to the work. (3) His use of discardedmaterials is significant here; these cast-off things,like the Vietnam veterans who were cast aside,broken, and often treated like “garbage” upontheir return from the war, are found to have value,salvaged and transformed through the creativeprocess.

For veterans and other individuals who haveexperienced trauma, art-making can offerdistinctive therapeutic benefits, particularly as ameans of visually expressing and integratingexperiences difficult to put into words. Trauma isnot only psychological in nature, but it resides inthe body as a physiological and sensoryexperience. The physical activity of creatingthings allows for the possible expression andprocessing of the sensory memories of traumaticevents in ways that verbal communicationcannot. The medium of the artwork itself,whether paper, canvas, sculpture, or anotherform, serves as a manageable “container” formaterialising overwhelming emotions, allowingindividuals to gain a sense of control over

intrusive memories and otherwise unrulyresponses. The complete immersion in thecreative process, as described by Van Maanen,Talpazan, Kevin Blythe Sampson, Hiroyuki Doi,Eugene Andolsek and others, can assuage innerturmoil, provide a calming effect, and evokepositive feelings of flow or transformation.Furthermore, as illustrated by the accounts ofnumerous artists discussed in this study, makingart may help rebuild identity and serve as a basisfor establishing meaningful bonds with others,both of which have significant therapeutic valuefor those who have experienced trauma.

In contextualising individual suffering andattempting to understand artistic responses toadversity, it becomes apparent that the creativeendeavors of the individuals highlighted here arenot idiosyncratic. Instead, their art making revealsa familiar behavioural response to life crisis andemotional pain: individuals with little or noformal artistic training have discovered thetherapeutic aspects of the creative process.Throughout this study, particular emphasis hasbeen placed on the multiple sources that haveinfluenced the work of specific individuals, aswell as their reasons for making art. Thisapproach regards the tangible objects thatpeople make not as distinct artefacts, but asmanifestations of behaviour, formed by thecircumstances that influence their creation aswell as by the knowledge of existing culturalpractices and techniques. Instead ofconceptualising these creators as entirelyidiosyncratic and untouched by culture, orcelebrating their perceived otherness andultimately exiling them to the outposts of society,the perspective offered here invites these artistsin from the margins, includes them in “our” world,and reveals their connections to culture andbroader humanity.

left: Gregory Van Maanen, Untitled, 2009, acrylic on board, 11.25 x

9 ins. / 28.6 x 22.9 cm, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York.