Ailing Artist's Dilemma: Her Art or Health

Brain Condition Puts Woman's Life in Danger but Gives Life to Her Art

(CBS)  Alison Silva's paintings were always bright and cheery and whimsical.

But in 2006, things turned dark for Alison when her health started to fail.

"I was having kind of blackouts and headaches and dizziness," she told CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger.

She ended up in the hospital and it was there that Alison - whose work was all about color - came face to face with a stark, black and white MRI. It showed a dangerous tangle of blood vessels that had leaked into her brain.

Doctors wanted to operate but Alison wanted to wait. She didn't paint for awhile. When she started again, the results were surprising.

"Just something new happened," she said. "It was just this new spark. You know, there's a lot of energy."

Its intensity surprised her.

"A lot of my other stuff was very simple," Alison said. "Like I just felt I became obsessed with filling up the whole canvas, trying to say all these things I'm going through and feeling."

Her neurologist, Dr. Steven Karceski, has seen this before and has developed a theory about what has unleashed Alison's creativity. The tangle of vessels damaged the part of Alison's brain that controls logic and can promote over-thinking. But it left the creative side untouched.

"Taking away some of that over-thinking allowed the creativity to come through even a little bit more," Dr. Karceski said.

Researchers believe Van Gogh and Michelangelo could have had problems like Alison's. Nothing could be done for them and the longer Alison waits for treatment the greater the risk of seizures or stroke or maybe death.

"You feel like there's this alien living in your head and you don't know when it's gonna tick or when it's gonna do its thing," Alison said.

Surgery could cure her but it could also destroy her ability to create her newfound art.

"I'm just not ready to take that chance," she said.

Her new style has earned her more commissions and higher prices. Still she knows she'll have to get treatment at some point.

"All I know is I'm comfortable with the place I'm in and when I'm ready I'm gonna do it," she said.

For now she'll live with the risk and continue painting, giving new meaning to that old expression: sometimes you have to suffer for art.

[estai777]

Meditation will also quiet the thinking part of the brain as well.

[rondivoo]

Creativity comes from strange places. The changes in this artist's work after the knowledge of her disease are phenomonal. Perhaps it is the knowledge of the illness that has inspired her work more than the actual condition in her brain as she already had the problem, but didn't know what it was. Creativity is a delicate and mysterious thing and can be altered by life's situations.

[John_Merritt]

They don't mention the disease but it sounds like some type of hemangioma (menigioma)which is just like it sounds. But it also can be treated, and it can lie dormant, but it can also grow which can prove to be problematic.

Ms. Silva is definitely a talent. She knows her body and the doctors know the science. When and if this disease process progresses, I hope she looks at her options real carefully. She has a lot of life left in her and we would all like to see more of her talents in the future. GOOD LUCK Ms. Silva!

[roegirl]

I so happened to watch the evening news today and caught the story about the artist. I truly feel so sorry for you. I a kind of in a situatation like yours. I am almost at the point of giving up. I have seen doctor after doctor, but this one caught my eye. You see I live here in Memphis and I am at my witts end trying to find a specialist to tell me what us going on with me. my question is does this doctor have an e-mail address or a number maybe where I could talk to him concerning some of my issues going on with me. If anyone has that information could you send it to me. I am praying for you Artist.

[murray2173]

I too share the same medical condition, and like Alison, and I also opted to not have surgery. I can relate to her with not knowing how things will turn out in life.

[Fhoch1]

Dear Murray, I'm interested in learning more about this condition. What sort of brain condition were you diagnosed with by your physician? Has it affected your creative impulses? Thank you.