The other day in art history class we learn about Leonardo da Vinci.
My instructor informs us that Leonardo was freaking brilliant and considered one of the greatest artists of all time. He was the first artist to really put all of the advancements in art together and conceive the painting as a whole and not focusing on one part to the detriment of the rest.
He was the true definition of a Renaissance Man; well versed in many interests ranging from art to science to architecture to military science to darn near everything!
He employed meticulous attention to detail. His paintings were planned within an inch of their lives using geometry and math and ideological symbolism. According to my instructor he was nearly obsessive about it.
and he was distractable. There are more unfinished Da Vinci paintings than there are finished ones. He would narrow his focus to the new project and get off to a good start and then… ooh, look at that catapult, I’ll just design a better one!
As my instructor is telling this and saying how obsessive and manic he was, I couldn’t help but think…I totally relate to everything Leonardo was thinking and doing. None of it sounds strange to me. I am interested in so many things that it is hard to narrow the window of focus don’t to just do a thing or two. I start stuff and rarely finish. I am full of ideas and low on follow through.
(I’m not claiming to be brilliant like he was.)
But, I would venture a guess that he had ADD and that makes him a little like me. Or me like he.
Brook Art Human. A story, a yarn, a line, a shape 
Mar 14, 2011 @ 06:23:38
This is exactly why I worry about medicating ADD. What if there’s something about the distractability, the brain that runs a mile a minute, that is essential to certain types of creativity? Are we changing who we are? And yet, as my stepson is discovering, the distracted brain doesn’t survive well in a modern-day fourth grade classroom.
Mar 14, 2011 @ 07:29:40
Well, I’m of two minds about the whole medicine thing. On the one hand, it’s really hard to get the schools to change their antiquated structure and methods to suit our kids’ learning styles, so unless you have the luck and money to be going to a good private school where the student teacher ratio is better and often there are a lot more hands on activities, then, yeah, you probably aren’t going to fit and will hear about how you are wrong and not behaving. (As opposed to the problem having anything to do with the system, or a combination of both). For me, it’s terribly frustrating not to be able to actually do a lot of the things that I want to do because of issues with planning, prep work, etc. When I tried medicine a couple of years ago, the first day I sat down and drew these intricate mandala-like things. I never felt less creative. I felt more able to channel it. But, for me and the particular meds I was on, the good effects stoppped after two days and the bad effects continued. Bogus deal there. We tried a higher does and then a different med and I was a wreck. So I weaned myself off and try to make do with homeopathic stuff.
So, I’m basically opposed to medication, but it can be a really useful tool. But, there are things that can help in the meantime or alternately if that’s your choice. The most important one is exercise. Exercise moves the blood the the part of the brain that isn’t acting as we’d like it to- increasing the dopamine there. Eat more protein, less carbs- things like that.
I love these books
you mean I’m not lazy, crazy, or stupid? http://www.amazon.com/Stupid-Self-Help-Attention-Deficit-Disorder/dp/0684815311
hunter in a farmers world http://www.amazon.com/Attention-Deficit-Disorder-Different-Perception/dp/1887424148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300112421&sr=1-1
healing the six types of add http://www.amazon.com/Healing-ADD-Breakthrough-Attention-Disorder/dp/B004HQRII0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300112533&sr=1-3
the hunter one especially because it was the first one I read that really said that there wasn’t anything wrong with me that needed fixing, and that the “problems” I was having weren’t problems they were benefits if I was in the proper setting. Unfortunately, I’m not in the proper setting, but that just means you have to manage your world to help make it jive with you as much as possible. ok, rambled on long enough for a post 🙂 probably should turn it into one.
Mar 14, 2011 @ 07:31:43
oh, and I’m planning on trying meds again. like I said it’s frustrating not to manifest my ideas into reality very often (like leonardo 🙂 )