Catrien Ross Sudden Genius Painting for 2019 New Year
When I first began writing about my “sudden genius” paintings at catrienross.com, I had few ready words to describe my mysterious and unexpected artistic eruption.
Because I had never painted a canvas before in my life, I thought I should try to explain myself as an artist, using artistic terms that were unfamiliar to me.
Rereading my early blog posts, I see now that this was a misguided attempt.
Given that I have zero study or training in painting, and have never had the slightest interest, it was inevitable that my words should fail to convey the essence of the story.
So I don’t do that anymore.
My first overwhelming compulsion to paint meant that my inner prompting could not be ignored.
I had no choice but to paint.
Driven and elated, I bought stacks of canvases and tubes of acrylic paints.
How I was able to select the canvases or the paints I still do not know.
But the few colors I chose then are the same colors I continue to use today.
And the paintings flowed out of me one after the other in an epiphany of knowing competence and joy.
I knew all I needed to know about painting without ever having learned one thing about painting or painting technique.
I now understand my sudden genius does not occur at the conscious mental level.
Rather, it is a subconscious expression – a major spiritual awakening at my deepest core.
For me, therefore, sudden genius is inseparable from the mystic path I have been traveling since childhood.
I sense my blossoming of sudden genius as the song of my DNA and the celebration of my essential spirit.
But coming to terms with the description of sudden genius has taken time.
In 2018 I was asked by Darold A.Treffert to participate in his initial survey examining the rare phenomenon of so-called “sudden genius”.
Back in 2013, when I first sought rational explanations for what might have happened in my brain, my research led me to Dr.Treffert, a physician and author who is widely acknowledged as an expert in sudden savant syndrome.
I contacted him, and we corresponded about my experience.
However, sudden savant syndrome never quite seemed to explain me, and I felt out of place.
Sudden genius has since come to seem a much better fit.
“But I can’t go around calling myself a sudden genius,” I told my younger sister, Fiona, as we talked about my paintings and music.
“Surely you can write about the phenomenon of sudden genius within your own personal experience,” she answered.
So here I am, doing just that.
My latest sudden painting, new for 2019, is also my largest so far – an F50 size canvas currently on display in Shizuoka, Japan.
Already the second F50 canvas beckons me to begin.
As I continue blossoming as a sudden genius on the mystic path I wonder, is sudden genius innate in each of us, awaiting just the right moment to awaken?
And if so, how can we best awaken this sudden genius within?
