The mysterious case of the man who draws in his sleep
Interesting to me if you cross reference much of this man's "works/paintings"... they on some level look like what Carl Jung ... describe as his "subconscious" could and would do (as mentioned on another blog of mine) ... also in Carl Jung's Red Book ... so was/is Mr. Hadwin's subconscious just coming out to play during his sleep and painting pictures??
I myself in "deep prayer" have to on some level put my conscious mind to sleep .. to get into a level of prayer called "mystical"
When Lee Hadwin was four, he would scribble on the walls.
Not so surprising for a four year old, but there was a difference: Lee was
asleep when he did it.
As he got older, Lee’s drawings became more intricate,
and when he was 15 he drew three small, beautiful portraits of Marilyn Monroe,
yet he had no memory of doing it.
Sleepwalking and sleep-talking
are well documented and relatively common, but sleep-drawing is much rarer. And
Lee has no discernible artistic talent while awake. So what could explain his behavior?
Penny Lewis from Cardiff University explains that
sleepwalking may occur when there’s an imbalance in a person’s sleeping brain,
where the rational areas are asleep but the limbic system, which controls
emotions, is awake. This could also be the explanation for Lee’s artistic
expressions, she says
This guy draws in
his sleep — but has ‘no artistic talent’ when awake
Lee Hadwin has no artistic ability. Unless he’s asleep.
Once he conks out, the self-dubbed “Sleep Artist” creates
celebrity portraits, classical nudes and stunning abstracts that he sells for
thousands of dollars.
“I just can’t draw when I’m awake,” said Hadwin, 44, who
got terrible grades in high-school art class in his native Wales.
Yet when asleep, he is able to control the images he puts
down. He just doesn’t remember doing it.
It began when Hadwin was just 4 years old. He started
scribbling on the walls and floor of his bedroom after he fell asleep.
“I would go downstairs at night and draw under the
staircase,” he recalled.
His parents took him to doctors after a few years of his
unusual behavior, but they were
When he was 15, his overnight etchings resulted in three
portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
“Only after I drew them, that’s when I thought,
‘Something strange is going on,’ ” he said.
But it wasn’t until the early 2000s, when he was asked to
show his work at a library, that he gained attention as an artist. A local
newspaper did a story on the show, and it was picked up by the British national
media.
“My life changed overnight,” he said. “It went from a
local library doing five pictures in frames to this global recognition in the
art world.”
Hadwin has been examined by sleep experts from Scotland
to Japan who documented his actions but gave little explanation for how he
gains an artistic ability that disappears with the sun.
Hadwin didn’t always consider himself an artist, and many
art critics say he still shouldn’t. But he shrugs off negative reviews.
“I take it with a pinch of salt,” he said. “My art is
what it’s worth.”
