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Man Becomes Artist When He Sleeps

During the day 37-year-old Lee Hadwin is a nurse with no particular love or talent for art, but when he sleeps it's a different story. Lee has been sleep-drawing since he was 4 and is now quite good. Some of his pieces have sold for six figures. Despite numerous tests, doctors can't explain how he's able to draw and paint while he's not conscious, or even what stage of sleep he's in while he works. From the article: "Still, the North Wales native doesn't want to make art his career. He never studied art, and is lousy at drawing when awake. 'Art has never interested me at all,' says Hadwin, as quoted by the BBC. But just in case, he now prepares by leaving a sketchpad, brushes, and other art supplies in his bedroom."

10 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. reminds me of this nice story... by g00mbasv · · Score: 2

    ..And a fantastic painter named Ardois-Bonnot hangs a blasphemous Dream Landscape in the Paris spring salon of 1926. And so numerous are the recorded troubles in insane asylums that only a miracle can have stopped the medical fraternity from noting strange parallelisms and drawing mystified conclusions. A weird bunch of cuttings, all told; and I can at this date scarcely envisage the callous rationalism with which I set them aside...

  2. sales for 6 figures and not interested?? by magarity · · Score: 2

    WTF - I'd have a great time pursuing my fun time hobbies all day if I could "work" while asleep at night and pull down six figures.

  3. Skeptical by Dyinobal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm pretty skeptical, it says he's been doing this since he was four and has some funny stories of such but do we have any actual proof that this is true? Are we sure he's not an artist with a gimmick to get his stuff sold? He wouldn't be the first.

  4. Hmmm... by bob5972 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds sketchy...

    1. Re:Hmmm... by Cyberia · · Score: 2

      Hey now... let's not draw any hasty conclusions yet.

  5. Reminds Me... by localman · · Score: 2

    Reminds me of the excellent art book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" - which talks about how we have to turn off some of the analytical features of our mind to become better artists. For example, when you look at a wheel and try to draw it, you don't want to think "wheel" and start drawing what your mind knows of a wheel: depending on the angle it may be oval instead of circle, shadows and other objects may obscure the circular shape. Instead you want to draw what your eyes see "raw", whether those shapes and shades make sense or not.

    The book goes a lot further down this path, but it is fascinating to think that our brains can have power that is hindered by other parts of the brain. This guy seems to support that. I imagine there's significant talents and skills we have within us that simply don't know how to access.

    1. Re:Reminds Me... by nine-times · · Score: 2

      Yes, there's a lot of evidence that there are parts of your brain that won't really work while another part of your brain is working. Also, I've recently read a theory behind sleep-walking and sleep-talking that basically claims that parts of your brain can sleep independent of one another, so when there are enough parts of your brain to walk and talk that are "awake" while your higher consciousness sleeps, you might sleepwalk.

      This doesn't seem impossible to me.

  6. Re:Conent blocking and WTV by Man+Eating+Duck · · Score: 2, Informative

    The video is blocked.
    I am in Norway.
    Somebody post a mirror please.

    I don't know if it's the exact same video (I'm in Norway as well), but this is apparently the same guy. If it's legit it's pretty amazing.

    --
    Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors! :)
  7. Can't believe it's not been said, but... by Cerium · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like he finally got his dream job!

    Hahahahaha! Ahh... sorry.

  8. Dream Job... anyone? anyone? by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 2

    Tell me I'm not the first to figure out the obvious headline "Dream Job" anywhere this story is posted or shared?

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    I8-D