12 year old girl w/God-given painting talent?

[Soul Kitchen]

The story, in short:
A girl is born to a nonreligious family and at the age of 4 starts having spiritual visions which translate into incredible illustrations.

I find her painting ability amazing if it isn't a hoax, regardless of the spiritual context. A little too amazing for me to buy it immediately.

She supposedly drew this when she was four. It's one thing being able to draw well, it's another to have taught yourself conventional shading techniques, as she appears to have done. At the age of 4.
Her household was supposedly nonreligious prior to the spirituality the girl brought to her family.

Something like this could have very easily been a hoax, but the problem is that I have yet to find any indication of such. What I found instead is that she is an internationally acclaimed artist that has been praised by Oprah Winfrey.
So she sure as hell isn't marginal, and this would be one hell of a hoax.

It is strange that her visions of heaven are so conventionally flowery, but when you think about it, the nature of heaven's existence would probably be beyond human comprehension and so would translate to different images depending on the person. Likewise for religious figures.

Akiane Kramarik is her name, and I have yet to see evidence of this being a fraud. I've found nothing but validation. I encourage the UM people to find otherwise. That isn't a challenge, it's a request. I need some closure on this to put my mind at ease.

[Morgaia]

Well, her paintings are stunning! I am jealous of her talent but skeptical that these visions are from god....it could easily be a vivid imagination. I wouldn't say it is impossible that she is somehow receiving these images from god but I'm always skeptical of those that say they've seen heaven. Wouldn't heaven be different for everyone since no one is the same? Ah well, very interesting though so thank you for sharing!

[Clarakore]

Is she still 12? I have one of her books. She is an indigo.

[The Puzzler]

Wow, her paintings are incredible, I just watched the YouTube vid, seems real enough to me, thanks for posting it.

[Copasetic]

Non-dominant hemisphere is dominant!!!

[Leonardo]

Her paintings are 'visions from her visits to heaven', yet Jesus (a Jew) is a white, european-looking male?

While I do not doubt her talent, I do question the origin of her imagery.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Leonardo

[Kismit]

I did a wee bit of research it appears the young girl in question is no longer 12 but closer to 18. there is some fabulous footage of her painting Here and also if you go to the link marked Store and then to sketches, you will see that her subject matter has altered over the years.

[Kelbie25]

I'm not religious so won't comment on where her talent came from.

But wow they are just amazing.

[Condescending]

Non-dominant hemisphere is dominant!!!

Ding ding ding!

How did God enter the equation? Because of the type of images she drew?

The human brain is ridiculous, why would it in the case of this 4 year old girl be a divine thing and in another case be an incredible 'side effect' of being autistic. Absolutely love her painting talent btw!

[+Sherapy]

The story, in short:

A girl is born to a nonreligious family and at the age of 4 starts having spiritual visions which translate into incredible illustrations.

I find her painting ability amazing if it isn't a hoax, regardless of the spiritual context. A little too amazing for me to buy it immediately.

She supposedly drew this when she was four. It's one thing being able to draw well, it's another to have taught yourself conventional shading techniques, as she appears to have done. At the age of 4.

Her household was supposedly nonreligious prior to the spirituality the girl brought to her family.

Something like this could have very easily been a hoax, but the problem is that I have yet to find any indication of such. What I found instead is that she is an internationally acclaimed artist that has been praised by Oprah Winfrey.

So she sure as hell isn't marginal, and this would be one hell of a hoax.

It is strange that her visions of heaven are so conventionally flowery, but when you think about it, the nature of heaven's existence would probably be beyond human comprehension and so would translate to different images depending on the person. Likewise for religious figures.

Akiane Kramarik is her name, and I have yet to see evidence of this being a fraud. I've found nothing but validation. I encourage the UM people to find otherwise. That isn't a challenge, it's a request. I need some closure on this to put my mind at ease.

I do not deny her artistic talent. gosh the paintings are lovely, but in the video it said she taught her self to play piano and compose music in 2 months. This is simply not possible. I have studied classical music and just to read music fluently would take awhile. I have studied Beethoven, Mozart, and List, Hayden etc..it took them years to reach the level of genius they all achieved.and most studied under other accomplished pianists/geniuses.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Sherapy

[Cybele]

Non-dominant hemisphere is dominant!!!

Could you explain what you mean by this a little more? I am very curious as to what might cause her to be such a prodigy. Could these visions possibly be some sort of epilepsy?

[FLOMBIE]

Kitsch!

From a technical point of view, her picture are very well drawn, amazingly if you put her age into context. But if I look at her pictures as pieces of Art, I find them rather boring and uninspired. Are they worth 3 million US dollars? I don't think so.

Edited June 3, 2011 by FLOMBIE

[Leonardo]

Could you explain what you mean by this a little more? I am very curious as to what might cause her to be such a prodigy. Could these visions possibly be some sort of epilepsy?

Not wanting to rain on Copa's parade, but you are probably on the right track.

I wouldn't say her 'visions' are necessarily epilepsy, but there is a good possibility they are seizure-related. People who have (minor) strokes, for example, are sometimes unable to relate their experience linguistically if the stroke occurs in the left-hemisphere. Essentially, the right-hemispheric dominant functions (visual processing, 'creative' functions) become the victims only means of perception while the stroke is in effect.

The relative isolation of the left hemisphere (if not complete), at this time, can seem to cause the sensation of another presence to the individual affected - both the left and right hemispheres of the brain have their own 'identity', which normally operate as a co-operative singular 'person identity'.

In the case above, the left-hemisphere 'sensed presence' may appear to communicate with the person's 'right-hemisphere occupying' identity. This grants extra 'believability' to the notion that 'presence' is an actual separate entity, but it is possible becuase the main linguistic processing centre of the brain is left-hemisphere located. The individual often cannot fully comprehend what the 'left-brain presence' is saying and this lends to the sense of mystery.

Throw in the cultural-religious iconography surrounding us on a near perpetual basis, and you have your "trip to heaven".

[Copasetic]

Could you explain what you mean by this a little more? I am very curious as to what might cause her to be such a prodigy. Could these visions possibly be some sort of epilepsy?

Not wanting to rain on Copa's parade, but you are probably on the right track.

I wouldn't say her 'visions' are necessarily epilepsy, but there is a good possibility they are seizure-related. People who have (minor) strokes, for example, are sometimes unable to relate their experience linguistically if the stroke occurs in the left-hemisphere. Essentially, the right-hemispheric dominant functions (visual processing, 'creative' functions) become the victims only means of perception while the stroke is in effect.

The relative isolation of the left hemisphere (if not complete), at this time, can seem to cause the sensation of another presence to the individual affected - both the left and right hemispheres of the brain have their own 'identity', which normally operate as a co-operative singular 'person identity'.

In the case above, the left-hemisphere 'sensed presence' may appear to communicate with the person's 'right-hemisphere occupying' identity. This grants extra 'believability' to the notion that 'presence' is an actual separate entity, but it is possible becuase the main linguistic processing centre of the brain is left-hemisphere located. The individual often cannot fully comprehend what the 'left-brain presence' is saying and this lends to the sense of mystery.

Throw in the cultural-religious iconography surrounding us on a near perpetual basis, and you have your "trip to heaven".

Yeah, sorry my brain was on the verge of sleeping despite repeated insults with caffeine and face slapping. That was about all I could manage .

Leo is pretty spot on though. The "right" side of our brain, really right cerebral hemisphere and cortex, functions more with our "creative" talents in mind. Like Leo mentions, its actually not uncommon at all for people to have a stroke isolated to the left cortex or neocortex, such as an insult to the left middle cerebral artery, and post-recovery become "right sided dominant". People will recover and all of a sudden have "miraculous" artistic ability they never had. Or find themselves writing captivating fiction, or plays, etc.

Language secondary modular processing areas, like Broca's area (pre-motor and language generation) and Wernicke's area (transverse temporal gyri auditory language processing) are "left-sided" functions of the cortex and neocortex.

Connecting your left and right cortices is the corpus callosum. Which allows multimodal processing to occur, say like integration of auditory (transverse temporal gyrus of left side) and visospatial (occipital lobe) processing in areas like the posterior parietal cortex (posterior-occipital-temporal, "POT" association cortex).

Anyway back to stoke victims, lesions or vascular insults to the cerebral arteries (particularly around the Circle of Willis, where the posterior cerebral at the basilar bifurification, communicating, internal carotid, anterior and middle cerebral arteries take origin to supply the structures of cortex) can also injure commissural neuro tracts like the corpus callosum, internal capsule, etc.

This can create a "disconnect" in multimodal association cortex where the "halves of the brain" aren't on "speaking terms" anymore. In fact, there is lots of cool evidence that things like auditory hallucinations in things like schizophrenia happen because of problems with the association cortex in the temporal lobes (Wernicke's again)--but that is getting off track Like Leo was saying, this "disconnect" can result in us not recognizing our own inner us (that wee little voice in your head).

So what does this have to do with the girl because she didn't have a stroke. I'm getting there!

So vasculature and brains develop differently. The neocortex occurs in "layers" of neurons that migrate during embryogenesis and setup up shop. If for some reason prior structures aren't there to influence development you can have "abnormal" (for lack of a better word) development. Its important to understand this isn't always something pathological, like say arteriovenous malformations which are to such an extent it is pathological. There is a spectrum that brain development and "sided-dominance" occurs over. People who are "artistic prodigies" fall on the right side of that spectrum, while those who are artistic, "hearing voices" and "feeling" presences probably fall on that right side, while also having an underdevelopment of the corpus callosum.

How our consciousness perceives our experience of the external and internal world is constrained to our cultural and social context, again as Leo pointed out. If we lack a usable architecture, then our brains simply make it up for us (no really, your brain makes up all kinds of things for you--Whether they are true or not. You can thank your thalamus and multimodal association cortices for a lot of that!)

In fact, just one more aside because this stuff gets super cool, are you familiar with or ever heard of "alien hand syndrome"?

If you intentionally lesion the corpus callosum, like say in a rat, or in the 1950's while trying to "fix" epilepsy, what you find is two parts of the brain totally unable to "talk" with each other.

Since the motor cortex of the right side, controls the left side of the body and vise a versa, it results in each half of your brain independently controlling your body. Normally this means your "conscious" control from your left side gets control of your right body. While the left side of your body moves to a beat of its own accord, well really the accord of your right brain. How sweet is that?

Anyway I'd love to elaborate more, but back to the books. Finals in a few days!

Edited June 3, 2011 by Copasetic

[Grandpa Greenman]

Her paintings are 'visions from her visits to heaven', yet Jesus (a Jew) is a white, european-looking male?

While I do not doubt her talent, I do question the origin of her imagery.

Yes I argree, she is a great talent who needs to mature. I would like to see what she is doing when she is thirty.

[ambelamba]

Kitsch!

From a technical point of view, her picture are very well drawn, amazingly if you put her age into context. But if I look at her pictures as pieces of Art, I find them rather boring and uninspired. Are they worth 3 million US dollars? I don't think so.

Hold on a sec.

I have a BFA with illustration major. And many of my friends are top-class painters. I guess I am a good judge of painting skills. Yes, her paintings look very kitsch. The girl has some decent rendering skill, but I can definitely see that she doesn't have a fundamental training in drawing. I guess she's gifted, but still a diamond in rough.

[Soul Kitchen]

For those who are saying that here art is boring and unoriginal...

I've always defined art as emotional expression through a creative medium.

Techincal skills and amusingly clever creativity are nice and all, but that alone isn't art. It's craft.

I judge the quality of art based the artist's ability to express and communicate emotion. This girl has the misfortune of feeling emotion for conventional religious figures rather than anything eccentric or outlandish as to appeal to the modern artist, and so that seems to lower the quality of the art in the eyes of some.

[know_doubt]

Yes I argree, she is a great talent who needs to mature. I would like to see what she is doing when she is thirty.

Might disappoint you... child prodigies aren't always adult geniueses....

[FLOMBIE]

Hold on a sec.

I have a BFA with illustration major. And many of my friends are top-class painters. I guess I am a good judge of painting skills. Yes, her paintings look very kitsch. The girl has some decent rendering skill, but I can definitely see that she doesn't have a fundamental training in drawing. I guess she's gifted, but still a diamond in rough.

You are right. My mother studied Arts, and I do have painters as friends as well, as well as graphic designers, so I believe I have kind of an eye for that as well, even though it is not a pro view on Arts. She is very good, like I said, but I can see her flaws, and see she is significantly apart from people I know who have really studied the subject.

But that was not what I wanted to point out! I meant to say that her "art" seems hollow, no message, no emotions. I cannot feel them at all. It's pretty much like pictures I can buy on a bazar or in a home-center.

[Beckys_Mom]

I don't care look see what it is she has painted

I did not like them at all...no

I loved them.....When I was 12, I thought I was a good artist...but my work could not hold a candle to this...not a mission

Anyone that puts her down...does only out of jealousy... People who have real eye for beautiful art, have pegged her as one of the greats... At such a young age coming up with master pieces like that...it is not to be sniffed at

I do not get why this was placed in the Skeptics side of the spirituality boards... UNLESS the OP wanted to hear some negative feedback? ( make note that was a question)

I would have placed this in the artist boards...for there were more than just spirituality paintings from this girl...and I am sure others may want to see them as well..people who only log on to go to those areas...

This is the type of thing I would put on for all to see...

One more thing - If she has done these master pieces at just 12.... I would dare say they are better than some at aged 30 and painting

[Soul Kitchen]

I don't care look see what it is she has painted

I did not like them at all...no

I loved them.....When I was 12, I thought I was a good artist...but my work could not hold a candle to this...not a mission

Anyone that puts her down...does only out of jealousy... People who have real eye for beautiful art, have pegged her as one of the greats... At such a young age coming up with master pieces like that...it is not to be sniffed at

I do not get why this was placed in the Skeptics side of the spirituality boards... UNLESS the OP wanted to hear some negative feedback? ( make note that was a question)

I would have placed this in the artist boards...for there were more than just spirituality paintings from this girl...and I am sure others may want to see them as well..people who only log on to go to those areas...

This is the type of thing I would put on for all to see...

One more thing - If she has done these master pieces at just 12.... I would dare say they are better than some at aged 30 and painting

I said that I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fraud, and I wanted skeptics to see it. Not poets. And doesn't this forum has more traffic than the artist one?

Although I agree with you on the jealousy things. I've seen some smugly scathing criticisms of her by eccentric, modern artists who have lost sight of what art is.

Hence the post I just made about art and craft.

[Beckys_Mom]

I said that I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fraud, and I wanted skeptics to see

I do not get why you felt the need for skeptics to see it? Do you feel they might be skepical of her talent?? What where you pushing for?? what was your main agenda? <-- please note I am asking... For I have no idea why or what your aim was

Art work like this...was not all about spirituality... If her art work were to be placed in an art museum... they would display it for ALL to see.. not just a certain group

I've seen some smugly scathing criticisms of her by eccentric, modern artists who have lost sight of what art is.

Oh dear, looks like you didn't get he exact criticism you had thought... See IMO I feel you placed it here thinking skeptics would take pops at her spirituality... BUT instead they didn't...Turns out it got a slightly different kind of criticism. ohh well .. isn't that a turn up for the books?

I say so what? You can't make everyone like it... You cannot make everyone sing praises... that's how it goes

Edited June 4, 2011 by Beckys_Mom

[FLOMBIE]

Anyone that puts her down...does only out of jealousy... People who have real eye for beautiful art, have pegged her as one of the greats...

Yes, that's it!

I cannot connect with it. It's Art - You either do, or you don't It has nothing to do with jealousy. Just like I said, I like here skills, especially because she is and autodidact. But what she is creating with them is nothing i can connect with.

[Beckys_Mom]

Yes, that's it!

Seems to me like it is... Your mom was the artist right?? had the eye for great art...right?? <-- make note luvie, that is your mother..... NOT you

[Soul Kitchen]

I do not get why you felt the need for skeptics to see it? Do you feel they might be skepical of her talent?? What where you pushing for?? what was your main agenda? <-- please note I am asking... For I have no idea why or what your aim was

Art work like this...was not all about spirituality... If her art work were to be placed in an art museum... they would display it for ALL to see.. not just a certain group

Oh dear, looks like you didn't get he exact criticism you had thought... See IMO I feel you placed it here thinking skeptics would take pops at her spirituality... BUT instead they didn't...Turns out it got a slightly different kind of criticism. ohh well .. isn't that a turn up for the books?

I say so what? You can't make everyone like it... You cannot make everyone sing praises... that's how it goes

I am not sure what is ruffling your feathers.

I was impressed by the story, and I was afraid it was a hoax and so wanted to give it a trial by UM skeptic before I fully believed it.

I'm seeing a trend of you grossly misunderstanding my posts. I'd appreciate if you gave them a thorough read.

Let me say this, as to prevent further confusion: I personally DO believe there was a spiritual element.

I was very reluctant to confess this, but I'm getting sick of your habit of misinterpreting everything I post.