The Wonder of Art

Have you ever pondered how art really does imitate life? I know it is a bit of a stretch but let us consider children’s books, movies and TV shows. Have you noticed how often the creators of this type of ‘art’ use very adult themes and disguise them in their work? ‘The Simpsons’ is an obvious choice and kids movies that are full of two levels of humour, two good examples would be; ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Shrek.’ I also love the veiled adult humour of so many programs that my kids used to watch; "The Magic Roundabout" and "Rainbow" being two of my absolute favourites - if you have no idea what I am talking about it really is worth going to YouTube to have a look.

Another interesting cast of characters is Winnie the Pooh and his friends - I am sure they are all based on real people and all have some degree of mental illness. Pooh obviously has an eating disorder, he is a total glutton for honey and overeats in times of stress, times of celebration and just any old time he wants to - I doubt that hunger has a lot to do with it! Then there is Tigger, well ADD if ever you saw it, he never stops bounding around and absolutely can't stay still for a second. Rabbit has a bad case of OCD, what is it with all of that obsessive organizing and cleaning! Don't even get me started on the depressed state of Eeyore, poor old thing, always miserable and full of gloom, and needy little Piglet is such a tragic wee character.

The reason I raise this topic is to illustrate how many truisms we see in art that often reflect our own circumstances and lives. I was discussing this with a group of friends recently and between us all we had one who lives with depression, another has issues with food, another cannot sit still and me..... Well maybe just a little bit obsessive compulsive.

I heard a psychologist speaking on mental illness and the fine line between sanity and insanity and he said that he believed that everybody has some degree of mental illness, it is just how much it affects your life and day to day functioning that matters. Well if it is good enough for the Winnie the Pooh and his mates then it is good enough for me! How wonderful that we are beginning to recognize behaviour traits and oddities as just part of a person, or ourselves, and that it is okay. AA Milne may just have been a pioneer in making some of these so called ‘disorders’ acceptable and maybe just a bit endearing!