"In The Realms of the Unreal" is the mind blowing story of a bizarre and brilliant janitor who wrote a 15,000 page illustrated meta-fantasy novel

“Outsider art” refers to art that is made by untrained artists with disregard for traditional artistic boundaries and expectations. As an untrained artist, the term resonates with me.

It’s not a disciplined, practiced, methodical approach to expanding the cultural canon. It’s not a skill you can learn in a university. Outsider art is art that is made purely for the love of creation. It’s a visceral response to the muse. The muse calls, and the artist answers impulsively and intuitively.

And nobody did it better than Henry Darger.

If you’ve never heard of Henry Darger before, he was a janitor in Chicago who quietly wrote a 15,000 page novel, supplemented by hundreds of paintings and multimedia illustrations— some of which are 12 foot long— as well as a memoir and thousands more pages of journals.

Think Daniel Jonston meets J.R.R. Tolkien.

He never shared any of it with anyone. It was all found by his few friends and neighbors in the days before his death. He did it all for one singular purpose: for the love of creation. It’s the most pure experience in the world for an artist.

In my art, I strive to be free of ego and expectations. I want to create art just for myself, but eventually I always share it with the world and hold my breath for their approval.

But not Henry Darger. He didn’t give a fuck what you think about his art. He was too busy being prolific.

We all go to the altar of creation and make a sacrifice— mostly in time but also in relationships, mental health, hygiene— and 99.99% of us expect the muse to repay our sacrifice. We want fame, wealth, and admiration for our efforts.

Buy not Henry Darger. He gave with no expectation of return. He was a truly loyal servant to the muse. He told his story as fast as it came to him and never slowed down.

In total, when he died, Henry Darger left behind:

• 30,000 pages of written text

• 300 paintings

• 3 photographs that exist of him.

I don’t think a person like Henry Darger could ever exist again. It’s such a spectacular and tragic thing that he managed to download so much of his imagination to paper before his death.

“The Realms of the Unreal” is a great watch. It’s visually beautiful and a brilliant story. It’s a little disturbing and a little touching. Henry Darger was one of a kind but there’s also a little of him in all of us.

There’s a lot I could learn from Henry Darger, and in many ways I strive to follow in his footsteps.

But then I wouldn’t be an outsider artist.

(five)

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