clorophilla

Behind every dictator there is a wounded child...
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=127355

I began this portrait without any moral intent, but it occurred to me to find this picture of young Hitler and found this deserved a pic. I never felt so dismayed doing a picture, never creating art has been so heart aching for me. May be you don’t know that Hitler has been a battered child. He was proud to remember how he was able, when was just a kid, to undergo the lashes by his father without a moan, and how he achieved “to feel nothing” just mentally counting numbers.
And you have to see this. When I was drawing I accidentally changed background, and THIS is my potrait of young Adolf with tha black background.
http://www.consapevolmente.org/site/uploads/97315ce7-90a5-ba16.jpg
I’m really scared when I think about all the children who was battered, in their bodies or their souls, anf often just “for their own good”.

Lizzi

I did not know that about Hitler. Very interesting! Abuse leaves scars but is it an excuse for ongoing bad behaviour throughout our lives? I do not disagree with you, Clo, but if every abused child turned into a really evil person, I think they might comprise the majority. How extreme does it have to be to create a monster? Thank you for making this portrait and raising an important issue.

Normal

I did know about the abuse but not the details you gave. You have made the inner pain evident in the eyes of this amazingly arresting portrait.

polenta

I don't even like the name Adolph.

Brunnhilde

I was immediately struck by your portrait being the boy Adolph Hitler, and wonder at your artistic unconscious in that he grows that moustache when you changed the background to black. That must have shocked you very much. I haven't seen any picture of him as a child but have read Alice Miller's book "For your own good" which I guess is where you read about his childhood. And Lizzi, Alice Miller's books might answer your questions.

clorophilla

Yes Brunnhilde, I was shocked seeing the "monster" stemming out of the boy, as an increasing lost of humanity...
When you draw a portrait you go deeper into the soul of a person - in this way drawing could be a "revelation", could be enlighting. And this is why this portrait made me feel so sorry and dismayed.

Lizzi, not all the battered or abused children became evil persons (well, I prefer to use different abjectives for them: desperate, alone, disconnected from their inner good). It takes several circumstances for that to occur.
The abuse has to be continuous, and the situation has to be in some way "desperate", with nobody and nothing to support and aknowledge the inner self of the child.

And even so, the boy Adolf would not have become Hitler, this happened because so many people in that time was raised with abusing methods (Alice Miller calls this "black pedagogie").

Yes, I read that infos in the Alice Miller's book... Lizzi, you should read it, you'd find there many answers.

clorophilla

After the dictator... this has been a refreshing journey.
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=127596

I felt myself as in the time I drew Einsten.
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=90679

There, I was soaked with the light of the mind; here, with le light of the soul. No wonder he was called "Mahatma" (=freat soul)!

clorophilla

le light = the light; Freat = Great!

Lizzi

Thanks to Clorophilla and Brunnhilde for your comments. It appears that you did not realize that my question was rhetorical. I have first-hand knowledge of abuse in all its' forms.

clorophilla

Dear Lizzi, sorry if I touched a sensitive spot (and sorry if my English could be misunderstood, as I'm not motherlanguage). I think even more that you'd appreciate Alice Miller's books - they are enlightening!

chelydra

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=155381

Maybe this idea should become a challenge?

clorophilla

the link to the reverse picture has changed: here it is.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0w1stb7sx9241a0/dietro%20il%20dittatore.jpg?dl=0

Fangzzz

Love the art work, yet this had me spinning with the woo woo of twists in the universe. Tender to harsh, young to old, possible to evil.