The Art of Synesthesia

Last week, I was reading an article written about a 28 year-old artist from Kansas City, Missouri who claims that she can see music in colors.  She makes a living painting pictures for people of their favorite songs. 

Music has always been an emotional trigger to me. If someone were to ask me to write a story about my life, I would simply hand them a CD.  It would contain the songs that made me cry when I was going through rough times, made me smile because it reminded me of happy events, or contained words that seemed as if they came straight from my heart.  Listen to these songs and you understand my life story. 

I have always felt music deep in my soul. But I never heard of anyone saying that they can see music in colors.

Because I am a technician for an ophthalmologist and technically know how vision works, I was a tad bit skeptical of this artist's offer to paint your favorite song into a picture.  

The condition is called synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway such as vision. Simply put, when one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time. This may, for instance, take the form of hearing music and simultaneously sensing the sound as swirls or patterns of color.  To break it down even further, the version of synesthesia that she has is called chromesthesia.  This particular artist stated in her interview that she spontaneously and involuntarily sees in color when listening to music. When asked if it blocks or interferes with her vision, she responded that it does not and that it is actually similar to when someone visualizes a memory.   

The phenomenon is not rare in musical performers. Billy Joel, Pharrell, Lady Gaga and Mickey Hart all have some form of synesthesia. Mickey Hart, the drummer for the Grateful Dead, also has the same form of synesthesia.  Ironically, he also paints his musical interpretations, as a hobby, on drum heads.  Mickey wrote about his experiences of living with synesthesia in his autobiography "Drumming at the Edge of Magic".  His drum head art work has been on display in art exhibits in NJ, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Miami.  I think I am going to contact this artist and see if I can get one of these originals.  My biggest dilemma would be picking a song!