Famous People also have Burn-Out and Anxiety-Attack

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These paintings shed light on mental disorders such as depression, bipolarity and anxiety attacks which are vey common on all the world. The diseases are tolerated, seen as inevitable, something one does not speak about.

This is the first part of the set I plan to do. Two eye surgeries and lots of work put me behind schedule. Read on and raise your voice!

Burn-Out

Today, burn-out is understood as being listless or powerless:

In research it is far less clear what burn-out actually is. In 1974, Herbert Freudenberger defined burn-out as the suffering from long-term, unresolvable job stress.

The following set opens a room for reflection and interpretation with oil portrait paintings of famous people: Avicii, Edward Munch and David Bowie are reported to have had anxiety, Ami Winehouse suffered an eating disorder, van Gogh, Chester Bennington and Ahn Jae-hwan were presumably depressive and Kurt Cobain had a bipolar disorder. At least Johnny Depp is still alive.

Today, burn-out is used as a synonym for a variety of mental illnesses such as depression, bi-polarity or anxiety. I considered this subject when Chester Bennington killed himself. When Tim Bergling committed suicide I decided it was time to give it a try.

But I knew, something was wrong with my eyes. It lasted another six months and three paintings until I got surgery on my left eye. Another five months for the right eye. Now, no cataract (some call it grey star) any more.

It could see colors again, quite useful to paint burn-out in a different meaning: By that time Freudenberger wrote about burn-out, dragsters have already been around, so he could have known burn-out means tires burning!

Mental illness is serious.

For this reason I investigated the described cases carefully. Of course without a clear insight it is impossible to say whether the portrait stars really suffered from the diseases.

You are not a victim
You just scream with boredom
You are not evicting time

Time, David Bowie

Johnny Depp inspired by Rembrandt

The famous actor Johnny Depp dropped out of school with 15 to become rock star. He got an actor instead, playing guitar in bands also.

Depp has struggled with alcoholism and addiction for much of his life. Depp has stated that he began smoking at age 12 and began using alcohol and drugs shortly thereafter.

You can close your eyes to things you don’t want to see. But you can’t close your heart to things you do not want to feel!

Depp is still a famous actor and very successful getting one top job after every other burn-out. Being lucky, he can avoid the fate of another famous artist:

Rembrandt van Rijn, who died 450 years ago, is considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. He got rich and well known quite quickly, but lived beyond his means, buying art and rarities. Rembrandt could avoid his bankruptcy only by selling most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities below value.

Furthermore, his customers lost interest as he changed his painting style – his late paintings are the best. Rembrandt was buried as a poor man in an unknown grave.

Ami Winehouse, inspired by Basquiat

Ami Winehouse was known for her deep, expressive vocals and she was the first British woman to win five Grammys.

Karen Heller with The Philadelphia Inquirer summarized: She’s only 24 with six Grammy nominations, crashing headfirst into success and despair, with a codependent husband in jail, exhibitionist parents with questionable judgment, and the paparazzi documenting her emotional and physical distress.

I write songs about stuff I cannot get past personally

Ami Winehouse also drank alcohol and used cocaine to cope with her fame:

They tried to make me go to rehab; I said, no, no, no

Sad quote from Rehab, Ami Winehouse

She died in the 27 club age after consuming alcohol and cocaine. But here sister beliefs that an eating disorder was the primary cause of her death.

This painting is inspired by Basquiat, the first black artist in New York City, who died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at the 27 club age.

DJ Avicii, inspired by Martin Kippenberger

Tim Bergling, better known by his stage name Avicii was a Swedish DJ and record producer.

He rose to prominence in 2011 in the age of 18 with his single “Levels”. His 2013 debut studio album blended electronic music with elements of multiple genres and received generally positive reviews. It peaked in the top ten in more than fifteen countries and topped international dance charts. He burned for his music and produced several further albums including over ten further songs known all over the world.

Bergling retired from touring in 2016 due to health problems, having suffered stress and poor mental health – a burn-out.

“Everyone knows that I’ve had anxiety and that I have tried. I did not expect that people would try to pressure me into doing more gigs.” In a documentary titled “Avicii: True Stories” he had also repeatedly warned that the touring lifestyle was going to kill him — but that he was being pressured to continue.

He died in April 2018 aged 28, presumably after drinking to much.

The painting of Avicii is inspired by Martin Kippenberger who was a German artist and sculptor regarded as one of the most talented German artists in the late 1990s. He was also hard-drinking; he died in the age of 44 of liver cancer.

Chester Bennington, inspired by Edward Munch

Was an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist for Linkin Park. Bennington is widely regarded as one of the top rock musicians of the 2000s.

Bennington first gained prominence as a vocalist following the release of Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, which became a commercial success.

I don’t know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
All I want to do Is be more like me and be less like you

Sad quotes from Numb, Linkin Park

Chester Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

The painting is inspired by “the scream” of Edvard Munch who was a Norwegian painter of the 20th century. This painting has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man.

Kurt Cobain, inspired by van Gogh

Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer and frontman of the band Nirvana which invented Grunge; “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was Nirvana’s biggest hit, placing high on music charts around the world in 1991 and 1992:

Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious

He is seen as a Generation X icon and received every major music award. During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction and bipolar disorder. He entered the 27 club when he killed himself aged 27 by a heroin overdoes and a shot in the head in 1994.

It’s better to burn out than to fade away

Kurt Cobain, suicide note

This painting is inspired by Vincent van Gogh, who was very emotional and did not have a great deal of self-confidence. There has been speculation that van Gogh suffered later psychological trauma:

I dream my painting and I paint my dream.

Van Gogh shot himself, but it is unclear whether he died of suicide.

Ahn Jae-hwan

The South Korean actor Ahn Jae-hwan was born in 1972 in Korea. He became famous in the late 1990s and early 2000s acting in some well-known Korean TV series. From Wikipedia: “Ahn was found dead in his car in 2008 being 36 years old. The Police confirmed that he was spotted several days after his death as his body was already decaying. It is considered to be a case of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Ahn Jae-hwan made a bonfire within the car. He smoked cigarettes, drank soft drinks and presumably also alcohol.

Read more about this painting here.

David Bowie, inspired by Andy Warhol

David Robert Jones can be seen as one of the most successful musicians who ever lived. Not only he produced 26 LPs and sold 140 million of it, but he also was an actor and an artist.

In the 70ties he had at least one burn-out. According to biographer David Buckleyv David Bowie’s diet in 1976 consisted almost entirely of red peppers, cocaine and full fat milk. Bowie later said that he hardly remembered anything from this period in his life as a thin white duke.

Might be, David Bowie was concerned about the immense success he was having. Might be it was just the way for him to deal with anxiety at the time as some psychologists claim. Might be drugs helped David Bowie deal with the history of schizophrenia in his family that presumably was expressed in the song Aladdin Sane, which was meant to say

A Lad Insane

In the early years he gave tribute to Andy Warhol whom he admired by writing the song of the same name

Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can’t tell them apart at all

Warhol and Bowie were connected in many ways: They shared obsession for art, suffered anxiety and took drugs. Warhol used Obetrol, a diet pill that let him stay awake all night.