The Unpredictable
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About this ebook
The purpose of The Unpredictable is to share personal and biographical stories and illustrations from my own experiences as well as others whose lives have been impacted by epilepsy or disorders.
Through the written word and the stroke of a brush, the old saying, A picture paints a thousand words accurately portrays the special people that have been highlighted in the pages of this book.
At the completion of this book, my thoughts went back to what inspired me to write and paint about seizures and living with epilepsy. It was my desire to make a living as an artist and settle down in a country home with my family, living the life of an artist with a canvas and brush. However I have learned through the years that our plans are often contrary to what God has in store for us. Living with epilepsy has brought challenges and storms in life that have changed the course and direction of my life.
In this book, the experiences of life with art and epilepsy are put into paintings that I have visualized from this disease. My desire is to educate those unfamiliar with epilepsy, encourage the ones living with this disease, comfort the loved ones who support and assist those living with seizures, and open the eyes of doctors who are educated about seizures but have never experienced the challenges faced in living with a seizure disorder.
Richard Davis
Richard Davis was born and educated in Melbourne and now lives in Queensland. He was encouraged in his writing by Alan Marshall, Ivan Southall and later, Nobel prize-winning author Patrick White. Richard pursued a successful career in commerce before taking up full-time writing in 1997. Since then his published works have included three internationally acclaimed biographies of musicians: Geoffrey Parsons - Among Friends (ABC Books), Eileen Joyce: A Portrait (Fremantle Press) and Anna Bishop - The Adventures of an Intrepid Prima Donna (Currency Press). The latest in this series is Wotan’s Daughter - The Life of Marjorie Lawrence.
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The Unpredictable - Richard Davis
Copyright © 2013 Richard Davis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
ISBN: 978-1-4497-8107-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4497-8108-8 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012924258
WestBow Press rev. date: 1/21/2013
logoBlackwTN.aiCONTENTS
The Unpredictable
Art Across America
Raphael Santi
Charles Dickens
From the eyes of a child
Edward Lear 1812-1888
Lightening and seizures are much alike
Vincent Van Gogh
An artist’s view of a seizure within the brain
Theodore Roosevelt
When a seizure destroys the outdoor beauty
Prince Erik, Duke of Vastmanland
Smoke in the distance
Prince John of the United Kingdom
Seizures and Sports
Ward Bond
The Destruction of a Seizure
Buddy Abbott October 2, 1895 to April 24, 1974
Seizuroids
Richard Burton
Seized by the Storm
Chanda Gunn
Ending of a seizure in the Brain
Davis Tarwater
From a Neurologist to a Chiropractor
In memory of
The watercolor painting on the cover is in memory of a good artist friend Don, who suffered for sixteen years with seizures after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. His art work was well liked and used twice for the U.S. Postal Service as a design for stamps, for several of the U.S. president’s portraits along with portraits of several other famous people such as Major Oliver North. Don started to lose the ability to do his art towards his last years and went to doing photography to share his suffering of the tumors comparing them to nature, and was enjoyed and appreciated by many people through CaringBridge. We stayed in contact together throughout his last years as we both suffered with seizures combined with being artist. I also want to give thanks to my artist friend Steve in Texas who the photo on the front is of, (of course minus the bear). He allowed me the rights to use his photo and illustrate to you what came to my thoughts about ‘unpredictable.’ Last I can’t help but add remembrance to my son who passed away at age eight from seizures in 1994.
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather
it is one of those things that give value to survival." -C.S. Lewis
About the cover
The cover is what came to my imagination as I was trying to illustrate to you the title ‘The Unpredictable.’ In order to combine what it is like living with epilepsy and seizures that always come at times when we least expect them or with so much power and force we have no control over what happens. The bear is to give you an idea of a seizure coming from behind us, never expecting it, perhaps we hear just a small sound but nothing to give us a warning before we are hit. It is quick, powerful, controlling, and forceful. We never have anywhere to run, and many times I was affected during the time of doing my paintings or art work from a seizure.
I try not to worry about the future - so I take each day just one anxiety attack at a time.
-Tom Wilson-
Purpose%20of%20the%20book.jpgThe Unpredictable
The course of life is unpredictable. No one can write his autobiography in advance
-Abraham J. Heschel-
The title of this book is compared to the life with epilepsy and the life of an artist. Just as