Using Art to Exorcise His Demons – NY Times Review
By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ
There is no shortage of documentaries about mentally ill artists, but “My Name Is Alan and I Paint Pictures,” by the director Johnny Boston, finds a fresh way into the subject.
Zev Greenfield/Raw Films
The artist Alan Russell Cowan with one of his paintings.
At first this feature about the British-born New York painter Alan Russell Cowan — a k a Alan Streets — seems merely an efficient portrait of a schizophrenic artist. Mr. Cowan is an affable art school dropout whose jumbled, elastic cityscapes and figurinelike caricatures suggest Thomas Hart Benton gone psychedelic.
The movie recounts his journey to New York in 1988, his obsession with graffiti and his struggle to sell his paintings and deal with his demons (represented in animated effects shots that place Mr. Cowan in the frame with his creations).
But while Mr. Cowan’s story is sympathetically told, it’s ultimately a springboard for the movie’s lucid explanation of how creativity and mental illness interact within the brain. The film insists that there’s medical proof of art’s healing power — that with the right mix of medication, therapy and routines, schizophrenics with substance-abuse problems can make creativity their sole addiction.
Mr. Cowan seems living proof of this theory, telling the director that when he paints, his dark thoughts are evicted from his mind and transferred onto canvas.
MY NAME IS ALAN
and I Paint Pictures
Opens today in Manhattan.
Directed by Johnny Boston; director of photography, Jarred Alterman; edited by Todd Drezner; music by Adam Balazs; released by Raw Media Network and Raw Films. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 76 minutes. This film is not rated.