I allowed myself to be stifled in creative expression for most of my entire life until just a few years ago. As I watched the movie “Big Eyes”, I was clearly reminded of this struggle and how I allowed fear to suppress the artist trying to bloom within me for a very long time. What was so refreshing about director Tim Burton’s latest film is the spiritual lesson I took away from it, which is for each artist to always remain true to his or her work.
This movie centers on the life of Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) and her extraordinary paintings. In a time when women still held very little importance next to men, Margaret forged out on her own by leaving an abusive husband and heading to San Francisco to start a new life and hopefully a new career using her creative side, which was painting. She soon discovers her unique style of work does not garner the attention it truly deserves. But enter in Walter Keene (Christopher Waltz) who at first glance appears to be charming, dashing, and actually quite the motivator for her talent. He even comes to her rescue by proposing to her when her ex-husband files for full custody of their daughter, as he knows this will show the court that Margaret has the stable family necessary to raise her. Unfortunately, Walter also is a chronic liar and manipulator, which Margaret begins to discover when he starts taking credit for her paintings under the notion that a woman’s artwork doesn’t sell. As Walter’s lies continue to grow, so do the sales of her paintings and his fame, leading her only further and further into seclusion and self-doubt about the talent she really has. “Big Eyes” then goes on to tell the rest of the true story of one woman’s descent into omission and rise out of it into becoming the gifted artist she was always meant to become.
In all honesty, I have to say I never thought of myself much as an artist just as Margaret Keene once believed for herself. That’s only because we both were consumed with so much self-doubt that we allowed others to either take credit for something creative we produced or limited how we expressed our creativity because of fear. While I may not be blessed artistically in the way Margaret has been in life, I actually do have a creative talent that comes by way of a pen, or if you will, the keys on my laptop. Often, I’ve been told though that I should write differently than I do, that I should tone it done a little, or that I should not share so personally about others or myself. But no different than the way a painter portrays his or her muse on canvas; the way I write is my very own unique style of creative expression. And trying to change that for someone else is not being true to myself.
That’s why I’m so grateful for people like Margaret Keene and her life story, for movies like Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes”, and for all those in this world who continue to remind me to always be true to myself, especially when it comes down to any of the artistic work I ever produce in this life.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson