Savant Girl on Fire

Original Acrylic Painting by Henny Kupferstein

Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 11 × 14 inches
Year: 2022
Original Work: One of a kind
Artist: Henny Kupferstein
Collection: 

About the Painting

I had a moment of awakening when I was assigned in my music therapy field placement to work with a  young adult who got paralyzed from the neck down when she fell down the stairs in high school on her way to band practice. On the iPad, she spelled her favorite artists, and I sang This Girl is on Fire while she gripped a mallet and matched the beat in open fifths on tone bells. I got a call from the activities director the next day telling me that her parents wept when they found out that she was offered a communication opportunity and that she was making music again. 

The title “Savant on Fire” expresses my lived experience as a diagnosed savant confused about why people call me disabled. ‘Henny, what’s the difference between a savant and a prodigy?’ Well, they both have an extreme talent from an early age without any training. However, a prodigy is a typically developed individual with an emerging gift, while a savant’s gift is superimposed onto a profound disability. Research shows that these expressive abilities are not mere copycat, but contain meta parcels of deeply rooted neurological creativity.

Details

• Original acrylic painting on canvas
• 11 × 14 inches
• Completed June 29, 2022
• Unique artist catalog number: 062922
• Signed original
• Certificate of authenticity available
• Ships from San Diego, California
• Carefully packaged for shipment

Please contact the artist regarding institutional acquisition, exhibition, local delivery, or special shipping arrangements.

Original artwork — only one available.

The painting is currently permanently mounted in this custom frame and presented as a complete work. For collectors who prefer the painting unframed, the artwork is also available for purchase without the frame.