The Hidden Paintings
of Shirley A. Mason... Sybil
1941
Born in 1923 -
Dodge Center, Minnesota
Died in 1998 - Lexington, Kentucky
Shirley A. Mason's life story, told
under the pseudonym Sybil, garnered international interest and scrutiny
in the 1973 national best seller book, Sybil, written by Flora
Schreiber in collaboration with Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. A movie by the
same title was released in 1976. Staring Sally Field as Sybil and
Joanne Woodward as Dr. Wilbur, the movie earned Sally Field
her first Oscar Award for outstanding achievement as an actress.
The story of Shirley Mason is the story of a woman who triumphed over impossible odds. Abused by her mother throughout her young life, Shirley's mind protected the innocent child by splitting into various dissociative states or “personalities” to absorb the experience and memories of various repeated acts of abomination. Sixteen personalities were identified over the course of Shirley’s eleven year sojourn through psychotherapy with Dr. Wilbur.
Through the efforts of Dr. Wilbur, coupled with the self determination of this emotionally damaged young woman, all the selves integrated into one, allowing Shirley almost total recall of her life and feelings. And although individual courage and an irresolute determination to get better were the foundation of her recovery, Shirley discovered along the way that creative expression provided an important healing dimension in her struggle to get well.
Shirley Ardell Mason was born January 25,
1923 in Dodge Center, Minnesota, and died February 26, 1998, in
Lexington, Kentucky. Ms. Mason attended Mankato State Teachers
College (now known as Minnesota State University, Mankato) in the 1940's
receiving a degree in English and Art.
Shirley began undergoing psychotherapy in 1954 with Dr. Cornelia Wilbur who diagnosed her with Multiple Personality Disorder. It was not until two years into her psychotherapy that Dr. Wilber made Shirley aware of the autonomy and control the sixteen alternate selves had over her.
Shirley Mason received a Master’s degree in Art from Columbia University in the late 1960’s and later taught art at Rio Grande College in Ohio and in a public school in Memphis, Michigan before moving to Lexington, Kentucky in 1974. Ms. Mason, became a highly regarded and commercially successful artist, signing only those works that she recognized as her own. Other works of art, presumably created by one or more of the alternative selves, were not signed, evidence of Shirley’s dissociative states in which she created art but did not acknowledge the works as her own.
A cache of 103 paintings were found
locked in closet in the basement of Shirley Mason’s Lexington home,
hidden and untouched for nearly a quarter century, until they were
located after her death in 1998.
These paintings, many of which were unsigned, span the years of 1943, eleven years before starting psychotherapy with Dr. Wilbur, to 1965, the year of her successful integration, and include the only examples of artwork presumably created by the alternate selves.
Shirley did not put her name on any piece of art that she didn’t recognize as her own. It was a disturbingly frequent occurrence for her to enter here studio and find work on the easel of which she had no conscious memory. This must have been an already frequent happening while she was a student at Mankato in the early 1940’s where she wrote numerous articles for the student paper. In several articles, Ms. Mason wrote about the use of pseudonyms and pen names, stating it was the "what" not the "who" that was important, and that no artist should put their name on any work or creation that was not their own. Other students may have thought this a curious topic to be so passionate about, but they didn’t know then what we know now about Ms. Mason’s surrealistic reality. And in a final twist of irony, Shirley Mason, known to the world as Sybil... a pseudonym, is demonstrating that while these pieces are beautiful, it's the "who", not the "what" that makes them interesting.
The 24 selected prints included here reveal the layers of mystery that was Shirley Mason, as specific themes and images repeat themselves across the different personalities and styles – some unexplainable. For example, the appearance of utility poles within the different works – most easily seen in the several paintings of boats where many of the sailing masts look very much like utility poles.