Young creative doodler Mr Doodle was unmissable in 2020. His iconic scribbles, or “graffiti spaghetti,” as the British artist puts it, are definite record-smashing, with his current auction record standing at JPY 190m (US$1.02m) set in August last year.

Though during the outbreak of the pandemic last year, Mr Doodle stopped posting on his social media for five months and left his 2.8 million followers on Instagram wondering his whereabouts.

It was not until two days ago when Mr Doodle explained on his social media platforms why he was missing in action for nearly half of 2020 - he was diagnosed with psychosis and was put in the psychiatric ward. Mr Doodle revealed that at one point, he was convinced that the nurses and patients he saw at the psychiatric ward were Banksy and Kanye West.

 

Mr Doodle reveals on his social media that he was diagnosed with psychosis

 

Spring, 2019 - A four-meter painting that sold for JPY 190m (US$1.02m) last year and is Mr Doodle's personal record currently

 

The 27-year-old artist posted a monologue on his social media recently, to detail his “psychotic episode.” 

“In March last year I was sectioned and went to a psychiatric ward for six weeks, I had been diagnosed with suffering from a Psychotic episode. Psychosis is a condition that causes you to lose touch with reality and makes you see or hear things that are not there,” Mr Doodle said.

 

Mr Doodle, a 27-year-old artist known for his unique style of impromptu doodling 

 

“I went through a wave of hallucinations and delusions from thinking that I was speaking to God to being hired to doodle all over Donald Trump’s wall to believing that I had become the video game character Crash Bandicoot.”

He went on and mentioned that it was the chronic stress from the administrative side of his work that caused him to his breaking point. 

Though the artist reassures his fans that he is now feeling much better and is able to doodle better than before. He ended his monologue by saying that it was his passion for drawing that got him through the treatment and shared a few works he drew during his time in the psychiatric ward:

 

Mr Doodle’s name emerged in the art world in around 2015 and experienced a meteoric rise since then. His limited edition works and one-and-only paintings are some of the most highly sought-after collections in the contemporary art market.

The artist once said he suffers from another kind of OCD, “Obsessive-Compulsive Drawing,” as he calls it. From a young age, Mr Doodle began filling his school folders, and later his entire bedroom, with fun scribbles and his signature doodles are seen in collaborations with such prominent labels as Adidas, FENDI, and Samsung.

 

Dutch post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh was also said to have suffered from depression and cut off his left earlobe

 

One of van Gogh’s most revered works - Starry Night, was painted during his time in the mental institution in 1889

 

Perhaps it is true that no great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness. Among the great artists throughout history who suffered from mental illnesses, we immediately thought of Vincent van Gogh, who created some of his most famous works of all times while under psychiatric care - Starry Night (1889) and Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890), with the latter painting sold for a record-breaking US$82.5m at a Christie’s auction in 1990.

We are sending our best wishes to Mr Doodle and are eager to see what he will bring to the artistic world next.