Realms of the Unreal

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Most don't know the story of Henry Darger or have heard the name.

He was a janitor and dishwasher at a hospital in Chicago, IL.

Now considered a self-taught genius.

It wasn't until 1972 that his two-room apartment was cleared out shortly before he died.

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Only upon his death that thousands of pages of journals and 15,000 pages of possibly the world's longest novel were discovered.

Along with hundreds of paintings. Many over 10ft long.

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Not many knew of him at the time and those that did consider him as a poor lonely man.

It was reported that shouting and arguing could be heard often coming from his living quarters.

That he would talk in different voices when he thought no one could hear him.

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Henry created and lived in his own secret world.

A world he called "The Realms of the Unreal"

An epic tale of war, a story of danger, destruction, cruelty, torture, mutilation, and horror.

The battle of good versus evil is over the issue of child slavery at the time.

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His artwork explodes with color, patterns, landscapes, fantastic creatures, epic battles, evil Glandalinian soldiers and the brave Vivian Girl Princesses.

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The Vivian girls who always survived travails through their purity, wisdom, goodness, and cunning, even though here they look as though they’re in trouble.

Also are perfect samples of Catholic morality but they are also perfect shots and excellent military strategists.

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He freely admitted: "I hate to see the day come when I will be grown up. I never wanted to. I wished to be young always." And so he remained, at least psychologically, for the rest of his life.

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At the time he was considered insane or possibly mentally ill.

However, what was amazing is that his pain and violence transmuted into the mythos. His life becoming mythopoeic.

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He may have not been considered a great writer or even artist but his gift transformed pain into something not destructive, but creative.

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