The Neurographic Art Style (Kellie's Version)

In essence, neurographic art involves lines and their rounded intersections in a freeform style that allows building, layering, and collage-like techniques of decor to create visuals, most often abstract. The style is meant to evoke neuronal structures, pathways, and connections; it has some interesting links to neuroplasticity. 

That's the definition I use and developed from internet surfing, at least. And there is a bit of a story there.

Back when I was working full time and realizing that my pandemic art hobby was rapidly becoming Something More, I would muse on different ways to monetize my hobby. Some friends and I were all mired in burnout and each reflecting on how our different "side hustles" could be combined to create an intriguing variety of afternoon excursions in a desert oasis resort experience. You know, if we should win the lottery and buy some acreage in southern Arizona, and tailor the experience to our fellow burned out colleagues. I was jokingly assigned "art therapy" and decided to explore what art as therapy would look like. Just in case the lottery landed on us.

Beyond the actual certifications and accredited psychology-adjacent coursework with an overarching professional organization, I did find something called neurographic art.  

Mostly vibing with the images and muted videos I saw, I didn't quite realize that "neurographic art" was not so much a defined and well-known art style (like cubism) or even a centralized art therapy concept as it was more of a squiggly world of niche practitioners. There's no handy Wikipedia entry, something that grounds casual googlers in the basic reality of a topic. Most of the various articles I have found all indicate that "neurographic art" is a term coined by Russian psychologist-architect-[insert a LOT of multi-hyphenates here] Pavel Piskarev. 

The one article I found that at first glance appeared to be from a legitimate neuroscience enterprise started to ring false: I couldn't find the article in its main navigation menus, just from an internet search; all the artwork for each article tile appeared to be AI (and also very lesbian-coded, which is only problematic insofar as it is an odd choice for a general mental health website and appeared to be from a prompt like "as close to salacious as possible without being overt"); there was a prominent autism test button everywhere; the experts listed on their "about us" page were not linked to the website's organization itself (as in there was no indication that the two experts listed were overseeing the organization or contributing to it in any way); and the rest of the "about us" page was sufficiently vague and nebulous that I wondered if it might all be AI. The article did have links to sources, at least, and I may chase those a bit at a later date (assuming they don't fall apart like an AI invention).

I've read that neurographic art is art therapy, but I've also read that it most certainly is not. I have found a few different people advertising courses or training in the style, some of them even reading like "certifications" to instruct others in the style (or to just add legitimacy to your own practice, perhaps). There's also apparently a registered trademark version of the art style name that I won't use here because why invite that kind of attention?

So here I am, working in an art style that is understandable and relatable as a basic concept (see the first paragraph above) but has just this whiff of snake oil in its web presence. My intuition is telling me that Strange Things are Afoot, so instead of a nice post with all kinds of links to my research in how I found this style and what concepts I leveraged as I made it my own, I have this odd break down of the strange vibes I encountered when trying to write such an article. It's largely link-free because I can't send anyone off on a journey that might end with them falling down an autism treatment money-grab rabbit hole or into a series of courses with an unclear goal (are the courses meant to be technique instruction or therapeutic or to certify you as a neurographic art instructor?).

But at least I have an excellent angle for a woo-woo desert oasis resort class that would also feature rage-lifting, scenic jogging, open air screaming, and horses. Whenever the lottery winnings arrive.