Dear Sophie -
JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT started as a graffiti artist (his tag was "SAMO"), and was selling his paintings by the time he was 20 years old. He was so talented and fluid that painting came to him as naturally as most of us breathe.
Tragically he started to do heroin and died of an overdose at age 27. He was charismatic, beautiful, gifted. He had it all damnit.
The filmmaker/painterJULIAN SCHNABEL made his first film about Basquiat which is a thoughtful homage, but Tamra Davis's "THE RADIANT CHILD" captures his intellectual poignancy and depth of feeling.
Basquiat sought validation. He suffered from outside criticism, his fathers detachment and lost his belief in himself. That's when one's really gotta box and your internal candle must glow brightest.
With love,
Mom