Lisa Adams
Lisa Adams is an artist, writer, speaker, and synesthete born and raised in Birmingham Alabama and currently residing in Columbus GA.
Lisa has always been aware of her synesthesia but never knew what it was until about 8 years ago. She can remember as a young child telling her mother that the painting in the living room sang to her. Her mother, who suffered severe mental illness most of her life, promptly told Lisa to never say that to anyone again or they would lock her away. From then on, Lisa viewed her synesthesia as something fearful and shameful and so never mentioned it again.
But music and art were the great loves of her life and she could not put them aside. She began piano lessons at the age of six and sang in the school choirs. She took art classes from a private teacher beginning at age 12 and showed great aptitude in color shading and blending thanks to her synesthesia. But she never thought to combine her two great loves.
After high school, Lisa sang with several local rock bands and, putting aside her paint brushes, pursued a career in the music industry until life took her down the path of motherhood. She spent the next 30 years as a hard-working, devoted mother who had little time for her pursuits of music and art.
Then in 2013 Lisa met her friend Alex who, during a conversation about music and art, explained synesthesia to her. Imagine how thrilled she was to discover that what she had was not something of which to be afraid or ashamed! It was that same friend who bought Lisa the first art supplies she'd owned in many years and encouraged her to paint what she saw in music.
Today, Lisa joyfully creates works of art centered around the music she loves and hopes to educate others about synesthesia through her art. "No child should ever be made to feel ashamed or afraid because they translate sensory input differently than others. Some of the most brilliant and creative minds ever known were synesthetes."
About Synesthesia
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision). Simply put, when one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time.
Lisa's synesthesia presents in two ways:
Chromesthesia - in which sound triggers color. Synesthetes experience chromesthesia in many ways. To some, like Billy Joel, a certain note or key will always have a particular color. To others, like Duke Ellington - and Lisa - different instruments will always show up in the same color or variant hues of color.
In Lisa's case, for example, acoustic guitars are green but electric guitars are different shades of blue to green and even yellow depending on the type of guitar and amplifications used. Drums are always red but percussion instruments are silver and white colored. Brass instruments are usually different shades of deep blue and woodwinds - like flutes - are yellow. The richer and more diverse the music, the more color is displayed in her mind. This is why she often prefers simple acoustic music.
Auditory-Tactile Synesthesia - in which certain sounds can induce physical sensations within the body. One of the most common ways this presents with Lisa is that voices often have a particular taste or smell. Other times voices or sounds - sometimes a combination of sounds - will present in a physical or emotional way. For example; Yoda's voice makes Lisa laugh because it feels and smells like bubbles! Andrea Bocelli's voice tastes and smells like a rich, herbed beef stew. Unfortunately, not all of the things she experiences with synesthesia are this pleasant. The sound of someone humming is nearly unbearable for her because it gives her a "pins and needles" feeling all over her body. And a brightly painted yellow room gives her extreme anxiety.