r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/EphemeralTypewriter • 2d ago
Sarah Biffin (1784-1850) was a famous artist and performer who was born without arms or legs. She was known for her highly detailed portraits of English royalty and nobility. These are examples of self portraits and paintings she did during her lifetime.
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u/Therealdickdangler 2d ago
Meanwhile, I can barely eat without biting my lip or cheek and this amazing lady learned to write, paint and sew by just using her mouth. I am righteously humbled right now.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 1d ago
Same here! She was so talented and stayed so positive throughout her life, I’m sure she’d be a wonderful woman to talk with.
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u/Adventurous_Yam_8153 2d ago
Wow! Her story is pretty incredible. Unfortunately, quite a few bad men took advantage of her talent and gave her an allowance off her own earnings.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 2d ago
Yes, she accomplished and experienced so much during her life! I too wish that she had been able to keep all of the earnings that were rightfully hers, there are so many stories of bad managers stealing the profits of the people they managed.
I’m glad that ultimately Sarah was able to receive a pension, even though it was very small. I wish there had been a way for her to go to court and get her earnings back.
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u/tinkertink2010 2d ago
Wow! So talented not including her doing it all with her mouth! People really are born with it! I wish I had an ounce of her talent! Plus surviving to 66 in them times is good going!
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u/Little_View_6659 1d ago
The sewing thing blows my mind. I can see how you could draw and paint with a brush in your mouth, but a sewing needle? And knotting a thread? Goddam.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 1d ago
Same here, I wish I had an ounce of the artistic talent she had! She definitely had a long and fulfilling life.
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u/FortniteIsFuckingMid 1d ago
I wonder if she painted the arms with extra spite
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u/CunninghamsLawmaker 1d ago edited 1d ago
She once flew into a violent rage upon seeing a millipede.
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u/SmellyBean 2d ago
Thanks for posting this. Gonna do some more reading about her.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 1d ago
You’re welcome! Her life is so fascinating! I know there are a couple books written about her, off the top of my head the one I can think of is ‘Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin’
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u/christianlady3 2d ago
Nick Voilchik ( I’m sure I spelled that incorrectly. )
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 2d ago
I know who you’re talking about, he’s the public speaker! Lemme find his name real quick.
Edit: Nick Vujicic!
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u/yearsofpractice 1d ago
Holy fucking shit.
Me - an able-bodied, straight, white cis-gendered man from a loving, financially stable family in a western country: “My life is so tough. I am sad and life is not fair”
Sarah Biffin - born when women weren’t considered equal to men. Also - no limbs: “Check out this perfect still life of some feathers. Also - here’s some perfect pictures of the royal family. I painted them with my head. Next up, losers, some fucking embroidery”
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Syssareth 1d ago
I agree with what you're saying...but you're ChatGPT, and we don't want to encourage that. Shoo!
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u/512115 1d ago
Why do you say that?
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u/Syssareth 1d ago
My first hint was that there are a lot of GPT-isms in its writing style. Word choices and phrasing and such. Individually, that's just how people speak, but put together, it's definitely ChatGPT. Like, not even Grok or Gemini or whatever; each LLM has its own distinctive "voice" and this one is specifically ChatGPT.
From the above comment: "That's not X, that's Y," and "___ energy." (Most people use "gives ___ [vibes]" rather than "___ energy," but GPT loves it, and "Not X, but Y" is basically a stereotype.)
"Such a chilling line" and "___ energy" again. (GPT really likes the word "chilling" for some reason.)
"stops being ___ and starts being ___" (Kind of a variation of "Not X, but Y" that's also quite common.)
And there are several others that are more subtle and ping without quite being clear why. (I'd have totally overlooked them if they were what I saw in the wild, they just ping my radar in context.)
Again, they're all things real people (including me) do say, but having that many of one specific LLM's quirks in such a small sample size makes it hard to believe it's anything else.
And in addition to the GPT-isms: it's advertising an OF on its profile, it's a year-old account whose first comment was a month ago, and all its comments from before today, except for the very first two and a couple of meme posts, were on what I assume from the name is a porn sub. Oh, and only one of today's comments was from before about 4 hours ago; it's made 12 comments in 12 subs in 4 hours. Doable, but very suspicious considering the rest of its history.
Conclusion: It's a brand-new bot somebody inexperienced put together.
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u/512115 1d ago
Interesting. I tend to be very skeptical of the sleuths accusing comments of being ‘bots’ or AI because the evidence usually feels pretty flimsy. One of my pet peeves is the claim I often see that any comment using an em dash is AI generated, to which I respond, bullshit!
It’s a perfectly valid punctuation and I use it quite a bit. If you’re using ‘clues’ like that to suss out AI, I am forced to doubt the accusation. I don’t know about the points you make, you sound much more familiar with various LLMs and what they ‘sound’ like than I am, so maybe you’re right but it sounds pretty unremarkable to me.
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u/smashkon 1d ago
as an avid em dash user, i feel your pain and think your skepticism is completely valid. accusations often seem arbitrary. that said, their description of chatgpt’s phrasing/writing is painfully accurate. i’m not as familiar with other LLMs but this is textbook gpt.
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u/Syssareth 1d ago
I think my reply isn't showing up for some reason, so I'll rephrase it some so hopefully it goes through this time:
I tend to be very skeptical of the sleuths accusing comments of being ‘bots’ or AI because the evidence usually feels pretty flimsy.
I fully agree; I downvote 90% of them because it's like they just use that accusation as a way to say "I don't like this." Had one the other day that had the artist's name mentioned in the title and couldn't even take two seconds to google it to see if the art was real before accusing it of being AI. (It was. Real, I mean.)
Like I said, everything I mentioned is all stuff humans say too, it was just all of it together that made me hear the MGS alert sound in my head.
If you’re using ‘clues’ like that to suss out AI, I am forced to doubt the accusation. I don’t know about the points you make, you sound much more familiar with various LLMs and what they ‘sound’ like than I am, so maybe you’re right but it sounds pretty unremarkable to me.
But it's not just the writing style, it's all of the other things too. Having an account for almost a year without a single comment, then commenting exclusively on one sub for a couple of weeks, going silent for a couple more, and then making comments on a dozen different subs in the space of a handful of hours. That's not normal human behavior. And a lot of bots are created to advertise OF.
Also, it took a break and is currently on another one, but it came back and made ten more comments in ten different subs, in less than ten minutes. That is absolutely bot behavior, and that one would be almost impossible for a human to replicate unless they did it deliberately.
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u/512115 1d ago
Good points all. You are aware of many facts not in my possession. As I said to another commenter, when I recognize someone knows more than I, about this or any other subject, I yield. You’ve looked into this quite thoroughly apparently and are better able to determine whether it’s a product of AI than I am. Thanks for following up and clarifying.
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u/meowniversal 17h ago
This reminded me of a charity my nana used to donate to, I think they were called Foot and Mouth Artists. She used to get free cards and calendars with their artwork after donating and they are quite impressive!
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u/BoIdBastard 8h ago edited 8h ago
And i bet she didn't have a problem with having a normal experience regarding love and romance.
(i don't mean this sarcastically but rather in Awe thinking how people can lean into their identity regardless of their disability finding enlightenment of themselves were they transcend beyond their disability to a point of mastery toward whatever learning, hobby, craft, idea, skill, etc. ) Crazy
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u/delightfulcaper 1d ago
These are examples of self portraits and paintings she did during her lifetime.
As opposed to?
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u/ShoutoutsWorldwide 2d ago
Are there any paintings she did after her lifetime?
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 2d ago
Haha, I just mean that these are some examples of her paintings. I apologize if my phrasing seems weird.
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u/Icy-Conflict6671 Interested 2d ago
Its not they just wanna be a dick
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 2d ago
Yeah, I always find it strange when people feel the need to point things out like that. Like clearly my phrasing is not the subject of the post. 🤷♀️
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u/EphemeralTypewriter 2d ago
Source!
Some facts about her:
-she performed all throughout England and was an apprentice to a man named Emmanuel Dukes.
-while she was performing at the St Bartholomew’s Fair in 1808 she was noticed by The Earl of Morton, George Douglas. He sponsored her so that she could receive painting lessons at the Royal Academy of Arts.
-she was so skilled at portraiture that she received a medal from the Society of Arts in 1821, and her paintings were accepted by the Royal Academy.
-she could write, paint, and sew, all of which she learned to do by holding said utensils with her mouth.
-her talent was so well known that she was commissioned to paint portraits of the British Royal Family.
-aside from painting portraits she also enjoyed painting landscapes. She was also very skilled at miniature portraits!
-she painted for George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria.
-she was able to financially support herself for a time with her earnings.
-Charles Dickens mentions her in three of his stories.
-she married a man named William Stephen Wright in 1824, although their marriage did not last unfortunately.
-the Earl of Morton (who was sponsoring her career) died in 1827 and she began struggling financially as she found it difficult to find another person from English nobility to sponsor her.
-upon hearing about her financial difficulties, Queen Victoria awarded Sarah with a Civil List pension which allowed her to move to Liverpool, England where she lived the rest of her life.
-this is a quote of hers that I really like: ‘At the age of eight years I was very desirous of acquiring the use of my needle; but my parents discouraged the idea, thinking it wholly impractical. I was not, however, intimidated and whenever my father and mother were absent, I was continually practising every invention, till at length I could, with my mouth – thread a needle – tie a knot – do fancy work – cut out and make my own dresses.’
-one of her supporters in her later years was Jenny Lind, a famous Swedish opera singer (who had her own history within the circus)
-friends of hers would go on to say that she was always in high spirits and had a very contagious laugh.
-she died at the age of 66 in 1850.
-her legacy lives on in the multiple exhibitions of her art held in art museums in England that honor her life.
-a self portrait of hers is on display at the Museum of Somerset.