[friedgreymatter]

Isolation for long periods of time is known to cause disturbances in humans, but what if you strive to create art that requires such deprivation?

Are you willing to risk your mental health for art?

What am I babbling about? Is there a point to what I'm asking here? Have I stared too long at the walls inside this place to think clearly and rationally?

What's a socially phobic person who can't tolerate the company of other humans to do? Hey, at least something comes out of this, yes?

Some use hallucinogens. Others deprive themselves of contact with the outside world.

What are you willing to sacrifice for art? What am I babbling about???

Fried.....the best art that I've ever made was during a period where I was depressed, in isolation and totally at odds with the world. My marriage was floundering and I didn't know why..so evidently I took that unhappiness and depression that was inside me and channeled it into a body of work about Indian rodeo. Looking at the portraits of the Indian cowboys and cowgirls now make me wonder how I got some of the results that I did.And the riding photographs scare me to this day...there is a bareback bronc that is in private collections and museums and I was running backwards in front of the horse when I took the photograph.WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?
And the fact that they recognized what state I was in and they still responded and communicated to me through my Nikon blows me away. It was truly one of the most desperate times of my life. I also made these fabulous crosses that I covered with dried roses (burial of marriage??) and huge mirror frames with found objects on them (artifacts of marriage).....I think we'll sacrifice a lot for art whether it is consciously or not. I don't remember thinking about it while going through it. I also did some environmental portraits that were ethereal.. I doubt that I could get those results if I tried to today....pat

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[Wants2Fly]

I think I do my best work when I am emotionally stable and not too stressed out about money. When I am truly depressed, just about the only thing I write is my journal, which is pure Wailing Wall. Oh, I did start making glittery bookmarks that made me the pride of my pre-school class when I was sliding down this past time, but I gave that up, too, when I hit the pits.

I've heard about how the intense feelings of misery breeds creativity, but I don't think it works for me. I want to be happy.

[SeptemberMorn]

I've done my best writing when my emotions were at the far ends of the specturm; feeling in love or in the depths of despair. I've written what seems like happy a happy little poem, but in essence, I was in despair.

No, I'm not willing to sacrifice my mental health in order to be creative in writing. However, I feel stable right now and I'm practicing my painting. What I'm painting doesn't require much creativity, I don't think.

[Wants2Fly]

I think painting does require creativity. Just my opinion.

[Myzen]

Hi fried,

There is a psychologist called Antony Stor who has written some books on the subject of solitude and creativity.

They are still in print on Amazon, and I found him very helpful. Most people think that if we want to disengage for a while then we a sick and sad, but that is not always the case. There are different reasons for wanting some time out.

Cheers, Myzen.

[sqrlb8]

For me, isolation came first as a survival response to MI, then art came out of that as the only way I can reach out of the isolation without the slam effect it always means to my psyche to "get out there." Art enables me to communicate, but frees me from conversation and it's pitfalls of persuasion, argument, competition, and confusion.

I hope you can let the conflicted feeling about it just rattle itself out of gas, and let the art come. It sounds like you are isolated anyway, yes? Have the impulse for art, yes? Well then, what does it matter weather you choose it or not, or weather that choice is ok or not? It's already just how it is.

Art is always worth the expression. Go for it.

[Wants2Fly]

Good points, Sqrl

art is worth almost anything that can happen to us...i hope that you dig in and just let your creative juices flow....pat

[mortimer]

I always thought that about art. If by chance I could get to be normal, will it matter because would I allow it?

Truth is, the only art I find interesting is the melancholy stuff. So if I'm not melancholy enough then what if I create sucks? It wouldn't matter but I'm an art geek, and I'm into poetry too. What's art without emotion? The famous artists, Van Gogh, Picasso, and of course more, were kinda nuts.

Haha, I guess I'm babbling.

[SeptemberMorn]

I agree with you if the subject is coming from within. Thing is, I'm just copying flowers from a book and painting them on a practice sheet. However, I'll be painting these flower groupings on T-shirts for my own use. Does that qualify?

[Wants2Fly]

It is an interesting thought that all artists were "tortured" in some way. I wish I had time to research this -- perhaps someone already has. But I don't necessarily think it is true that we have to "suffer" for our art. I don't know whether the balance hangs with those who "suffer" in Dostoyevskian tragedy, or those who don't, but here are at least a few instances of those who, at least in my impression of them, don't fill the bill of bringing beauty/art out of misery.

** Georges Sand. She raised a number of kids (3 or 4), nursed Chopin as he died of tuberculosis, dressed as a man in the late 1800s so that she could attend Paris opera in the affordable SRO section, only available to men. She excused herself from evening converation around midnight and wrote til dawn. Admittedly, her melodramas have not the stood the test of time. She seems to be more famous as a woman who bucked tradition than as a "great artist." But she earned her living as a writer, and that's good enough for me.

** Jane Austin. Hmm, is it possible that women are more likely to stay balanced through the creative artistic experience than men? Probably because we don't think we have the right to take time off to nurture ourselves -- we gotta keep going.

Okay, then, how about . . .

** Salvador Dali. Okay, he was weird and eccentric. And exploited the heck out of it. But I've never had a sense that Dali was tortured -- I think he enjoyed being odd.

I'm not even sure that Picasso was tortured. A ladies man, yes. But I'm not sure if he was conflicted about it, or, if -- like oh so many males, especially those who consider themselves geniuses -- he thought sexual conquest was his birth right.

I don't think Matisse was particularly tortured or Chagall. Again, I'm no expert on the bios of these guys.

As for art, I prefer the exuberant stuff. Nothing like an afternoon of looking at the green dead bodies in Goya (which he did by studying corpses brought to him by grave robbers) to make me feel totally yucky. Give me some colorful Chagall from the circus series, or some technicolor Kandinksy anyday.

Heck, I'm not much on art anyway. The recent best-selling potboiler and some chocolate chip cookies affords escape from my depression for a little while.

Thank you for raising this interesting Q about the relationship between art and mental health, FriedGrey

[mortimer]

Picasso lost his family in an accident, and the suicide of his close friend. His "blue period". He cheered up after a while though, and went out of it and into his rose period then eventually cubism and blah blah blah.

Yah, there are normal aritsts who were good. I'm just saying they don't appeal to me. :3 Just being in a funk you know, the middle not happy or down, is there enough emotion to create something moving?

Ah well, I'm probably just thinking of how impossible it would be for me. :P Sorry to make it sound like I thought it was the only good stuff, just the stuff that appeals to me most. :3

[coco8199]

Me personally, I am pretty down right now and have been for months. I want to draw and paint but I can't motivate myself to do anything (not even important stuff) I have all these thoughts that I want to get out on paper or canvas but it seems like all I end up doing is sitting in front of the tv until I can make myself go to bed or go to work.

[Wants2Fly]

What does your T say about that, Coco? Maybe it would help to do something. Even drawing with brightly colored magic markers.

I don't have much artistic ability, but I think it has to do with letting the little kid within out to play that can help these kinds of activities to revive us -- or get some insights into our issues.

[January]

Many people will deprive themselves of friends, food, and anything else they can, in order to pursue their art.

Since you are socially phobic, you don't have to give up what peace you have in order to be home to work on your art.

You seem to be in an ideal place to continue your pursuit unless you are depriving yourself of rest, meds, etc. People with any disorder must take good care of themselves in order to function, period. Always remember the art can be worked on the next day after you rest.

Jan