To be a great artist...

[Quinster]

Doesone have to be "screwed up" in some repsect? Like crazy or depressed?
I know its really general but that seems to be a trait in artists.

[Flake]

No, you don't.
Art history is littered with well adjusted sane people who made art as a respectable, uneventful middle class sorta career.

Thing is, the crazies make for better films, being crazy and that.

[cmoreland]

Sometimes I channel my drawing better if I am depressed or elated about something...if I just feel normal I have a hard time being creative.

[ivow]

Im probably the worst person to view my opinions on this subject, simply for my bias.

I was deeply deeply depressed for 5 solid years while i should have been finishing school and when i wasnt depressed my anxiety was extreme with a capital E. During that time my art ability went from being an above average student to WAY WAY above average, with absolutely no formal art education. I didnt do a lot of art, but what i did looked like it was done by someone with many years of education.

When i came out of depression my abilities were not really there anymore, and i didnt really understand how i had picked up a brush one day in lonely dispare and painted a few amazing things.. Then a few years later these pieces of art motivated me to get back into education, and now im really working on art full time. Sadly most of the advantages of this 'boost' are now lost because my peers have now had years of serious art training, while ive done none. I know i have the ability to produce amazing things, so now im searching for it, and for the most part im back at the level i was when i was depressed. the only difference is that i have focussed on drawing, where as when depressed i painted. Im sure once i start my formal art education i will really find where i want to be.

I think having a very antisocial medical problem lets you connect with things like art on a much more personal level. I dont think it makes you a better artist in the long run, but im sure many artist have been born from a bout of deep depression.

Also, i think its far less technical ability, and more emotion. This is why i think i could paint well when i was depressed, but now my technical drawing is my best ability.

Honestly, unless youve been deeply depressed and fucked up enough not to leave the house for months, i dont think youd understand the surreal personal and emotional attachments you develop with seemingly stupid things like painting.

Like i said, the fact that my art career is born from a bout of serious depression really shows here, im sure many many more truly inspired artists came from a purely normal life.

I recently showed one of these pieces when i applied for uni. Its not technically amazing, but it took me only a few hours and has a WOW factor. I must have painted it when i was 17 or 18, so it was towards the end of my depression, but still.

[halflife99]

People seem to take negative over positive than a balanced perspective alot of the time, like an insult is some profound statement about themselves, yet a compliment is taken for granted, I think negative coaxes emotions easyer than positive, that is not to say positive emotions are not as strong, at least thats my opinion on the expressive side.

[Jason Rainville]

When I'm depressed I have no will to do art. So from my experience, the more screwed up you are (at least in confidence) the worse you'll do. To each his own though, and many might find strength in weakness.

[beejazz]

I find different parts benefit and suffer depending on my state.
To give an example, I get some amazing ideas out of depression.
However, my technical skill goes hand in hand with my attention span and my will to pursue my uh... interests?

So I'll draw these crazy monsters and awesome one-panel cartoons, but I'll also fall back on this stylized stuff. It's functional and people like it, but I know I can do better.

So... I'm hoping to maybe be a little more stable and well-adjusted as I become more serious about art education. When I start to pursue a career I'll see how it goes. If I don't get a job as a sane man, I'll sink into a royal funk and get a job as a crazy dude. Or sink into a royal funk and not get a job...

...I'd rather leave that possibility alone.

[HunterKiller_]

You don't have to be crazy, but being emotional is good.
Good art has emotion.

[theincredibleandy]

The brooding, suffering artist stereotype seems as superstitious as the whimsical, child-like artist stereotype. There's no one way to make great art, though fascination with life and dedication to one's craft seem to keep showing up in great artists. Sure, art comes from experiences, and having extreme experiences to draw from can help spawn work with extreme characteristics, but most of my favorite artists seem to be well-adjusted people who enjoy life. Maybe it's just the "dark stuff" artists who tend to be maladjusted, but I couldn't say.

[nonie]

Pretty much anyone who can be called a "genius," no matter what the field (art, science, mathematics, etc), is insane in some way. You can be a truly great artist and still not achieve genius level - same with any other profession - but it's said that genius and insanity are closely linked. Genius implies an effortless talent and natural ability capable of producing highly original and influential works, and this level of obsessive devotion is usually at the loss of social, mental, and emotional health. Like a one-trick pony I guess. That doesn't mean go out and work on losing your mind, there are tons or wonderful, infuential artists who lead perfectly normal lives too :P

[Coinpurse]

Artists define their Art as Emotion drives the Artists...
Vice Versa,
Artists drive Emotion, Art defines the Artist.

In my belief, I feel that most artists are genually shaped into the cliche "madman" or sincerely depressed being. Many artists spend the majority of their time drawing, painting, sculpting, etc. In general, they spend their time doing what categorizes them as an "Artist". With that and like Nonie stated above, obsessions create loss in social and mental health (but emotions, I feel increase as the tie between social and love lift {For some} drift away).

Really, It all comes down to how much a person "Lets" their emotions control them. Its good to be emotional with your work, its not good to let it run your life though. Good art comes good willpower ;)

~My 2 cents

[tomwaits4noman]

It you are really depressed been there you don't suddenly get up and decide I want to draw,
but relative depression can with make you with drawn, more focused therefore you thoughts are channelled more clearly.

its wierd in college I used to see fine art students all of them dressing in black very gothic carrying slyvia plath books around....
its a cliche, yes emotional states can fuel and should fuel you work.

Its like Tarantino said if I broke up wih my Girl friend and I was writing guns of the narroe (sp) it would still be about the guys going to get the guy but me breaking up with my girldfriend would have to in there for it to be truthful............ a terrible paraphrase orginal quote one of docs on pulp fiction or jackie brown or maybe dogs.

basically you have to filter your emotions into your art.

I suppose when your happy you are less productive as art is catcatric (i know my sp suck today : P).

[2100]

just change your perception of greatness to meet what you are now and there ya go!

[cmoreland]

The dark depressed persona seems to me like a put on most of the time (not ALL the time mind you)...goth whatever. Attention please?

If I can give my own account, before I got married I was alone and felt alone. I was not medically depressed but I desperately wanted to fall in love. (hopeless romantic) I would sit down and play some music and just draw for hours and for some reason I could channel all that emotion into a drawing or whatever. Afterwards I felt better. Simple as that. Being married with children now I may just be too busy most of the time but I'm happy and when I sit down to draw it ends up more like a doodle. I can't frikken explain this but I just have trouble focusing. Maybe some of you can relate.

I envy the casual artist who can work 8 hours a day, come home and spend 2 hours on something that has a spark, that has a creative professional emotion that goes with it. Maybe i'm just out of practice :-p

[idoru]

Renoir was perfectly sane, happy, even accepted during his lifetime despite working in a style that wasn't. So there goes that.

[Zirngibism]

That used to frustrate me, too. Back in middle school, I used to dress oddly (see the first painting in my sketchbook to see how I looked), because it seemed like I had to be into expressing myself creatively, and if I didn't, I wouldn't have the courage to express myself in my arwork. Then I realized that it's my work I care about, and I didn't really have anything to prove by how I dressed, so I stopped wearing little foam ducks behind my ear, etc...

I am a little obsessive-compulsive, and have had a history of some paranoia, been a hypochondriac, but all in all I've never been depressed or psychotic.

I kinda like the idea of being someone who's rather calm and collected, but produces very powerful, crazy artwork that makes people think "how can someone like that do something like that? That's cooler in my opinion than someone who looks disturbed and acts disturbed drawing something disturbing.

[DavePalumbo]

No. No no no no no no no.

No you do not.

[Hunger]

I'm about as sane as my avatar up there.

I don't think you need to be insane to make awesome art. My cousin is pretty sane and he's a great painter.

[Favila]

I'm coming from a prolongued depression, the worst thing is, it's very hard to overcome procastination, so you cant practice as hard, also many times I keep blaming myself, it's very hard to live with this inner frustation. Hopefully one day I'll overcome this and I think it'll do good to my art because I'll recover my ability to focus in something for long periods, which I have lost.
Also, when you are depressed you dont enjoy life as much, you dont pay so much attention to the little things, you disconnect from reality and this way it's very hard to improve. I can say I've improved a lot this last year, but I can assure if I hadn't this problems I'd have improved a lot more.

So...
Many times being insane could become your ally, like you become obsessed with improving your art and never stop drawing, like van gogh, or michelangello, but most of the times it will become bad for your art (for you as a person its bad all the time)

[Puck]

...crazy or depressed?
I know its really general but that seems to be a trait in artists.

I don't believe that at all. Who? Van Gogh? Dali? How many more crazy artists can you think of?

We have a few drug addicted and depressed names - but I doubt that artist's have a statistically higher proportion of depression than the average population in the same socio-economic group. Compare these names with the huge amount of completely sane and relatively happy artists that make up the rest of art history. The crazies just stand out more (they make better biographies) so you notice them.

I think it's a complete mythconception - and any art students that cultivate that side of themselves are try-hard wannabe idiots imo. Crazy and depressed artwork bores the shite out of me now - it's usually an excuse to ignore good technique and hard work. "I'm crazy! I must be a genius!"

[That fat kid]

All good artists shop at Hot Topic. And Spencer's.

Obviously.

[jrr]

i paint with my tears, and my heart, and cliche's

[Lohan]

I'm pretty sure there have been links between art (painting, writing, music, dancing, etc) and mental illness. But no.

[Bubs]

No.


Better make that a hell no.


You wanna make great art, you go out of your way to get inspired. That means going out into this world and exploring to help spark that needed creativity boost most people need to produce some results. None of this "oh-i-can't-go-on-oh-woe-is-me" shit. Might get you to pump out chiche'd messwork, but to really make something revolutionary you're gonna have to quit bawling and start thinking outside the box.

I don't know, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong here, I was just throwing in how I approach this.

[Wasker]

Doesone have to be "screwed up" in some repsect? Like crazy or depressed?
I know its really general but that seems to be a trait in artists.


I wouldn't pay too much attention to the "What does everyone look like?"-thread if I were you :)

[Enydimon]

I don't think so.

I've seen too many of my favourite artists who are happy about their life and themselves.

I do think that sometimes our emotions unleash something. For example, if I'm angry, its usually easier for me to come up with a drawing and burn out all the anger. However, you can tell I drew the image when I was angry because the subject reflects the emotion. Not everyones like that though. I've seen artists who were depressed but it doesn't show in their subject matter.

Yes, I've been depressed. I'm going through a bit of a depression spell at the moment too. However I find that my art is better when I'm happy or enjoy something. Theres more variety.

In my opinion, I think that people as a whole are depressed. We're introducing ourselves to depression as well as experiencing it. Artists aren't exclusive to depression... everyone gets depressed sometimes. It happens, its apart of life and its all how you deal with it. As such, theres different ways to deal with things.

Personally, I refuse to believe in the cliche.

I do believe that everyone works through their emotions differently.

[otis]

YES.

But isn't everybody a little?

[Volchiha]

I think the despressed artist vibe goes better with the contemporary poets and writers. =)