Monday, February 25, 2008
The art of suffering
Guardian Unlimited: "Among the 15 or so personal questions I throw at artists for the weekly G2 interview Portrait of the Artist, there is one that tends to make people think more than any other - do you suffer for your art?"
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4 comments:
I don't think people should suffer for their art. They should suffer because something in their life is tragic, because their life is hard, or perhaps just because they're completely self-loathing. To suffer just because it's "for art" (like the guy who puts on a mask of GWB and asks to get his ass kicked) seems pretty stupid. Art's an imitation of life, and if you're just making up emotion for the sake of art, that leaves your work pretty empty. It might be entertaining, but who's really going to remember it?
The power of art is drawing upon your experiences (or empathizing really, really well) and communicating them to others in an original way. Artists suffer enough because of the demons they have to battle to create truly brilliant work. They're often self destructive and critical to a point of fault. Artists suffer because they're that kind of person, not because it helps their work.
Or, that's just my opinion.
Everyone suffers. I just think that artist use their suffering in a way that comes out in their art. I don't think anyone would say that a artist has to suffer in order to have good art. The fact that people find art by artist that have notable suffering experiences is because that people start to read more into their art then there might be. I'm sure that many artist suffer for their art, maybe not in the sense that people think of. But the emotion for caring for your art and what it stands for, along with what you hope to achieve with your art is what is what makes good art.
I think it is impossible to not suffer for your art. The process itself is suffering. I'm not just talking about the difficulty of putting food on the table, but when you create something its like ripping yourself open for everyone to see.
That is, unless you have no attachment to your work emotionally, which sucks for you. If there were no suffering the reward would mean nothing.
this long lasting argument of whether or not an artist should suffer for his or her art will go on forever. many opinions are thrown at the issue, and i seriously doubt whether there is any one answer to it. Also many times this argument is completely misunderstood. Many read it as whether or not an artist should live in misery and pain, i don't believe this was the original meaning, instead i believe it is asking whether or not an artist should portray their emotion and express it in, and through, their work. in which case i think the answer is undoubtedly yes. it tends to be an artist's mission to express inner feelings and thoughts that they are currently struggling with to others via the medium of their art
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