theconversation.com: There are plenty of famous artists who have produced highly creative work while they were deeply unhappy or suffering from poor mental health. In 1931, the poet T.S. Eliot wrote a letter to a friend describing his “considerable mental agony” and how he felt “on the verge of insanity”. Vincent Van Gogh eventually took his own lifet, having written of “horrible fits of anxiety” and “feelings of emptiness and fatigue”.
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Wait, creativity and happiness is complicated? Who would’ve thought? The point that I think is most prevalent in this article is that both happiness and creativity being sustainable is closely associated with a sense of purpose. Though it is possible for aspects of each factor to come through individually or in pairs in terms of keeping something sustainable you’ll need to find a balance between all the factors. Of course no one can be happy all the time it would be un-natural and if someone claims they are their either delusional or lying to you. However in a realm that is bordering purpose and happiness I believe that a sense of fulfillment is really what creative types are after in the long term. Thinking about this in the realm of our industry I think it clear that finding a balance can be difficult. If you are a creative type in the theatrical world you must really believe in the power of theatre to change lives or you can burn out and find yourself hopeless quite quickly. It’s also important to remember that we also need to make a living and that sometime the most stimulating and meaningful work doesn’t always pay the bills, sometimes you need to create something that isn’t art but does allow you to pay rent. Another factor in addition to mental health that makes this equation all the more complex and custom to each individual.
There is a reason why in Avenue Q there’s a whole song about purpose and then the character in question uses that as his motivator throughout the musical. Purpose gives us a desire to move forward and to do our best, even if we are feeling down or out of it.
I feel as artists, we struggle a lot with maintaining our sense of purpose. Like Lauren above me said, if we do not see a point, we struggle to do our work. It is nearly impossible to always keep a sense of positivity and purpose.
The article mentions that in some cases it may be better to keep our drive and our creativity alive by deriving pleasure from it rather than our motivator being our purpose. I think that can be a good motivator, and I also think in moments where we are struggling to create it is okay to take a step back and look at the big picture of what matters to you.
Creativity is a concept that is heavily researched yet is difficult to define, similar to happiness. With a lack of a common definition for both, it is airprint how many studies have researched a correlation between the two. This article does not really provide a clear answer to the question relating happiness and creativity, but it does provide a lot of outside resources that provide research towards that conclusion. This article does show how a sense of purpose or meaningfulness can affect productivity and creativity. Tied to a sense of purpose is happiness, so the article somewhat provides this correlation. One point this article brings up that I enjoy, is the notion that creativity can also lead to happiness. This notion makes sense as to why many people draw or paint or even listen to music when they feel down or stressed to bring them up again. Creativity and happiness may not be directly related where happiness or a lack thereof produces creativity, but there does seem to be some relationship between the two.
In a way, I think that most of us, especially being within a field of creativity and design, have a basic definition or idea of creativity but it doesn't mean that we share the exact same definition. I think that creativity is more of a give and take when it comes to it's a relationship to happiness and mental well being. I think that creativity and mindset have a mutual relationship in the way that they affect one another rather than a cause and effect relationship. Since we all have a different definition of creativity we all experience and view others creativity differently and are affected by it in many different ways. I can agree that being creative can have a positive effect on one's mental state, but maybe what makes people happy is the reward of being creative. Praise from peers, promotions, feelings of accomplishment are agreed to be positive things that make people happy and creativity can be lead to these. I've personally felt creative in times of happiness and in times of mental distress, inversely I have also become happier after being something I believed to be creative but also become anxious after times of creativity. I think that we all can agree that creativity is a highly valued trait (in personal and professional settings) but I don't think the relationship is as easy as creativity=happiness.
Claire Duncan
My name did not attach to the comment the first time I apologize.
This is a really interesting look at that long-complicated relationship of mental illness and the creative arts. The "struggling artist" has long been a trope we have witnessed in our lives as creators. We battle with the idea that out of internal darkness comes incredible light, but I would argue that we simply love the juxtaposition of sadness and creativity. We find awe in those who struggle with such internal turmoil to turn those feelings into incredible creations. Because of this awe, the artists that do fit this description are constantly publicized as "struggling" or "sad", but the artists that create beautiful things out of their joy are celebrated and publicized simply by their work, instead of their work and emotions. Pursuing artistic fields is a difficult choice, and one that we make every single day. We must be ready to share our emotions and our traumas to the world in ways that business execs and doctors don't have to. But through that emotional openness we find our purpose. Purpose and that incredible sense of belonging keep us here in this incredibly difficult, but rewarding, world.
Similar to what Alexa said, I think creativity ebbs and flows based on a variety of factors which are reliant on both happiness and purpose and can fuel the emotions that it feeds off of. For me, creativity comes from large surges in emotion, which can be positive or negative but work equally if the feelings are strong enough. I think that trying to link a person's creativity directly to any set of influences will be inherently incorrect because (past the fact that everyone has their own creative process and personal set of experiences) emotions are so fluid that any comparison of who is more or less happy than others will change from moment to moment. Essentially, I think that creativity is entirely situational because a certain level of happiness does not guarantee that a person will be creative, and there are an infinite amount of emotional situations that can inspire creativity. I find the concept of "researching" the source of creativity to be an oxymoron, and personally I am comfortable not knowing where my creativity comes from because if I were to, I think I would try to manufacture that feeling and my work would become less authentic.
Every once and a while when I tell someone (mainly an adult in my life) that I am pursuing a career in the arts, and in specifically theatre, I am warned that I will make very little money and will probably have to learn to waitress to “get by”. (I once had an English teacher say those exact words to me.) While that is very far from the truth, the reason why I have stuck with theatre all through my childhood life is because of what Gareth Loudon captures in this article. As an individual, not only did I feel that I wanted to purse the arts I knew that I had to because I experience so much joy when I am working. That is true even outside of the arts. When a person feels that the work they are doing is meaningful and they are passionate, they become unstoppable.
I really enjoyed this article, because it reminded me of the Hawthorne Experiments we learned about in our Theatre Management course first year. Those experiments, conducted by Elton Mayo in the late 1920's and early 1930's, found that workers' productivity was enhanced drastically by the recognition of, and encouragement by, management. People are more productive when they feel like they are valued and their well-being is cared for. I find it so interesting that this is now linked to creativity. I think we still have some sort of belief, even among people who work in the arts industry, that in order to be creative you need to sacrifice something and care more about the work than you care about yourself. I think this article brings up a really good point that you don't have to pit one against the other, and that you can draw happiness and fulfillment from the work you do, and vice versa. Additionally, I think this draws attention to another article from this week: How To Create Outreach Projects that are Actually Meaningful. If we want to create more fulfilled, happy, stable, creative people, we should build them up with the same encouragement and support that we want them to feel for themselves and the work they do.
For reference: https://www.rightattitudes.com/2016/05/27/to-inspire-pay-attention-to-people/
I always like seeing articles like this that help erase the "artists need to be sad and depressed in order to make good art" trope. It seems a bit silly that this needs to be pointed out, but it reminds me of another article I read on the topic which makes the point that there is no such thing as a starving artists, because a starving artists can't make art. I also am reminded of a study that we have talked about a few times in various classes where researchers tried to determine what sort of office environment was most conducive to an efficient process. In the study, they ended up finding that it was not the color temperature of the lights or the color of the carpet, but instead the reason that efficiency improved was because the people working there throughout the study felt heard and listened to. I hope this trend of seeing artist and their process in a more positive light, helping to diminish the sad artist stereotype.
I think this is a really important subject. I know that I'm happiest when I’m doing something creative, especially if it’s just in my free time messing around. And it’s so important to feel like you have a purpose in your creativity. I that’s why theater draws so many of us is that we feel like we have a purpose in the stories we tell. Psychologist Paul Dolan describes purpose as “fulfillment, meaning and worthwhileness”. He believes that people are most content when there is a balance between their personal happiness and purpose. In order to be creative for long periods of time you have to love and be inspired by what you’re doing, otherwise there’s no point. If you don’t have a reason to be creative than it will be a lot harder to be creative. Being creative makes us happy so long as we feel like we have a purpose and being happy makes us creative as well.
I think that this article brings up a really important point. It talks about how creative people are not always happy like Vincent Van Gogh, but there is also research that suggests that people who are creative love what they do. I think the idea of creativity with purpose really resonates with me. I love what I do because I set out to do it. When applying to college, I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because it brought me happiness and satisfaction. So I made it my purpose to get into this school and now it is my purpose to take what I’m learning and bring it out into the real world. I had dreams and goals and set out to achieve them which makes me love what I do even more. It’s one thing to be creative, but it’s another to actually do something with your creativity and turn it into something special, which is something that I think all of us are doing.
It's interesting how this article started out by pointing out how a lot of great work came from people who were unhappy, but then goes on to talk about how creativity is linked to unhappiness. To begin, I think the reason, in moments of such mental turmoil, people like Van Gogh have been able to create such great work was because their minds were more active than ever. I believe that creativity comes from an active imagination, which is linked to an active mind; not so much unhappiness. But unhappiness is also, in a way, linked to an active mind which can birth lots of creative works. There is also the fact that when you are unhappy, you are longing for happiness. So you are willing to go to great depths to find this, without fear of losing anything. It is through this journey and at these great depths that we are able to discover things and find most of our inspiration for our creativity. I must admit, I am leaning more on the side that creativity makes us happy as opposed to happiness creates creativity. I think creativity has more to do with how we are affected by the things around us, and how that processes within us and is then poured out of us. It doesn't necessarily have to be good nor positive influences. However, I do feel as though being in a state of peace, which may come from happiness, can help us to analyze, process and regenerate the world around us in a "creative" manner.
-Apriah
I’ve reached a similar conclusion through my experiences. Early in the article, the author describes that one idea about the relationship between relationship and emotion was either that one could express their peak of creativity when they were either happy or sad. However, I’ve experienced that whether I’m happy, sad, stressed, angry, what-say-you, as long as I have a reason to do my work, and what I’m doing has a sort of purpose to it, I can rather easily summon my creative mindset.
For instance, during my junior year of high school, my friend and I produced a variety of fun and creative projects, including one of my favorite projects, a short film parody of Back to the Future. However, change the circumstances moving into senior year of high school, I was much more relaxed and happy regarding many aspects of my life, and yet my friend and I still put out numerous incredibly fun projects and ideas that I’m immensely proud of.
Whether stressed or relaxed, happy or sad, energetic or tired, as long as the work effort is going into has some purpose to it, the creative process tends to flow easier.
The relationship between creativity and happiness is complex, to say the least. It is always interesting to me that truly creative people are so commonly seen as being the happiest people by the outside world when some of the most creative (or at least societally perceived creative) people are actually so far from that. Within the arts community there is so often a mindset that you have to suffer for your work and agonize over it in order for it to be good, which is why there needs to be a balance between having a strong purpose that fuels your creativity and allowing yourself to be creative for creativity’s sake, but even with that there is so many other factors that come into play. I think there is definitely a fine balance in the definition that this article is cultivating, but the lines can be so easily blurred when discussing something as expansive as happiness.
After reading two Burning Man articles, I have spent a good bit of time thinking about the intentions of art as it intersects with community, individuality, and inspiration. Speaking as a group of artistically inclined people, I think that we have no hesitation in seeing the parallels that this article draws. Creativity and happiness have a highly symbiotic relationship for me. Allowing these two things to feed off of one another rather than thinking of one of them as responsible for the other is a pretty powerful relationship to acknowledge. Also, allowing that joy into your process, rather than just focusing on creativity as something to economize, but as something that can enrich you as an individual, you can find more joy there. If you are buying into what you are trying to create, even if the thing you are creating has undertones of pain, loss, challenge, etc., you will likely reach a catharsis with these negative feelings and find yourself in a place that may embrace happiness a little bit more easily.
The article didn't really address which came first and I certainly think that's an interesting way of thinking about it. Is is the people who tend to do creative work tend to suffer from mental illness and that is related to drawing them to the work? Or is it the inverse, working creatively tends to push people over the edge. I have to imagine it's more of the first one because presumably being creative isn't a cause. I wonder if (generally speaking) people who have issues find solace in being creative and it's a way to distract and give purpose. The examples of famous artist who suffered from mental health conditions were new to me, but I have certainly felt that the theater industry pulls the most diverse group of people. The other thing I was thinking about is that all people suffer in some way, either through loss, illness, or change. The people who suffer more can congeal those feelings and ideas more concretely, representing a feeling of the human condition. This example only works for things that deal with suffering and pain.
I definitely agree with this article. I feel like I am way less anxious about my work when it is something that I feel passionate about and have clear goals in mind. I think this is why I enjoy working a job so much more than being in school. Of course, this really only applies to jobs that I are in an area I am passionate about, like working in a prop shop over the summer. At work, I am given very clear projects and goals to keep myself focused on that are all clearly building to a larger picture. In school, I am given assignments and projects that are more amorphous and vague that do not allow me to ground my work in any real place. I guess the overall goal is to better myself and improve my technical knowledge, but it can be really hard to see clearly through the mire of class work and assignments that are seemingly arbitrary and more free form than that of someone who is working full time.
I resonate with the message of this article because I’ve found that certain emotions provoke a certain type of creativity, depending on the medium. In my senior year of high school, I got into writing prose poetry. My favorite pieces I have written have come from places of negative experiences and uneasiness. I think this may be because writing is an outlet for me, so instead of my purpose being “I must write to create something good”, it is “I must write to navigate my feelings and make them better”. I feel like many artists felt and feel something similar. Van Gogh greatly struggled with his mental health, sometimes admitting himself to mental hospitals for the sole reason of escaping them. We all know the famous story of how he ate yellow paint because he wanted to feel happy, but I also think that his search for happiness can be seen through his bold swirls and vibrant color palettes.
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