Ohhh the cool post.
You ask if 'Are serious artists more likely to be insane or somewhat mentally ill?'
I think artist always have it a bit more different than some lawyers counterparts in terms of career growth. maybe it was cool to have artists during the Renaissance and easier to find a mecene but nowadays.... when you tell people you are an artist they'll just look down on you(fora lot of them, everyone is different). At school teachers despise you if you draw in class or you show some artistic needs. So I think growing in that kind of society you need a strong will to become an artist and go against the current. What drives you can be different for a lot of people but pain and suffering can be one of them. It doesn't have to be visible, but if you look at pro athletes or pro rtists, they have some kind of scars which drives them to become better.
The tormented artist per say though, it's a myth to believe you can do your best work then. but at the same time, Art that sells is art that resonates with people, so I guess it is easier to share strong emotions in your art when you are in that state of strong emotions. but that works for evry kind of emotions wether it is love or rage or pain or happyness.
On that last point of comfort zones though, I don't believe you can do your best work out of your comfort zone. For the simple reason that it is Out of your zone, so you don't know how to do it. The meaning of going out of it is to expand your comfort zone which will better your work and help you transmit your ideas in a better way.
I think Art is a language, and the better you know it, the better your art is ( And those beautiful love letters are not made by people looking down at love =))
here's my 2 cents rambling =)
Very cool post by the way !
I was constantly doodling, to be sure... and often handed in homework with elaborate patterns and scrollwork in the margins. For me, that was mostly a way of "self-regulating" my ADHD... as long as I was drawing on something, I could actually hear and absorb what the teachers had to say. Of course, back then (1960's, early 1970's) the mental health profession and educators had not yet figured out that such an approach was actually helpful... I managed to make it through school with primarily A's and B's.
I do agree that art is a language-- and thanks for bringing that up. Art isn't just "art" to me, it's a type of visual communication. I am not always entirely sure what the message is... but my wife refers to it as "channeled communication," and I'm good with that characterization.
Art seems to hold different "value" in different cultures. In the US (and many other industrialized societies) it seems to be held in lower esteem because it doesn't "do" something (like mow your lawn, or make toast) and so it gets either overlooked or relegated to the ranks of something that is traded because it has "value" or perhaps can be an "investment."
Which kind of sucks!
Yes as you say, but the concept of doodling is good for your health is pretty new ( I see a tendency of more acceptable things since the last 10 years like hypnosis, acupuncture, lucid dreaming... and art is part of that too haha) And I agree also about Art in galleries or as a hobby. It kinda sucks.
At the same time though, I can see the art field blossom in another way through movies, design and videogames and the competition there is tough. I mean, it is very easy to find a tight community of artists striving to be the best of their craft. But it is production driven and most of the time, you don't do art for the sake of art but for a team goal. But the end vision is still the same, trigger the emotion in the viewer (how we do that especially in movies is very questionable though haha).
If people don't see a purpose to art in general though I think they are quite narrow minded. When you look around, everything we have is visual and artificially created (for a good part at least). Even pens were drew before we could use it. ( But not something to teach at school, because 'Art' haha)
(sorry for the long answer, I really like the topic x))
Good points!
I think the art field may also be growing in an "accidental" way as a result of technology. At our gallery, we see more and more people who tell us they are doing "creative things" because they MISS actually "using their hands" to create. These days, all we seem to do is type on a keyboard or use a touchpad... people are starting to miss actually using their hands-- rather than technology-- to create. And so, some of the "art therapy" (and other things) you mention are becoming more and more popular.