 |
| LONELY BUT NOT ALONE And the art of sadness |
I OFTEN
WONDER WHY SADNESS is a necessary muse in art. Why is it that every time a
person undergoes a suffering, or depression for that matter, he tends to look
at things from a different perspective, something that ordinary people don’t
usually see? And this perception, more often than not, is usually a thing for
artists.
On the flip side, though, happiness is not at all artistic as you may think it is. It only comes when you have gone through that whole shit of being melancholic, like you have to suffer some pain to the point of exhaustion before you can come up with something artistic.
A painter has to cut his ear before setting the mood for that starry night, a writer has to wallow himself with booze before he could come up with a masterpiece, or a musician selling his soul to the devil and become a success. By the looks of it, there is nothing particularly happy about the situation.
I guess that’s just the way it is. You really can’t compose, write or paint if you’re “happy”. Happiness, from some obscure reason, takes away the complication of a thing, that conflict dynamic, which is the stuff that makes great art great. Not that there is something wrong with being happy, it is just that you don’t usually think when you are in a state of euphoria (try watching noontime shows and you’ll know what I mean).
Not that you have to be sad all the time for you to create great works of art, but that you have to be willing to extricate yourself from that thing you’re dealing with. And when you do that it means isolation, it means being away from everything else, deliberately setting yourself from the background, making yourself alone, and all for the purpose of getting a perspective. Sadness doesn’t necessarily mean loneliness, it also means an outlook.
In the parlance of art, that means point of view. Shelley was perceptive enough to understand that our greatest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts. There is genius every time you report something sad (or bad) because it allows you to do something about it, to improve upon it, and let others see the truth that goes with something gloomy, something serious, so that they will appreciate more the other side of it.
So it is the muse that drives artists to kingdom come, wherever that may be. The important thing to consider, however, is that you have to arrive at some point, and that has something to do with that sad episode you have gone through. Most of the time, you wouldn’t be able to produce that opus if not for that depressing situation you just had. Now, you may have felt some form of elation afterwards, but somewhere along the way you may have gone through some serious shit before getting out of it.
Art is a lonely business, to start with. You could use some intoxication, though, just to heighten your sensibilities, but, more often than not, it induces your sadness in ways you could never imagine at times.
On the flip side, though, happiness is not at all artistic as you may think it is. It only comes when you have gone through that whole shit of being melancholic, like you have to suffer some pain to the point of exhaustion before you can come up with something artistic.
A painter has to cut his ear before setting the mood for that starry night, a writer has to wallow himself with booze before he could come up with a masterpiece, or a musician selling his soul to the devil and become a success. By the looks of it, there is nothing particularly happy about the situation.
I guess that’s just the way it is. You really can’t compose, write or paint if you’re “happy”. Happiness, from some obscure reason, takes away the complication of a thing, that conflict dynamic, which is the stuff that makes great art great. Not that there is something wrong with being happy, it is just that you don’t usually think when you are in a state of euphoria (try watching noontime shows and you’ll know what I mean).
Not that you have to be sad all the time for you to create great works of art, but that you have to be willing to extricate yourself from that thing you’re dealing with. And when you do that it means isolation, it means being away from everything else, deliberately setting yourself from the background, making yourself alone, and all for the purpose of getting a perspective. Sadness doesn’t necessarily mean loneliness, it also means an outlook.
In the parlance of art, that means point of view. Shelley was perceptive enough to understand that our greatest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts. There is genius every time you report something sad (or bad) because it allows you to do something about it, to improve upon it, and let others see the truth that goes with something gloomy, something serious, so that they will appreciate more the other side of it.
So it is the muse that drives artists to kingdom come, wherever that may be. The important thing to consider, however, is that you have to arrive at some point, and that has something to do with that sad episode you have gone through. Most of the time, you wouldn’t be able to produce that opus if not for that depressing situation you just had. Now, you may have felt some form of elation afterwards, but somewhere along the way you may have gone through some serious shit before getting out of it.
Art is a lonely business, to start with. You could use some intoxication, though, just to heighten your sensibilities, but, more often than not, it induces your sadness in ways you could never imagine at times.
0 (mga) komento:
Post a Comment