HeartBreaker

As much as it hurts a little heartbreak can go a long way for artists. Look at the music of people like Trent Reznor or Ben Folds. How about the art of Francis Bacon? There's a guy with emotional issues for ya. How about Clive Barker's painting and writi... ok, he's just a (brilliant) nutjob. Pain is that by which we define ourselves and can be the wellspring of creativity if utilized correctly.

Oddly enough I'm writing this at a time when I'm actually feeling pretty good about things. The subject came up recently via one of those Facebook time-waster quizzes. Apparently I was Pablo Picasso in my former life (like thousands of others, i'm sure) and one of the traits we had listed in common was "does not deal well with heartbreak". The comment then came down that, of course, nobody does. True enough. The difference I see is that as artists we take that angst, pain, frustration, whatever, and turn it into something else... If we so choose. There's the key word, "Choose". That's one of the things that sets us apart. We wear our hearts out on our sleeves or, more to the point, we splatter them all over our work.

If you're reading this I'd love to have you comment and give some examples of great art you've seen that stems from pain and what it meant to you if anything. I've got my favs and I'll post them after I hear from You. This is your chance to join the conversation (and thereby validate all of this blogging I do).

I'll leave you with a piece that looks like it could've been spawned from a horrendous breakup or the death of a favorite goldfish, but in truth pain was the furthest thing from my mind. I was having a blast.




Cheers,

R