Blog number nine

Hughes, Chapter 9: Creativity and Disease

Illness, pain, TB, cancer, AIDS, mind sickness, psychotic art, manic depression, anatomy of melancholy, schizophrenia, depression, epilepsy, and alcoholism. This made for a pretty depression yet interesting chapter. Diseases are a bummer for the most part, but I understand how they produce ASCs and how that could increase, or affect creativity.

The history behind the painting “The Shattered Column” is moving. I can only imagine how uncomfortable and painful damage to the spine is. Frida Kahlo had congenital spinal bifida condition and on top of that got into a road accident and was seriously injured. After many operations and her previous spine problems, her pain was immense. The picture she painted depicts her pain. It’s a gorgeous yet sad picture to look at.

Mind sickness is always fun to read about. Creativity and being psychotic… apparently there’s a fine line between the two. Creative processes may turn to psychotic ones. Hmm.
Crazy art folk, it seems like many artists and creative folk are a little out there… Sometimes in a good way and sometimes bad.

The “psychotic art” and “degenerate art” is pretty neat. In that type of art, the pictures are like a window into the mind of someone who doesn’t see life in the typical sense. It’s a different perception, and generally, you could stare at the pictures always notice something new, or even feel what they were feeling at the time of painting the picture. Indeed.

I respect Virginia Woolf’s ability and willingness to feel what she was feeling while her husband was in the hospital. Experience the emotions and document them. Her passage on page 129 oozed with melancholy and despair. Though, her ability for description is beautiful, fluid, and well articulated.

It’s funny how many famous authors are alcoholics. Makes me raise questions… How different would their work be if they had not indulged in alcoholic beverages? I’m thinking being inebriated is way more common than we think.