does art have the intrinsic power to heal us? or rather...are all artists bad before they become artists?

21 November 2008

does art have the intrinsic power to heal us? or rather...are all artists bad before they become artists?

Posted by joe kelly on 20 March 2008 at 1:08am in Discussions

yes, yes, i know.....the snobbery that that exists betwixt the 'professionals' and those suffering from mental illness (art therapy) is clearly evident...but why I ask you?
surely, if we are all honest with ourselves, hasn't being artists helped us to avoid:
1)prison
2)the sanitorium(nuthouse((U.K.))
3)suicide
4)wallowing in our own little puddle of self pity
5)poverty
6)office jobs(links back to 2))
7)becoming stale, boring, subservient gits
8)outrageous drug abuse
etc etc
Personally, I'm intrigued......the world could implode any minute but there'd still be an artist there to document it! to either rationalise or irationalise it of course!

Tags: healing, therapy, holistic, recovery, art, anti, reprobate

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Deirdre A. Fox on 25 May 2008 at 12:30am: Thank you for the compliment on my thumbnail. At the moment, I seem to be obsessed with chairs, but that's another thread. I don't disagree about the benefits of knowing one's history, but one may need to accept that they won't know, in which case the absence of knowing is an aspect of one's personal history and informative.

Permalink Reply by Noel Fignier on 25 May 2008 at 1:39am: Passing by through all these discussions, I would like to leave a few words:
You speak much of "beauty" certainly not to say "spiritual in art".
For me, beauty cannot be defined in the current moment. What was ugly in the past is beautiful now. What is considered beauty now will maybe considered to be ugly tomorrow, and what is ugly today maybe will be ugly tomorrow. The important is not beauty but the subliminal part and balance within the unbalanced.This lets to art communicate a space without references which remains subliminal.
Have all a good week end
Noel; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 25 May 2008 at 1:43am: Time and context. Thank you Noel. You have a good weekend too.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy Cohen Banker on 25 May 2008 at 2:50pm: Thank you all for your support and words to keep me thinking. Noel, that is why, as referred to
by Carol Novack, I quoted from Wallace Stevens. His poem about finding beauty in putrification
in the dump is very interesting. "The Man on the Dump" . Also, he wrote a book of short
essays "The Necessary Angel". It was enlightening for me to see that we did not have to
reinvent the wheel. Also, Albee's plays are like that for me. Sumblime but serious.,
Separate from that....I of course was born in NYC and consider myself somewhat "international"
after having spent time living in Far East and traveling all over. But I am sure that my Jewish
superstitions and the Masonic traditions and the Christian Scientist elements of my great
grandparents have had some effect. However, that is also why university and education for me
helped me become even more ecumenical, and for my kids. I am inspired by Greeks the most
and opera stories, and anything that the world throws at me. I am old enough and weather
beatened enough that I can use the computer to verify almost any image or thought and stay
in Massachusetts with my paints. But I care about history and culture very much. I do see
much similarity in images of ancient Jewish and Greeks and Romans. And then we can look
to Asian and I suppose African etc. but I know less of these. All seem to relate to our world
and it's creatures living in harmony or explaining conflict.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Noel Fignier on 26 May 2008 at 1:25am: Thank you Amy for your references and beauty definition.(It is true, but I am not such a fan of dumps!)
On a human face, ugliness may turn the expression beautiful and reflect the greatness of its inner force which forces us to love it, out from our cultural criteria.
Well.. Art never healed anybody, but allows to give birth to an unconscious part, satisfying a part of the person's subliminal, allows the freedom of a spirit's part which reacts in full individuality at the moment when it receives it, to be.
Thus, according to ones' background and choices, art creates a visual effect and an inner welfare.
What originates this process is the subliminal part of art.
Of course it depends on every individual's metaphysic and psychology.
According to these, art shows back a mirror to be identified to, and satisfies unconscious parts, bringing still a concrete effect (welfare or not) due to the acceptation or no acceptation of one's metaphysical psychology. It is the reason why it is used in hospitals, particularly in psychiatric hospitals. The body can heal by itself, the spirit cannot do so, as it is confronted to rules that are not in conformity with Nature's Law, to be able to live in society.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 26 May 2008 at 6:47am: Noel
Yes but moreso - "art shows back a mirror" - and the mirror is warped.
Today Art refracts - it no longer reflects.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy Cohen Banker on 25 May 2008 at 4:01pm: "Beauty is fury" Krishnamurti; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by joanna lazzarini on 26 May 2008 at 6:58pm: maybe we are just all looking for reasurance that other people understand our insanity or al least we feel better for sharing it; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by D. Lee Ted on 31 May 2008 at 7:59pm: To your questions, Joe:
1) Prison, no.
2) Nuthouse, no.
3) Suicide, no.
4) Self pity, yes, though it creates self pity, too. This zeroes out.
5) Poverty, ah, see 4.
6) Office jobs, some of us have them, see 5.
7) Becoming stale, boring, subservient gits ... art can be stale, boring, and subservient (a.k.a derivative).
8) Outrageous drug abuse, yes.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by loco on 10 June 2008 at 3:25am: i believe that people who are doing graffiti in the streets can not be truly showing everyone who they are and following their dreams but being a prick; ▶ Reply to This