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

29 August 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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Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 23 June 2008 at 7:56am: You know Deirdre...I've thought a lot about this and I hate to gainsay you but I think you are wrong. Rocks do think...just very slowly and in a language we don't understand.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deirdre A. Fox on 23 June 2008 at 4:57pm: If you have rocks thinking, why very slowly? Inertness / lack of physical movement means slow thinking? Since rocks need not devote energy to moving or biological processes, they can devote all they have to thinking and end up thinking very fast, assuming one needs energy think. And why presume a language you don't understand? Maybe if you heard them, you'd understand them.

In a word, bunk.

Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 24 June 2008 at 12:06am: Deirdre - Can rocks think? I believe they can. I have no evidence to prove they can, just as you have no evidence to prove that they can’t. And I am entitled to cherish my belief just as much as those who believe in God, or Democracy, or the Tooth Fairy.

Descartes is with me on this: If “I think therefore I am”, then surely, if I am therefore I think? Rocks are, therefore they think. Indeed - given Descartes - rocks could not “be”, did they not think.

If we take the view that things only exist in the mind, then rocks exist only when we look at them and if we look away and think of things other than rocks, then they should not exist. But we have strong empirical evidence to the contrary. We turn away and the rock stays there, being a rock, rocking in its rock world, rocklike and implacable. When so unobserved, what keeps it there – so rock steady it its rocky environment? Not us but other rocks, of course. Rocks observing other rocks in a community of rocks thinking rock like things, eagled eyed for deviant unrocklike behaviour. Every third rock is in the pay of the secret police. It’s worse than the former German Democratic Republic – they tell me. And speaking of intolerance - what kind of redundant cultural colonialism entitles you to dismiss my beliefs as “Bunk”?
I think you are both wrong and rude. And so do the rocks.

Permalink Reply by Deirdre A. Fox on 24 June 2008 at 12:27am: Mike, I am not sure Descartes thought his sentence, "I think therefore I am," was transitive, but I'll stop discussing philosophical questions with you since you apparently felt offended. As for what entitles me to my opinion, the same things that entitle you to yours. Disagreement is not rude (you previously dismissed another person's views as "bunkum" -- I suppose the "um" makes all the difference?) though labeling another's contrary view as redundant cultural colonialism might be.

Permalink Reply by Amy Cohen Banker on 24 May 2008 at 3:08pm: "Beauty is momentary in the mind-
the fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal." Wallace Stevens; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 24 May 2008 at 3:12pm: Hi Amy
Nice to hear from you again!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy Cohen Banker on 24 May 2008 at 3:32pm

I have been here, reading your threads but not very verbal as of late. Just painting, and
searching for answers. Glad to say hello to you too. I am preparing for a two person exhibition
opening reception July 8 at World Monument's Gallery, Common Ground, Prince George Hotel,
27th Street , off of 5th Avenue/Madison. I was thinking about all that you guys have been
saying. Our title of exhibition, agreed on by all concerned is "Finding Beauty". Maybe I
was inspired by your last works. Anyhow, Wallace Stevens writes about finding beauty after
a World War and we are alluding to it in these times. Lately, painting is all that interests me
except for reading. I force myself to go out into society and some film festivals,dinner parties,
charity events, a few times a month, to interract with others. I am surprised to see that people
view me with popularity and humanity. My art has a small but interested audience. I have
been told by many that my "insanity" is not insane but the function of the artistic process.
We are lucky that we are artists, and of course that I am a stage in life when I can be humored,
as if I were in any other occupation I would have to change my ways. Glad to say hello to all
of you.

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Permalink Reply by mike hinc on 24 May 2008 at 6:20pm: All best wishes for your show Amy!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deirdre A. Fox on 24 May 2008 at 11:34pm: I don't disagree, Ekaterina. (Do you prefer Katerina?).

I am mindful that where we come from, etc., influences our perceptions, which in turn influences our thinking -- with exposure and effort, we can sometimes see beyond that which might frame our view, expanding our perceptual lens (or not).

It's the same with our physical structure. I am short. I don't know what it means not to have to climb on a shelf to reach the top item in a store (or ask someone to get it for me). I can imagine it, of course. I once rented a condo from a woman who was also short and who had had all the counters and cabinets custom made for her height, which as it turned out was the same as my height (4'10", by the way). What a change that was for me! It did away, for example, with a reluctance I had to make bread from scratch (not that everyone has to make bread from scratch). I hope you understand what I mean. I have an autistic relative. The simple fact is that he is hardwired differently. Among other things, he was hypersensitive to touch (imagine if a simple stroke of another person's hand hurt? Would you want to be touched or to touch?). Over time, with therapies, his sensitivities lessoned. He hugs a lot now, and is actually very social.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deirdre A. Fox on 24 May 2008 at 11:55pm: Your history in a sense was the wiping out of your history, which perhaps had the effect of motivating you to care more about what it was? It could have had the opposite effect for some, caused them not to care about history/ancestry at all. What do you think?

I suspect no one wants everyone to be the same, except perhaps the people who design strip malls and those who like one size fits all. Nor will we end up there, as whatever differences exist, even if seemingly smaller after cross-overs between cultures, take on heightened importance. We seem to have a need to be both separated and assimilated.; ▶ Reply to This