Pearl Buck's Definition of the Artist

Tristan, here's Pearl Buck's description of the artistic temperament.

Many bipolar patients feel this way at times.  Maybe it's the creative drive calling for your work.

(From An American Writer in China)

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.  To them...a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create--so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off...  They must create, must pour out creation.  By some strange, unknown, inward urgency, they are not really alive unless they are creating."

I'd take another course in art if it were I who had hit the wall. Did
you see the movie "Funny Farm"? (When the artist-Chevvy Chase-- sat at the typewriter and began his article typing "the" and then hit a blank wall!) It's activity that can spark the creative desire in you.

It can be beauty, form, shape, nature, religion anything that draws your attention away from the emptiness you feel right now. Try to
get into a class at a nearby university that has an excellent art department.

In the meantime, see a psychiatrist and get on a mood stabilizer (if that's what he recommends so that you can let the child in you go back
to its fun of creating. I'm not using "child" facetiously; it's the inner child in us that is creative. You need to get in touch with that, in my view. A psychiatrist needs to know that you are an artist. Sometimes
their expertise in science leaves something to be desired in the field of art. Look at the pictures on the walls in his offices. They may tell you wonders about how sensitive he/she might be to art and therefore
sensitive to your feelings.

I genuinely hope you get back on track; all of us have slipped at times
in this way; it just takes a teaspoon of medication daily for a while to get things perking again.

Take care.

It's Genetic

Post Edited (It's Genetic) : 7/26/2011 2:07:01 PM (GMT-6)