Following a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago, I considered the question, 'Do the best artists have tortured souls?'
I have been writing a diary since I was sixteen and the frequency of my entries range from daily to monthly depending on the content of my life. I then created this blog in a moment of confusion and emptiness. There was a space in my life and writing initially filled that void and gave me a new focus. I wrote frequently at the start, then sporadically and now almost rarely. Is this because the void has filled a little? I like to think so.
I mainly write about things that trouble, confuse or anger me. When I am content, I do not feel the need to write. Perhaps this is because I am afraid to flaunt my happiness in a public way, in the fear that others might see it as insensitive. Or maybe I genuinely do not have anything to warrant a rant during these periods.
Ironically I feel that my best posts are those full of confusion, doubt or angst. I find therapy in the written word and I feel a sense of achievement once a post is complete. The idea is that this theory transfers to all types of artists from poets to painters and musicians to actors seems to make sense.
Can these artists only produce work about hurt, pain, sorrow and negativity? Maybe not, or if so, is it because those emotions produce the best creativity? Arguably this very idea is subjective as a work of art can be perceived by one person as positive and another as negative.
So perhaps not all the best artists are tortured, but I gurantee the first artists that spring to mind most definately were!
