Loredana Denicola
May 1, 20224 min
Updated: Sep 14, 2023
John Lundquist
I think very often, or perhaps nearly always, it is a source of artistic creation, but I don't think it is indispensable for artistic creation.
Laurence Burrow
It seems the right hemisphere (that is the more creative side) of the brain is prone to sadness and restlessness. Maybe that’s why artists are so often dissatisfied and driven to continue creating. The process of creation can be joyful indeed but it is often born out of a relentless driven-ness: it HAS to be!
Abi Booth
Passion. Art is staid without passion. Does passion always involve pain? Hm. It probably does to some degree yeah, even if it's dwelling in the shadows cast by the passion. If I have to consider only one answer to this question, surely my answer is no.
Martin Goldstein
You can't remove pain from life. Creativity is life. So pain will be one of the elements involved in the creative process either by inspiration or the process itself.
Ness Easel
Interesting discussion, thank you Loredana for asking the question!
My first thought is that the suffering/struggling/conflicted Artist is a Romantic ideal, and seemingly one that still fits our imaginations.
My second thought is about musicians whose music was intense and compelling while they were using (whatever they were using) but lost that edge when they were clean. I do prefer them clean for their own sake, but I'll reach for the older songs.
Third thought - I recall the discussions we had a while back about the role of the Muse - the unattainable object, a pain, sure, but a special delicious pain, and the Muse apart from being flesh and blood, is also a symbol for:
The actual work of creation: the artist must struggle with material - matter or language or both - the convention, the structure - move those stones to make that arch. That is not always easy work, but not all of life's struggles are painful either. And perfection is not possible.In an absolute sense, pain is not indispensable for artistic creation, but I think it is difficult to respond reasonably if we do not specify which pain we are talking about.
Tom Bland
I guess it depends on what is meant by “pain” - I’d rather talk about “intensity” in terms of art - I’d definitely say that is a necessary ingredient
Elaine M. Hyman
Pain, rain, laughter, sunshine
Gabriele Chorney
It’s a wonderful motivator
Michael Cudilla
What sort of art creation?
If you mean acting or theatre obviously indispensable for reproduction.
Pablo Amirá
Pain allows inner creativity.
Pleasure allows outer creativity.
Alex Taylor
Pain is an indispensable element of life. So, yes. Like air and food, there would be no art without them.
But seeing as some creations are an expression of joy, and others pain, it is not essential to suffer overly in order to create.
Creativity is what happens when the person's inner life finds external expression in a medium which can be observed by others.
To an extent identifying "art" as separate from any other externalisation is a falsehood, it is simply a more concrete or more deliberately distributed form of normal communication.
I here writing these words, which are my creation right now.
Neil R Friedman
Pain is an unavoidable consequence of creating . The simple act of imagining doing something Creative involves pain .
Any time we decide to make something out of something imagined there’s pain .
.... and more
But what does it mean to control emotions?
To create, art must overcome life.