The Character of an Artist

One thing i've learned in life is that great artists are not necessarily nice people. They may be charming, even seductive, but they are certainly not morally better than the average person and probably less so. What drives them to make it in the arts world often leaves them little time for normal friendships or family life, and many will lie, cheat, steal or whatever it takes to create their work and get recognition for it. You could say the same thing, of course, about high achievers in any profession, but some people have the naive assumption that artists, because they deal with the deepest concerns and feelings of humanity, are more compassionate and caring individuals than most, when in fact they are usually more selfish and demanding.

Artists also tend to be a little crazy, although they often hide it well as part of their strategy to gain the love and support they need for their work. In this sense they are different from successful people in other professions, because creativity does have something in common with insanity, and not just because a career in the arts is often very impractical. To be creative, one must have access to the unconscious, without which the artistic product is sterile. Something created with just the conscious mind is like computer art: original perhaps, but cold and lacking a "soul."

I was brought up to strictly control my own emotions, but the feelings were always there, and i was attracted to the arts because i intuitively realized they offered me a way to express them. Other artists are just the opposite and have feelings that tend to overwhelm them unless they can harness them through an artistic form. I have a friend who is completely a mess in her personal life, but her dance is all about formal perfection; whereas my own life is very organized and my performances more about improvisatory release. Either way is insufficient if taken to an extreme, because the best art fuses structure and freedom — the Apollonian and the Dionysian — in the way an enlightened mind itself should be and the artist as a person is not.