Final Assigment

So I don't know how the rest of my classmates are feeling about our last assignment but quite frankly it is making me feel like I am losing my mind. So I decided to look at the link between art and mental illness. This is a link that has always been an interesting one for me. Are artists better due to the fact that they aren't always in their right state of mind. Does medication dull their creativity ? Or does this link even exist at all ? How is their art affected by their illness if at all ?

 Some of the articles I have been looking at were
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200901/art-and-mental-illness-stop-the-insanity
 One of the quotes from this article that I thought was interesting was
 "People with emotional disorders are not some defective subset of the human race nor do they differentiate disease and health. Human creativity is complex and ultimately, it is appreciated for its merit, innovation, and imagination."

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/art-and-mental-illness/
One of the quotes I thought most interesting  was
"Scientists have long studied the link between creativity and mental illness, and the lines between the two are often blurred. Studies suggest that creative people often share more personality traits with the mentally ill than “normal” people in less creative pursuits."

This next article was about an exhibit that explored the relationship between art and mental illness
http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/inside-the-head-art-and-mental-illness-explored/

From this research I began looking at artists who at some point had dealt with mental illness. One artist that was to have suffered from depression was Georgia  O' Keefe. Her work in my opinion is absolutely beautiful. A quote of hers really stuck with me "I have but one desire as a painter – that is to paint what I see, as I see it, in my own way, without regard for the desires or taste of the professional dealer or the professional collector."-  Georgia O’Keeffe. And a couple of her pieces did too.



One artist that I found was actually featured in one of the articles I read. Martín Ramírez was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He spent the last 30 years of his life institutionalized. All of his work was actually created while he was institutionalized. Two of the pieces that really stuck out to me. I think what really made me look twice was the fact that the two pieces were so different. There is something about the second one that I just love.
 

Another artist that supposedly dealt with a mental illness was Pablo Picasso. There are a range of Picasso's works that I find extremely interesting but the one that always catches my attention is Guerncia. I have actually had the chance to see this piece in person. It is absolutely amazing. The scale is insane. I remember I walked into the room in which it was housed and I just stood there staring.


One thing that I have gotten from these three artists is their use of scale. Scale can make something comforting and real or freakish and unsettling. I think I am going to experience with scale and my final piece will most likely use scale in a unsettling way.

Figure Drawings 1 and 2

Attempt Number One.

Attempt Number Two- Overall not the best but a good deal of improvement from the first to the second piece.

Quote Response

"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life.

And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity."

I feel that there are only certain life changing events that can change ones perception for the rest of their lives. I have only experienced two of these events. I don’t think I could handle a third just yet and that’s why I disagree with most of this quote. Art doesn’t have to in my opinion need to make you feel like you just got punched in the gut and just can’t stop crying. Art can just exist.

                Why can’t art just be pretty? Maybe not every piece of art has to evoke this deep soul searching feeling that makes us question ourselves and every decision we have ever made. I see nothing wrong with a pretty landscape that is just nice to look at. Meanwhile I don’t see anything wrong with a piece that can deeply disturb someone. I just think that there is a time, a place and a certain audience for both. And just because one is pretty and the other isn’t doesn’t make one or the other better or vice versa.

 I am giving art a pretty large category here but within that category everyone can have their own opinion. For example my roommate likes Jackson Pollock I however do not like it I don’t see the point. But isn’t that the whole point of art? Everyone thinks of things differently. No two people not matter how similar see and think in the same way. So one person may write off a piece of art just I have with Pollock but another person such as my roommate may really like it. My roommate is an art major as well but what happens when you ask someone who is not trained to look at art? If you stopped someone on the street and dragged them into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dragged them up into the impressionist paintings and then asked them what they though I  am willing to bet if they didn’t have any artistic training they will either say it’s pretty or I don’t like it. Artist I think tend to get a self-absorbed. We think that everyone is looking at a piece of artwork with the same skill set. We think that everyone sees what we see and how we see it. That’s why critiques work. It gets you to take a step back and look at your work or someone else’s through a different set of eyes and circumstances. Everyone sees things differently so everyone is affected in a different way or maybe won’t be affected at all.

Although I disagree with most of the quote this is not part I do agree with. Art has become a bit of a commodity. Everything has these days. Technology makes practically anything accessible. For example I can go to the Temple website and then go to the library website from there and from there I can access Artstor, which pretty much gives me a high definition picture of pretty much any piece of artwork I could think of. Art is more accessible than it has been ever before. Art is no longer an activity of the rich and famous. It has become more of a commodity and more accessible to the public.  Also due to the advances in technology art is everywhere you look.  As I sit and write this response I am looking at the design of the desk I am sitting at, the design of Microsoft  Word 2010, the picture frame that my sister made for me  and not to mention the packaging on the two beverage containers that are sitting on my desk at the moment. Art is more accessible due to technology and that is never going to change. I am not quite sure if that is a good thing but I digress.

In the end this quote has many points some of which I agree with some of which I don’t. For example art is such a complex thing that can be broken down into so many pieces. I can be judged in so many different ways. It can be pretty it can be ugly it can be boring it can be interesting. It is all in the eye of the viewer whether that eye is trained or not.  Over time art has become more and more available to more and more viewers through technology.