I told you in my last blog that I was trying to channel my sadness into artwork to get it off of my chest. The conundrum is that if I paint with sad, cold, blah colors I feel even sadder. If I paint with bright bold wild colors it isn’t really representative of what I am feeling. Though it might make me feel better, would the sadness have been transferred onto the canvas? Should artwork represent what the artist is feeling? So I did a couple of experiments.
First, I made myself go up to my art studio ( a crowded hallway) and create something. I wasn’t really inspired so I found two old monotype prints that I had made a while ago. When I made them, I did not think they looked finished so I had just put them aside. Here is one…
This is made with black akua ink and pastel sticks to it very nicely. So I picked out a bunch of colors that make me happy. Mostly reds, yellows, oranges, all harder pastel sticks. And without trying to make anything, I just put colors on that I thought looked happy next to each other.
I like how this turned out but it doesn’t look sad to me nor do I think I transferred the sadness into the picture. I didn’t really feel less sad when I got done with it but I didn’t feel sad while creating something.
This picture of course has known objects in it… deer. It is also an akua ink monotype print. For this one I looked at the picture first trying to envision a background that was kind of subdued.(sad) I wanted to try to make this look sad. I picked hard pastels that were toned down with grey in them, no bright greens or brilliant blues. Then I added some black to both deer to make them a little bolder.
I like this picture too but I still don’t think it looks sad. I think it looks still and calm. I don’t think I transferred any sadness to this picture either but I did enjoy coloring the design in the background and how it came out.
When I got done with these pictures I had spent an hour creating. I felt a sense of accomplishment and for that hour I hadn’t been thinking sad thoughts of loss. I don’t think I transferred the sadness to the artwork nor made sad Art. But maybe just the distraction from life’s difficulties while being creatively occupied is enough to get the mind out of a sad frame.
I looked on the internet to see if anyone else was trying to explain this. This first article which was based on some study wanted to say that sadness makes us more focused and diligent — the spotlight of attention is sharpened – and that many of our creative challenges involve tasks that require diligence, persistence and focus which is why sometimes being a little miserable can improve our creative performance. You can read this study here https://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/
I don’t know as I felt like the sadness made me more creative. In fact I think the sadness zapped the energy needed to create. So I kept searching and found this blog about Art Journaling. https://mindfulartstudio.com/art-journaling-when-you-feel-sad/ This blog post was written by Amy Maricle where she states…For me personally, I find I often need to shift to expressing what I want to feel, or I end up wallowing in negativity. I also REALLY find the repetition of drawing patterns soothing. This frequently helps me feel better. This sounded more realistic to me. Seeing the pictures come together and experiencing the colors did make me feel less burdened by the sadness. My mind was going in a better direction.
My unscientific conclusion is that I have a tendency to let my mind dwell on unhappy thoughts. Concentrating on creating made my mind get out of the sad loop it was in for a while. Going over and over a problem in your mind is not a good process. So while Art does not cure anything it can be a positive soothing activity to do which lets the mind take a break from unhappy thoughts.
I will leave you with this verse, because keeping my mind on positive things and not on sad things would solve a lot of problems. God really does understand. So he put this verse in the bible for me.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8