Pictured: ‘Study After Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X’ by Francis Bacon (1953).
“So things are going pretty good for you, ya? I bet that makes it hard to think of interesting things to write.”
I look at my friend with deadened eyes. I hold my right index and middle fingers to my mouth. I inhale and hold. Just a second and a half, I hold. Then I blow out the left side of my mouth.
I’m not holding anything, so I imagine this looks rather odd.
“What are you doing?” my friend asks.
“I’m pretending to take a drag.”
“Wut.”
This is how I respond to the notion that one can only create good art in the midst of suffering.
Finding wonder
After singer Nick Cave lost his 15-year-old son in a tragic accident – the worst kind of pain a parent can bear – his ability to write suffered as a result.
The period that followed was infertile and desolate, emotionally and creatively. His world had collapsed, robbing him of what connects all creative people: a sense of wonder.
Cave found his way back by tapping into the communal suffering we all share.
He found purpose in those, like him, who were searching for meaning and wonder.
“We all needed to draw ourselves back to a state of wonder. My way was to write myself there. I sat and wrote and wrote, and in doing so I found a way back, or at least a way through the veil of grief, to the other side. I felt very strongly that the communal suffering, and our ability to transcend it, was the thing that held us together. This was not some pessimistic worldview, quite the opposite really. It became clear that as human beings we have enormous capabilities that allow us to rise above our suffering – that we are hardwired for transcendence.“
For an artist to capture the essence of human experience, they must oscillate through all the emotional experiences life has to offer.
But in order to create freely, one cannot be bogged down by tragedy.
They must process it as humans do and, when appropriate, contextualize it through in whatever means their body beckons.
Sometimes, it comes out as grotesque as a Francis Bacon painting.
“Of course I suffer. Who doesn’t? But I don’t feel I’ve become a better artist because of my suffering, but because of my willpower, and the way I worked on myself.”
– Francis Bacon
Blowing smoke
I put out my invisible cigarette.
“Look out for my next post,” I say.
