Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sadness, Pain and Hurt in Art

One of the things we do not always talk about in the things that motivate us to do art, is the harder things in life...be it sadness, pain, grief, or loss. 
 We can talk of beauty and nature and love...but life is so much more.  We all walk this walk.  We all get hurt, have illness, lose someone we love, face life threatening disease, see pain in others we can do nothing about, we all watch ourselves and our parents get older and frail.  It is an inevitable part of life.  I cannot know what pain or lose or hurt you experience, but I can know we all do, it is the human experience.  As artists we can express this in a way others cannot-it may be our gift or our curse to be sensitive people.  But it is our path and our journey.
I can tell you I have lost friends to war and illness far to young, lost a Father to cancer and struggled with facing life threatening illness myself.  I can tell you I watched my Grandmother and Mother both have strokes. I can tell you I have seen my fair share of sadness in my life, as a teacher of special education students, I worked with autistic, blind, deaf, mentally and emotionally handicapped children from 3 years old to 19.  I worked with students with a 3 month old mentality and watched two sisters who were normal intelligence get a brain disease that shrunk their brains bit by bit.  I hear daily stories of traumatic death and dying from my partner who is a grief counselor for hospice.  I cannot even begin to tell you the tragedies some people live through in multiple deaths and losses.  I think art helps us to express and filter these experiences and emotions.  It also helps others to do the same in the sharing. You may think of another painting or sculpture or writer or composition....and you may do art that expresses these emotions.  But know you can and you can help yourself and others in doing so.  



When I think almost inexpressible pain, I think of Munch's painting of the Scream





When I think of horrible loss I think of the Michelangelo's Pieta






When I think of the pain of the horror of war I think of Picasso's Guernica


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