Arts Portfolio

Art and Compulsion, article by Janet Stead, Saturday, 31 March 2007

I recently attended a discussion on the subject of Art and Compulsion. Several speakers were there including, a Psychiatrist and several Artists.

Art is a very personal thing, for me it has been a way of expressing unspoken word, about something I found difficult to verbalise. A sanctuary or refuge for certain points in my life, where I have felt driven to either write about an experience or paint something that expressed the way I felt. Strangely, it has also made me feel vulnerable, although the compulsion has never diminished. As a young person, I remember the horror on my mother’s face when I painted a portrait of my grandmother, who had been hospitalised suffering with Dementia. I had no idea of the concerns it raised within my immediate family. My uncle, also an artist, was particularly concerned about an oil painting I did in the 1970’s of a young child being blown apart by a bomb and it took him a number of years before, he asked to see it again. Interestingly, all those years later, his view had changed and he commended me for being able to put so much emotion into a painting. That was quite an accolade by someone I respected as a landscape artist. But my views were based on the way I see art, I remember the endless hours spent walking around art galleries and whilst those who accompanied me became bored, I just became inspired, struck in awe and wonderment of those who had created such a beautiful and rich history. Never could a history book replace the living colours, I saw in those works.

One such example, are the war artists who recorded great battles, detailing the pain, death and destruction of those involved. It was the artist’s brush that recorded scenes of great wealth or poverty, and through this we can see for ourselves the types of lives people had at those times. They were the first visual reporters and as a visionary person, I marvelled at the detail of their work that beautifully and painstakingly went into producing such masterpieces. Throughout the ages art has changed shape, colour, depth and technique. There is Pop Art, Impressionism, Abstract and I wonder what Holbein, Turner, George Stubbs or Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, William Orpen or Stanley Spencer to name but a few, would make of the Tate. Is it that we have forgotten art was at one time the only medium to record events both politically and socially?

Sir William Orpen RA (1878-1931) was already a leading society portrait artist when he was appointed by the Dept of Information to be employed as an official war artist in 1917.

Sir Stanley Spencer RA (1891-1959) in the last year at Slade School exhibited ‘John Donne Arriving in Heaven’ in Roger Fry’s second Post Impressionist exhibition. So at the beginning of World War II, he was an established artist and was commissioned to record ship building on the Clyde in March 1940.

Hans Holbein (1498-1543) painted a portrait of Thomas Moore; such was his attention for detail that he used hundreds of tiny brush strokes, creating an almost photographic effect.

When I went along to the discussion I was curious to see what being compelled to paint really meant but came away feeling I needed further education if I was going to offer any form of art class to further help society. I had always wanted to explore the idea of art therapy by offering fun classes for people to come along and enjoy themselves by putting what they felt onto paper. By the time I got home, I felt heavy headed, and bogged down, by something I looked upon as an outlet for emotional expression. Not fortunate enough to follow a career in art, because it wasn’t encouraged in my family or even looked upon as any meaningful profession, I did however, enjoy the release of thoughts on paper and have always doodled or sketched something of interest.

What concerned me most, was that as art to me is a visual expression of thought, I couldn’t help feeling a little awkward about where the discussion was headed. But interestingly enough it evoked other thoughts I had never considered. It was mentioned that Bruce Miller, MD in association with the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco looked at human brain function, particularly emotion, perception, and behaviour. Based on the study of individuals with dementia and autism, where certain areas of the brain had stopped functioning, it was noted that other areas are thought to have taken over, releasing previously dormant cognitive abilities. Some individuals who had never created art before are making wonderful artwork in the setting of their illness. There are even reports of people creating music as well. www.memory.ucsf.edu

It was also mentioned that us ‘arty’ lot had a high risk of suicide, hmmm, well there have been moments in my life where I have considered………… but I always thought, it was just a phase, it takes a lot of courage to commit suicide. So does having an artistic talent make one more sensitive, more aware perhaps of one’s surroundings and therefore more prone to be overwhelmed by reality and hence driven to produce work in order to make a statement which could lead to depression and possible thoughts of suicide?

There are many reasons why individuals commit suicide and they come from all walks of life. Personally, I think it has been my lack of creativity at those times that have made me consider this option and was caused by the negativity of those around me, as I said earlier, art for me is an emotional outlet where I can create something others cannot see.

It has to be said that one of my favourite artists is Vincent Van Gogh, art for him was a personal destiny and he converted all this aspiration and anguish into his art. In September 1888, he painted ‘The Night Café’ for his landlord to pay the rent and wrote this famous line “I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by red and green.” His bold use of colour adds to the emotional expression of his art, it is thought that his suicide, in part at least, was due to guilt for his brother Theo’s support. ‘Portrait of the Artist’ that he painted of himself in 1890, is for some physicians evidence that the painting was done in a psychotic state, having been painted a few months before his death.

I was once asked if I dreamt in black and white or colour, ‘colour’ was my reply, ‘doesn’t everybody’? Well apparently not, although it would be difficult for me to imagine life without colour. I would like to think art is something we can all enjoy whatever standard we want to produce, after all art is in the eyes of the beholder. And those gifted artists, which we generally recognise for their talent and sheer beauty of their work which makes me feel like weeping when I see it, because I know I will never reach such magnificence. If there are any mental problems associated with artistic talent, then it is that they see things how they really are, which makes them stand out from the norm. Geniuses, who are touched by the hand of God…………………..Janet. www.reach-for-the-skies.co.uk