This is interesting and has me wonder…

Dave Eggers and Jonah Lehrer – Tortured Artists and ‘Grit’

“People who are a little bit sad . . . they become a lot more centered and focused and more likely to persist. So they stick with that task for longer.”

Reminds me of the classic examples of artists like Frida Kahlo and VanGogh.

Do we really need to be suffering in order to create? Perhaps too much suffering is counterproductive, but a bearable dose of unhappiness might just push us further than any happiness ever could.

Its like in spirituality where we almost have to have longing and crisis in order to push outside the boundaries of our existence. Looking at Meister Eckhart, Rumi, Utpaladeva and Eckhart Tolle, there is story after story of suffering and pain turned into longing and finally break thru.

“The rain-weeping and sun-burning twine together
to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot
and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh.
 Cry easily like a little child.”
 ~Rumi 

“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.” ~Japanese poet Masahide 

“I walked a mile with Pleasure

She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with SorrowAnd ne’er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her

When Sorrow walked with me.” ~Robert Browning Hamilton 

“But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ~C.S. Lewis

I saw a face screaming in my recent painting and had to paint it, but was wondering where that came from, I never scream. Perhaps spirituality and creativity allow us to express our emotions and deepest longing when the world and our experiences have taught us to keep quite.

acrylic and mixed media on styrofoam mold, 12 x 12 inch (30.5 x 30.5cm)