Why are artists so depressed? The paradox of creativity and sadness

We experience depression at different stages in our lives. Sometimes it seems so permanent to our existence that we just learn to manage it, knowing it’s always there. Other times, it comes in unexpectedly after a traumatic event (like death in the family or a stressful event). However, artists are a lot more prone to depression because we are very sensitive people and mood swings “feed” our ability to create art. Yes, there are many happy artists, but there are a lot more unhappy ones.

Mood disorders are stigmatized. Depression is often associated with craziness, which is not the case. There are no voices, delusions or paranoia involved, depression is the state of a very deep, profound sadness and loneliness. There is a loss of joy and interest in daily activities.

According to various separate studies, artists have up to 18 times the rate of suicide seen in the general population, 8-10 times the rate of depression, and 10-20 times the rate of manic-depression. But this link between depression and creativity is not clear. I think that feelings that arise from depression actually help us create personal art, the one that matters in the long run. Moreover, by creating art we heal.

Famous people who either committed suicide or fight with depression:

The number of persons in creative fields believed or known to suffer or have suffered mood disorders is staggering. Over 50 percent of the 15 abstract expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko had mood disorders, suicidal thoughts and alcohol abuse. 18th and 19th century poets including Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and Silvia Plath suffered from depression. It’s speculated that Vincent Van Gogh was bipolar. The Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky had depressive thoughts that you’ll find written in his letters.

In modern world, famous singers, actors, fashion designers, and artists-Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Robert Williams, Kate Spade and Alexander McQueen committed a suicide, despite their fame and family support. Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in “Star Wars”) struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Bipolar, singer and songwriter Sinead O’Connor tried to kill herself 8 times in one year. Other famous people who deal with mood swings include Demi Lovato, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

It’s important to understand that a lot of artists who struggle with depression abuse alcohol, drugs and engage in risky behavior to numb the pain they feel inside. This is an emotional pain that doesn’t leave a person. This pain is self-destructive, and it often hurts not only them but also spouses, children and friends who have to deal with their depressive state of mind every day.

Depression in artists and its causes

Depression and its effects are difficult to categorize. Mood disorders that include both depression ( unipolar disorder) and manic-depression ( bipolar disorder) is a scale of intensity levels. Some artists experience it once a year while others deal with depression every day. There are several types of bipolar disorder: bipolar I, bipolar II, rapid-recycling, mixed bipolar and cyclothymia. Common symptoms of bipolar people include loss of energy, sporadic sleeping and concentrating, while on the other side of the spectrum they have euphoria, feeling ecstatic or irritable. Bipolar artists flip between these two opposing states.

While I’m not a physician, I do believe that you must seek professional help dealing with this problem. However, many can’t afford health insurance or these services may not be covered here in the U.S., and therefore it’s up to us to find a solution. I do know that causes for depression differ and could be one or a combination of reasons that I list below. It’s important to understand yourself and to figure out why you have it because then you know what you need to heal firsthand, while seeking professional help. If not genetic, depression is widely psychological, and while prescription drugs may help you level out the mood swings and cope, understanding and treating your deep emotional wounds is necessary to see permanent change. When wounding is not deep and you experience mild melancholia, you may need just a few sessions with a psychologist. But if you’ve had some serious psychological trauma, please find an experienced psychologist to help you heal.

These are some of the causes for the depressive state of mind:

• Deep psychological trauma in childhood
• Physical abuse/ rape (Most deep wounding happens in childhood. Patrick Melrose TV series illustrates this problem really well.)
• Rejection of you, your pursuits, your art, and as a result
• Unhappiness/unmet expectations with work/ career
• Hardships/day to day financial and psychological struggles
• Traumatic event(s) that cause PTSD
• Death in the family
• Nonacceptance of your sexuality by family and friends
• Postpartum depression
• Genetic depression that runs in families

Childhood trauma

When a child experiences traumatic events, he begins the disconnect from his essence and the Source. This disconnect widens over time, especially if traumatic events continue to batter down the child to adulthood. Trauma can range from physical abuse to psychological abuse to neglect. When the child grows up, he forms his world view and the perception of reality. The adult has already developed unique patterns of behavior and thinking based on his response to trauma. Some common outcomes of trauma include anxiety, PTSD, fears, fobias, alcoholism, workaholism, sex addiction, eating disorders, drug use and depression. The trauma that happened in childhood triggers people to continue unhealthy behavior for good. Over time the adult tries to numb painful emotions with addictions. These addictions soothe the ‘wounded child’ for some time but when it wears off the person feels even worse than before. Not every abused adult becomes addicted to substances but all addicted people were abused at some point in their life.

According to Dr. Gabor Mate, childhood trauma leads to addictions. He says that the addiction is the response to human suffering. It’s an attempt to escape suffering or emotional pain.

People get stuck in the past in their minds and what becomes vital is to let go of of the past in order to heal from trauma completely. By changing the old patterns of behavior and replacing them with new, positive experiences, the person can set himself free from the past. As children we were all happy. The idea is to come back to that happy inner child by reconnecting to your true self. By learning how to love yourself first, we can become fully present to give love to others.

Support & Prevention: natural ways to free your mind

We often feel ashamed to talk about our emotions. As artists we often experience self-doubt. We question our abilities to create art because we’re not sure if we’re good enough. This limiting belief affects how we perceive the world and how we approach creating art. What’s there to make if everyone else is doing a great job already, right? And this is when self-doubt transforms into negative thinking over time. There are many artists who suffer from depression and anxiety. While the root causes may be very different for people experiencing that, artists often feel tormented and paint it on canvas. These negative feelings can feed the creativity and there is a lot of art from the past that shows just that. Edvard Munch’s “the Scream” comes to mind…Depression affects how we perceive our reality. Most of us have personal moments that became traumatic to our daily life. They shaped us to react to the world through the prism of our learned fears. Trauma could be as simple as harsh judgment or as difficult as rape. While it’s not our fault that we were mistreated it becomes our responsibility to overcome the problems we end up facing. People and events that hurt us won’t come back to ask for our forgiveness. Yet we become the prisoners of our own mind that was altered to survive. To free our mind or to let go of of all the negativity stored inside us we can turn to a friend, psychologist or daily meditation. But there is a lot more to emotional healing.

By overcoming your problems you free your mind from everything that makes you feel miserable. By making consistent, little positive changes daily you learn to fill your heart with love and new experiences once again. While regular therapy sessions can help you heal deep emotional pain, it can take a really long time that could stretch into years. However, by adopting different activities that give you enjoyment, you could speed up your recovery process.

Here are some of the things you can do to help yourself cope and get out of depression:

As artists we often feel helpless because there is very little encouragement, help or affordable mentorship available to us. Society and family often reject us that either builds stamina or sets you on a spiral of depressive thinking.

If you really want to get out of a vicious circle, make a decision to forgive people in your past, have a strong will to change yourself, and find a mission bigger than yourself. Stick to it!

• Discover a goal/mission that helps others, not just you. Step out of your bubble to become part of a cause or community you care about. Get out of your home with ‘fake it till you make it’ attitude because giving makes your life meaningful. Remember, that there are so many others who struggle the same way you do and also need your love and support!
• Find positive, like-minded individuals, artists, people of other professions who enjoy the arts. Let go off negative people in your life. They won’t change, but you can by letting them go and focusing on those who care. (If you live in a remote location, Facebook groups may help you connect with others).
• Work to find something that brings you joy every day. This includes exercise, yoga, walking, reading. Sometimes it’s just talking to another human.
• Share your story in your art. This art becomes personal and strong. Frida’s story comes to mind. Art has healing powers. Hannah Gadsby’s stand up does just that.
• Focus on your artistic goals. Find a role model and grow to believe in yourself.
• Give Love to someone you care about.
• Make a positive note to yourself when you feel unbelievably happy. Open it up when you feel emptiness and sadness.
• Watch videos on YouTube that will help you overcome your negative thinking. Tony Robbins comes to mind.
• Suicide prevention:1-800-273-8255  https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ 

Art Therapy

By doing any art form you love like music, writing, painting, poetry, collage, sculpture, video, photography – it can help you re-process your negative feelings to release them into the Universe. Art has powerful healing properties because it caters to our emotions, not logic. That’s one of the reasons why we go to art museums. We want to release stress and to find inspiration. We put art on the wall to experience positive emotions. Why not letting yourself experience that more often? Your art activity could be as simple as page coloring or as advanced as taking drawing art course.

Hypnosis

It turns out hypnotherapy could be yet another tool to break us free from anxiety and negative thinking. Hypnosis is not a pixie dust, but it allows for considerable personal growth if you have innate desire to change some habits in life that no longer serve you. Mr. Browning explains that it’s about starting with a slight “course correction” in thinking that creates new neural pathways to replace the old ones in our minds. By overcoming your problems you become much stronger inside because you free your mind from everything that makes you feel miserable. As a result you become more present and self-aware. By making consistent, little positive changes every day you learn to fill your heart with love and new experiences once again.

In this interview with a certified hypnotherapist, James Browning we discuss mental blocks, creativity, anxiety, affirmations and so much more!

James Browning, CCHt received his formal education at the Hypnotheraphy Training Institute in Corte Madera, CA, the oldest hypnosis school in the U.S. Mr. Browning holds certifications of Master Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Regression Specialist, and Clinical Hypnotherapist.

“It’s time you forgive yourself for everything you did or didn’t do,” Mr. Browning said.

Hypnotherapy is not about losing your mind, allowing a hypnotherapist to take full control of it. It’s about allowing yourself to overcome the past, your pain points, insecurities, as well as giving yourself a chance to create positive space inside your mind and heart to feel secure, creative, productive, and to live your life to your fullest potential. Hypnotherapy would help you free your mind and let go of things that hold you back, if you’re determined and persistent in changing your life around.

By going to his site, you can listen to a number of free hypnosis audio lessons to reduce anxiety, stress, worry, and pain. Listen to self-hypnosis for improved creativity audio, improved self-image audio, relaxation audio, anxiety reduction & sleep induction:  https://browninghypnotherapy.com/free-audio/

Ayahuasca treatment

There is an alternative way to accepted methods of treatment. People travel to Peru & Ecuador to experience the power of ayahuasca natural medicine. There is only one church in the U.S. that offers a very safe way to have transformational experiences working with sacred medicine. Check out the Soul Quest of Mother Earth in Orlando https://www.ayahuascachurches.org/ You can watch Unwell series on Netflix. One of the episodes is dedicated to that church.

I hope this article helps you or someone you know to understand yourself, grow spiritually and find a permanent solution to problems many of us face. My visionary art exists to give you a sense of peace and love.

Check out visionary art for sale

Other resources on the web:

• https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/08/new-study-claims-to-find-genetic-link-between-creativity-and-mental-illness
• Life and Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, paperback, 2004
• The Van Gogh Blues: the creative Person’s path through depression, paperback, 2007

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Artists create art, cope with depression

This article was originally published in the Voices of Central Pennsylvania, November 1, 2012 | http://voicesweb.org/artists-create-art-cope-depression

It seems like a stereotype—the artist struggles through emotional turmoil, the struggle feeds the works of genius—but there may be more than a fabled link between mood disorders and art. According to various separate studies, artists have up to 18 times the rate of suicide seen in the general population, 8-10 times the rate of depression, and 10-20 times the rate of manic-depression.

Depression and its effects are also difficult to categorize. Mood disorders that include both depression ( unipolar disorder) and manic-depression ( bipolar disorder) have vastly different intensity levels. Some artists are affected by it mildly a few times a year while others experience depression daily throughout their lifetime. Depression can even be genetic.

The number of persons in creative fields believed or known to suffer or have suffered mood disorders is staggering. Over 50 percent of the 15 abstract expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko had mood disorders, suicidal thoughts and alcohol abuse. 18th and 19th century poets including Emily Dickinson are thought to have suffered from depression. An artist doesn’t have to be internationally known to struggle with depression. Five local artists running the gamut from a rock musician to a landscape painter speak frankly here about depression and the arts.

June Ramsay is a multi-media artist with twenty years’ experience in hand-dying fabrics. She is also an oil painter whose works have been featured in the Arts Fest “Images” show.

Cole Hons is a rock singer, band leader, and poet who also has worked as a journalist for CDT and now is a New Media Writer/Producer for the Center for Sustainability at Penn State.

Roxanne Naydan is a pastels painter with a bachelor’s degree in fine art and a masters in visual art. She has illustrated the book of poetry, Selected Poetry of Lina Kostenko: Wanderings of the Heart (Garland Publishers, 1990), and her painting, “Eerie Orchard”, appears on the cover of the book of poetry The Narcoleptic Yard (Black Lawrence Press, 2009).

William Snyder III is a mixed-media artist with an MFA in printmaking from Penn State (2005). Snyder serves as the president of the SoVA Alumni Group and on the College of Arts and Architecture’s Alumni Society Board at Penn State.

Suicide is painless?

For some artists who deal with depression, a downturn in mood can lead to thoughts of suicide.

June Ramsay is genetically predisposed to depression and said she thought of killing herself for the first time when she was just 5 years old.

“I was sitting beneath the sink, looking at all sorts of cleaning products thinking ‘which one would do it,’” she said.

Those occasional suicidal thoughts did not simply vanish.

“Yes, there have been several times in my adulthood when thoughts of suicide have plagued me,” wrote Ramsay. “Sometimes, I can visualize hurting myself and that can lessen the urge, another time I actually did cut myself and that was enough to ease the desire to kill myself, and another time I called a friend at 2 a.m. and she talked me through it. She battled depression and anxiety too. She also survived a gang rape at a fraternity party during her first week of college, which is surviving a hell of a lot in my opinion. If she could get better and move beyond her pain, then so could I. It really helps to have someone to talk to, who really gets where you are coming from.

Psychological studies of artists demonstrate that Ramsay is not unusual among artists for her suicidal tendencies. A. Preti and P. Miotto released a study in 1999 that included 3093 eminent international artists from the past two centuries: 1300 writers, 692 poets, 267 dramaturgians and comedians, 210 architects, 531 painters, and 93 sculptors. Fifty-nine suicides were recorded from this sample. A suicide rate of 1.9 percent among artists was only slightly higher than that measured in the U.S. population in 2010 (1.24 percent) but that statistic did not include deaths from drug or alcohol abuse.

The Preti and Miotto study found that poets and writers were more likely than any other group of artists to commit suicide, but some subsets of artists have been found even more likely to struggle with suicidal tendencies. In 1995, three scholars in the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry put forth a study that showed half of the 15 20th-century abstract-expressionist artists suffered from mood disorders; with a suicide rate over 13 times higher the national U.S. average (1995).

Musicians were not included in the Preti and Miotto study, but they too can be deeply affected by mood disorders and fight off suicidal thoughts.

“To be honest, I have had flashes of suicidal imagery run through my mind in the past…just images, though,” wrote Cole Hons via email. “Never any serious planning or attempts. In my late teens & early 20s I had a romanticized idea of death–I used to dream of having some perfect night with a lover and then dying at the end.

“Looking back, I see that my adolescent self really bought into our culture’s idealized self-destructive artist bullshit– you know, the whole Jim Morrison trip…during that time, I was such a perfectionist that if I played a show where I didn’t perform my songs perfectly, I thought I deserved to die. I guess I was just so pathetically self-absorbed at the time, I honestly couldn’t see how stupid that would be. There’s this song I wrote later in that phase of my life called “See the Light” that is essentially about staring into that abyss and choosing to live.”

Hons revisited these feelings slightly later in life, and at that point, conquered them.

“I also went through a really dark period after my band and my long-term relationship broke up,” wrote Hons. “It was difficult for me to transition to being a parent with a regular day job. During this phase, I was plagued with dreams about hanging myself. I actually had a very vivid dream in the year 2001 where I was hanging by the neck in my attic for a long, long time—days and days—but just couldn’t seem to die. So I finally untied myself, stepped down and got on with my life. Since that time, I’ve been completely free of any suicidal thoughts and & feelings—thankfully!”

Hons made a short video called “Forgiving” for a contest in 2008; it is now being used by a Canadian health organization to help treat youth with depression, and part of their mission is suicide prevention. “They just stumbled across my video about 6 months ago and contacted me to ask permission to use it,” wrote Hons. “It made me really happy that it’s being used for this.”

What sometimes saves the artist’s life is concern for those who would be devastated by his or her death.

“Yes, I contemplate it even to this day, on occasion,” wrote Roxanne Naydan. “What prevents me is the negative IMPACT it might potentially have on my daughter Lilja.”

Spiraling into depression can be brought on by a variety of triggers—financial strains, hormonal changes, challenging life events, even the strain of living as an artist.

William Snyder III experienced depression for the first time as a freshman in college. Worrying about his finances and relationship anxiety overwhelmed the artist.

“I was lonely, self-focused with the loss in direction,” he said. “I experienced anxiety and tried to prove myself through drawing because it was the only thing I knew.”

Depression is thought to be linked to hormonal changes since twice as many women as men in the general public are effected. By the age 15, girls are twice as prone to depression as boys. Traumatic events in an artist’s life, coupled with depression and hormonal changes, can lead to a persistent change in mood.

Landscape painter Susan Nicholas Gephart was shaken by her brother’s death when she was 11.

“There was no counseling, just an effort to live on as if everything was ‘OK,’” said Gephart. This seemed to create a feeling of a security blanket being removed. I felt fearful and very shy about anything new, even into my 20s. As the years went on I became very interested about understanding the root of emotions, feelings, and what caused them. I read magazines and studied psychology in school. Poetry and painting became a regular way for me to express myself and try to relax.”

Depressive moods are also often tied to the seasons. Many artists experience picks of creativity during spring and fall, while winter blues are characterized by manic periods or melancholia. Changes in mood can be traced in both the amount of completed work and personal letters written by artists in the past. Artists’ correspondence is well documented in popular books. Early American poet Emily Dickinson’s spikes in creativity were recorded and dated in her numerous works; the winter seasons were marked with a prolonged absence of creative output.

“It’s a struggle that is deeper, harder, more intense. It’s a big grey cloud coming from nowhere often in winter,” June Ramsay said.

Just the act of engaging in the arts as a career can lead to depressive periods.

“There is indeed a constant struggle of feast and famine in the art world,” said Gephart. “The uncertainty of sales and even filling a class enrollment are never a for sure situation. The general public also perceives art as a game and not a ‘serious career.’ An artist can exhaust herself just trying to juggle so many balls to pay the bills. There is also the reality that once you create something wonderful, for you to continue to grow and gain respect in the art world, you must keep doing it over and over….forever.”

This state can become so exhausting, according to artist William Snyder, that artists seek work outside their field just to ease not just the financial but emotional burden.

“It came down to the time ratio between drawing and money,” said Snyder. “Drawing was so time-consuming it was equal to simple waste of time. My solid job changed that ratio. I found fulfillment [doing something else I enjoy besides drawing]. I began to think outside myself. I noticed that my art work shifted when I was no longer depressed.”

Working as an artist also means facing rejection, which can start the process of self-doubt, self-denial, heightened vulnerability and despair. Some self-medicate, abusing alcohol and drugs, while others like Gephart strengthen their knowledge of art as a business.

“Art is certainly an insecure job, but it can be balanced by the love of creating and believing things are possible,” said Gephart. “As an adult who has taught art for over 30 years to all ages, I have come to believe art can heal and should be for all to experience, just like reading a book or riding a bike. I was fortunate to stay home with my 3 children and raise them while I painted and did volunteer work hanging shows, etc. I learned more about the business of art on my own than in college during my BFA. Now, as a mentor to teen artists, I always encourage them to understand marketing or consider a duel degree with business and art.”

Easing the pain

A career in art may be the problem, but can also be the solution.

Cole Hons is a rock musician who sees his performances as an addiction to the experience of intense emotional release.

“Musicians are often extremely sensitive people who, just like anybody else, are exposed to suffering and pain,” said Hons. “Being so sensitive, many go looking for medicine. That might be alcohol and drugs. But in my view, the music itself is the biggest and best medicine of all.”

Because feelings of loneliness and emptiness are prevalent, some artists become obsessed with understanding human existence, think of life, death, and spirituality, and often find meaning in depicting these obsessions in art. The Abstract Expressionists were consumed with depiction of tragedy, death, and timelessness. By painting these themes artists find temporary relief from loneliness.

“I struggle every day. We are loners. We deal with some sort of pain. When I’m hurting I use reality to create that world through painting,” Roxanne Naydan said.

By painting what’s meaningful in their lives some artists also find psychological relief in the act of painting. Living on the edge of life, artists experience a positive influence of sudden mood changes as well: they imagine and create easily, capturing rapidly moving thoughts and emotions.

“Creative artistic people have deep emotions that just toss them for loop! As a mentor to teens and college age artists, I have come to see many of them struggle with feelings of sadness,” said Gephart. “Nothing they can pinpoint, just there. It has to make me think that partly the way their brains are designed opens doorways to struggle. I’ve also noticed that when they are creating, they seem at peace. Makes me wonder if we could all just paint, may be the bad stuff would slip away.”

In 1989, Johns Hopkins Hospital professor Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison interviewed a group of artists, 90 percent of which said that very intense moods and feelings were either necessary and integral or very important to the creation of art. Art is created in response to the environment and to the artist’s own emotional struggle. Art also has an undeniable therapeutic effect on our brain. May writers stated that they write to relieve themselves from a burden and communicate through their work.

June Ramsay created a poem and a painting using compost as a metaphor for depression. She worked her way out through painting. Experiencing serious health problems with her foot, Ramsay came to the point of acceptance through painting and finds release from her struggles.

“At the time, I was trying to think of ways that depression might have some positives, like what gifts could it bring to its sufferer,” said Ramsay. “I know there have been times in my life that once I got through the darkness (often with spiritual help, light, and encouragement of others) that I felt I had gained some type of enlightenment or awareness that I could have never gotten otherwise.”

“When the need for a cry is over I let myself back into reality by painting Nature,” Naydan said. ”I love my relationship with it. Nature calms and inspires me. I love painting the light. When there is a loss, there is a wish to recreate what you had and I resolve my longing through painting.”

Musicians and other performance artists also heal themselves through their arts.

“When people sing, play, or dance to music it’s similar to being in love. It’s the act of reuniting with others and experiencing healing together,” Cole Hons said.

Artists often use themselves as essential material for creativity. Some artists have said that they feel they have a heightened sensitivity, and that the energetic moods of a manic phase lend them the capacity to convey unusual thoughts and visionary ideas. Artists have heightened sensitivity and take risks that contribute to the creation of artwork.

“There is some type of heightened awareness, spiritual connection looking at nature and seeing the world differently,” June Ramsay said describing her her experiences during painting retreats.

The depressive phase also serves its purpose to the artist. It gives a chance for contemplation, self-analysis and search for life’s meaning. Deeper comprehension of feelings like love, sorrow, and pain leads writers to create characters with real emotions.

“Depression was the muse, the inspiration for me back then [during depressive phases],” said Snyder. “I didn’t see how great life can be.”

“It’s healing to paint. It’s like a private language where people can glimpse at your soul without speaking,” Naydan said. “There are moments when you are longing for something and I fill that void through painting.”

Depressed people can be intense, have erratic sleep patterns and experience persistent feeling of loneliness even when they are surrounded by numerous people.

“The insecurities that developed in my preteens transformed into a serious problem with insomnia into adult life,” wrote Gephart. “I would wake and think for hours unable to return to sleep. Writing and painting helped. There was often a weight of deep sadness. Partly the past experiences deeply hidden, some of it perhaps being hereditary with family depression, and diet and seasonal light sensitivities.

“As an adult with children and being an artist working at home, I paid special attention to eating right, getting sunshine into my eyes with walks out side, or reading by a sunny window. Most certainly the thing that I noticed most was when I painted, I felt happy in just a few brush strokes. It was in the mid 80’s that it became clear to me that the mere action or process of creating caused some kind of positive chemical change in the way my brain perceived my life in the moment!”

But medication is necessary for some artists to take the edge off and bring temporary balance into artistic life. June Ramsay relies on a combination of medication and therapy.

“I’ve got to find something to keep me stable for my kids’ sake,” she said.

Concern for their children has even brought some artists out of their depression.

“You can’t be selfish when you have kids,” Snyder said. “I don’t hold on to depression anymore as I think outside myself.”

Feelings of hopelessness among artists often come from daily struggle and elevated stress levels associated with the artistic profession.

Many artists are solitary by nature and it becomes enormously hard to succeed when so much “success” depends on developed relationships with clients. Creative personalities must be persistent, driven, and self-motivated to make a career. Yet, reaching success in an artistic career proves to be irrelevant in many cases.

According to some studies famous artists in various fields had continued experiences of melancholia despite having gone through years of hard labor and rejections. Thus, the artist must seek another avenue outside of success, to find acceptance within himself or herself.

“I’ve developed a philosophy of ‘Fear No Art,’” wrote Gephart. “I am art and it is me. We are one in the same. The tears and fears of my past are still in me, but by living through it, I have developed coping strategies that help me when I’m down. I am lucky to know that it will pass if I keep moving forward towards my hopes as an artist.

“Part of my daily comfort comes from God or a ‘Higher Power’ than me. As a mature adult I know that I at times am fragile and weak. When I feel overwhelmed, alone, or sad, I speak openly to God who loves me as I am. In times of joy and especially when I paint Plein Air, I revel at the beauty of this Earth and have an attitude of ‘gratitude’ for this gift of air, land, and water. I guess this is my bottom line of support during depressed times. Being able to focus on gratitude or know that you are loved as is, helps so much to recover from the fragile state.”