Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed that artists (painters, dancers, musicians, etc.) seem more prone to drug use than others. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there possibly a link between the personality trait that makes one artistic and their desire to get intoxicated?
Creative minds often desire to push their boundaries and are always looking for new ways to craft their works. It turns out that drugs can help artists and performers step up their game and unlock their creativity. Obviously, there are extreme risks in doing so, but that's how some people have done things in their careers. I don't know if it's a predisposition, though that wouldn't surprise me.
Actually it's a myth that's propagated by the mentors of artists. I was on a writers blog for example and the writer claimed that alcohol made people more creative. It's all a big lie. But since artists buy into the myths they feel that they can't be all that creative unless they are intoxicated and that's probably the reason why most of them just keep abusing drugs.
Well drugs and alcohol are uninhibitors and do sometimes influence an artist's work, though if it's for the betterment of the artwork is subjective. In fact, all of art is subjective and most surrealists or impressionists succumb to the meaning that the audience gives to their art, not to theirs. This is all after the fact-after the thing was made.
I have noticed that drugs have influenced some of my favorite albums, songs, and paintings/sculptures/drawings and while that is sad, I guess it really just helps make some of it more legitimate. It makes you go through whatever the person was going through, really.
I've honestly heard only once about a painter who seemed to be more creative whilst drunk. Of course, the majority of people considered that his artwork, made whilst drunk, was a bit controversial and unethical to moral principles, but it essentially couldn't exclude the fact that it was indeed much more detailed and vivid. I could see farther than appearances, and I even bought some of his paintings when I visited his town.
I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again. I believe that the propensity of celebrities to take drugs can be attributed to either sheer boredom or a lack of new challenges. Since they're so successful and they've managed to accomplish things an average person could only dream of, there's nothing more for them to do to improve their lives. That's how they resort to the mysterious, the prohibited, and the esoteric. Drugs offer the whole package.
Is that so? Are you talking about artists of today or in general? A number of fiction writers don't resort to drugs, though admittedly, there are a few who indulge in it in order to treat their depression. There are painters who are like that at present but how many are there compared to the entire population of painters and digital artists around the world? You see more people indulging in drugs even though they're not artists. So I guess drug intake happens on a case to case basis and has no deep relationship with creative minds.
Those occupation sound more like artist that create or perhaps free spirited people. Just like hippies before them, experimenting and expression comes first. I think it just comes with the creative side of an individual.
Then there were people like Siegmund Freud who used cocaine when studying. Some people have used drugs without becoming addicted for either experimental or recreational purposes. I think that you can achieve the same creativity without drugs, you may just have to learn to relax and allow your imagination to have free flow.
They say there is a correlation (though not necessarily causation ) between intelligence and propensity for addiction- and there often is a correlation between intelligence and creativity. I'm not so sure I think this one's a hard and fast rule though....there are just so many circumstances that create addicts.
That's what I also noticed. Bob Marley was a great reggae artist but he was also known for being a weed smoker. Also, one of my favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway was an alcoholic, and Edgar Allan Poe mentioned that he could write much better stories whenever he was drunk. I think having an addiction to something helps someone focus.
C Creative people often need a "release" in order to express their creativity, they feel as though they need it in order to do what normally come naturally to them. It is sad because they have a talent I would love to have and so often it gets wasted.