How to avoid the stigma of the "crazy artist"

So I've been watching this art history series on PBS (first made, of course, by BBC) called Simon Schama's Power of Art. It's on eight artists (Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko) and basically they all suffered a good deal in their lives because of their very intense personalities. Though wholly over dramatic, dark, and unapologetically pretentious, it was a very interesting series. I found some of the artists to be complete assholes (see, Caravaggio, Bernini) some to be mostly assholes with some redeeming qualities (see, David, Picasso) and the rest to just be quite extreme. I think that the one on Van Gogh was the most painful to watch because really, the man was a ruddy genius and yet he was . . . crazy. It was quite sad because he generally seemed to be a good person, if just a little self absorbed. I have been in quite a "Van Gogh" mood this summer. It's funny because I didn't really used to like him, and there are some that I don't prefer as much but now I look at his paintings and drawings and they just floor me.



My drawings need to be polished and refined for hours, even days. My paintings take weeks, even months. Van Gogh plugged out a painting a day! The thing is, I can produce things that look how I want them to look, it just takes a good deal more time. I also think that I need to experiment more with thicker paint because I do everything in thin layers. This works well, but I think that my work could become more visually powerful if I learned how to use thicker paint and where to use it.

At any rate, the whole while I was watching this series, I was thinking, do I have to go through this to be a great artist? Does a great artist have to be so emotionally intense? Because really, I don't want to be. I feel like it's really hard to live like that and that is why all those artists died young. Then I decided that there were loads of artists who were perfectly normal (as normal as an artist can be expected to be) and that ol' Simon Schama decided to focus on these melodramatic blow hards because he enjoyed the drama. Because really, I am very passionate about art. It is the center of my spiritual core, it is my God. I'm just a bit more in touch with my surroundings than these fellows. I hope.

Oh, and also? I learned something which is probably old news to most people: Dali was a fascist. I suppose he had a 50/50 chance, being Spanish and all, but evidently he was a total Franco supporter, even after the horror of Guernica. He even congratulated Franco "at clearing Spain of destructive forces". The painting below (Soft Construction With Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War) has always been unsettling to me for fairly obvious reasons, but now, knowing that Dali was advocating the the rights of a brutal fascist usurper, I can't help but be completely disgusted by it. It is true that I am past my requisite teenage artist phase of loving Dali (his aesthetic isn't really in tune with mine any more) so I don't feel too horrid, but it pains me to say that there was a time when I loved his work and thought that he was really cool. They say that the way an artist behaves shouldn't really affect how you think of his work, but I don't think that that is true. A painting, drawing, or whatever is a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs of the artist. Now really Dali's vivid blue skies and orange desert scenes only depress me. I want something fresher, something which feels less dark. Funny how an artist who came an entire art movement before Dali does seem fresher and more contemporary. I am talking about Van Gogh, by the way.

A week and five days until school starts up again. I'm fairly excited to get started on projects and to move into my apartment. I'm ready.