Robert Genn on Melancholy, Art and Happiness
Excerpts from article Art and Happiness, by painter Robert Genn :
In the recently published “Against Happiness,” popular writer Eric Wilson disparages our current love affair with putting on a happy face.
With our “feel good” culture and the widespread use of happy drugs, everybody’s trying to be cheerful and there are no decent dollops of melancholy and sadness, he says.
When this happens, art becomes bland, unchallenging and redundant.
Dr. Thomas Svolos of the department of Psychiatry at Creighton University School of Medicine thinks Wilson is right. “When you’re melancholy, you tend to step back and examine your life,” he says. “That kind of questioning is essential for creativity.”
What these guys are talking about is a redefinition of happiness, and I think they’re onto something. Life’s not about getting free of pain, but rather finding happiness through service to some process with links to a higher ideal.
A state of thoughtful melancholy and sensitivity breeds an elevated creativity and a more profound happiness. Here are a few of my own keys:
Work alone and be your own motivator.
Take time for private wandering and nature’s gifts.
Dig around and explore purposefully.
Serve others as well as your own passions.
Continued in his article Art and Happiness.
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Thanks for your perspectives.
A number of writers think depression can be a positive, creativity-enhancing experience — see my post Making Good Use of Depression
http://depressionandcreativity.org/making-good-use-of-depression/
“A state of thoughtful melancholy and sensitivity breeds an elevated creativity and a more profound happiness.” That’s very insightful. I’ve come to respect melancholy as a very healthy state — not to dwell in permanently, but to travel through for a time, pondering life. Thanks for your inspirational post