creativity + drinking

[Sunbeam]

creativity + drinking

I don't consider myself an artist, but I like doing creative things. I just finished a quilt I began four years ago. I would not have completed it had I still been drinking. With alcohol, I would have not been able to do the geometry for this project. Drinking mostly makes me tired and my brain fuzzy.

[hulagirl]

creativity + drinking

eyes closed while thoughts race
grasping, ideas flutter by
dream of focused art

[AMELIA]

creativity + drinking

Yep, I am with Juliana,
Alcohol just seems to make me tired and fuzzy too.
I don't mind socialising,....but working and painting...nooooo!

Hulagirl, I like your composition.

[MyHeartIsDrenchedInWine]

creativity + drinking

I think it was Hemingway that said "Write drunk, edit sober" but there's a price to pay for that as we all know.

[trixietrack]

creativity + drinking

I think a person has to be pretty damn skilled already to be able to create while drunk.

[AMELIA]

creativity + drinking

Yes, actually Trixie, perhaps you have something here.
But doesn't the level of the artists self belief/angst/ amount of drunkness come into play too?
Perhaps we are discussing an idea (and hoping for clarity) when we haven't acknowledged how many different variations there might be with artists who use different substances (or just alcohol) for different lengths of time. Surely if you are an artist and once in a blue moon you get completely pissed,....that is a bit different to an artist that drinks from morning til night,....day in , day out?
This is a really interesting discussion.
Look forward to reading others responses.
Amelia

[spottydingo]

creativity + drinking

"Perhaps we are discussing an idea (and hoping for clarity) when we haven't acknowledged how many different variations there might be with artists who use different substances (or just alcohol) for different lengths of time. Surely if you are an artist and once in a blue moon you get completely pissed,....that is a bit different to an artist that drinks from morning til night,....day in , day out?"

I can think of many artists, writers and musicians who used various substances and yes, there are many variations:

those who quit and continued being creative
those who quit and stopped being creative
those who died

as with addiction i think its different for everyone. personally i hope i can be in the first group!!!

Hippie said "I agree though that certain drugs and even alcohol can open creative channels. I think though once the channels are open you don't necessarily have to keep feeding the creativity with those chemicals. "

i agree with this. all my experiences of my 20s and 30s (not just chemicals but life, work, school) taught me how to open my creative channels, and also how i work and how i learn. i feel like i have the knowledge and inspiration and psychological tools and don't need the chemicals anymore. they are a detriment to "real work". they deplete my physical, mental and emotional mojo, which is what brought me here (to this place in my life and to MWO)

i think the reasons i continue with the drinking are to do with lack of self confidence, too much sensitivity to how crappy people can be to one another and habit.

someone could write a thesis on this subject (and probably has!)

my excuse for not doing art over the past 4 years has been because i was working on our first house that we bought 4 years ago. then 1 year ago we moved to BC and now that we're almost unpacked we're moving back to CA again. so, i figure it will be another year before i can "give myself permission" to work on stuff again. its SO frustrating! does anyone else make excuses to work on stuff? i feel guilty doing art while the kitchen is a mess or some other thing needs doing.

i've noticed men don't have this problem. my brother-in-law gets home from work 2 hours before my sister does and sits down to paint instead of helping her around the house. my ex-boyfriend (a painter/musician) could work with a hurricane going on in the same room. and i've had many artistic friends who would work regardless of what kind of pigsty they lived in.

i just finished reading a book about Tina Modotti who was a photographer who lived in Mexico in the 20s and then became a communist militant ... she had a good quote about this (she is writing to Edward Weston, a photographer and her teacher / mentor / lover) ... keep in mind its 1925:

"... I have not been very creative Edward as you can see -- less than a print a month. That is terrible! And yet it is not lack of interest as much as lack of discipline and power of execution. I am convinced now that as far as creation is concerned (outside the creation of species) women are negative -- They are too petty and lack power of concentration and faculity to be wholly absorbed by one thing.

Is this too rash a statement? Perhaps it is, if so I humbly beg women's pardon -- I have the unpardonable habit of always generalizing an opinion obtained from an analysis of just my personal self -- And speaking of my "personal self": I cannot -- as you once proposed to me "solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art" -- Not only can I not do that but I even feel the problem of life hinders my problem of art ... By art I mean creation of any sort -- You might say to me then that since the element of life is stronger in me than the element of art I should just resign myself to it and make the best of it -- but I cannot accept life as it is -- it is too chaotic -- too unconscious -- therefore my resistance to it -- my combat with it -- I am forever struggling to mold life to my temperament and needs ... and consequently I have not much left to give art."

sorry if that was too long, but i dog-eared that page to put in my notebook ... it really spoke to me ... food for thought. comments?

cheers,
Tedi






"

[livingfree]

creativity + drinking

Smile

LOL - Tedi I don't know why your post made me laugh but it did. I think it is the "thinking" to much part of an artists brain!! I agree with the petty women part and thats when I really did laugh. You have it right. Actually I am an Interior Designer who has gotten into another field, but when I graduated from college I knew the Art side of life was where my brain was tied. I think my most creative work as been done sober - but I am to tired to try anything right now. Just focusing on living sober for now and running the business I am in. But when that day comes ... I will once again believe that that is WHO I am - not WHO I am when I am High on Alcohol.

Lots of deep thoughts to you!
Liv

[flyinhigh]

creativity + drinking

I am glad this topic has entered here...I'm an artist and my bread and butter depend on it...I would use AL to support my creativity and found it to be a source that led me into many different mediums and realms that I never thought possible for myself. I began to find AL to be a crutch for inspiration, not finding it in the world around me. This became really apparent when I would open my sketch book and find drawings of bottles and glasses and cigarettes, over an over...I don't even remember doing many of these sketches. My paintings began to take the tone of wine and hatred. When I began here (MWO) and started to try AF for many days, I was scared...literally sh*tless! I was so nervous to pick up my chalk and draw...but then I did, and I can't believe it but my art is SO much better without AL. I do sometimes miss it, I loved to dance/sing/smoke and drink in my studio, and have had many great nights there...but the next day I was always paying for it...I am slowly climbing back into the director's chair and I must say, I like the view much better here.

this quote has been a source of inspiration for me lately:

"You use a piece of glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul."
-George Bernard Shaw

thanks for starting this...great to know there are other AF artists out there struggling too...