Why are artists so often addicts?

to escape from their creative but self-destructive minds...to escape reality which interfears into their inner life...to get inspiration

generally artists are weak morally because of their creativity

it's sad though...

 

I agreee with BraveSirRubin.. it's an escape. =)

 

I'm addicted to love

I haven't ever really been addicted to a substance
but I would have to agree with BraveSirRubin that when I've let it get the better of me it was in the name of escape

 

i think everybody has something they may be addicted to, in some way or form. maybe it's the only way we feel comfort in finding something that allows us to escape or takes our interest in some way away from our own lives.

 

An escape indeed!

I still find it fairly difficult for myself to get through some days without any drugs/booze/ anything of the sort... yet man, I've been without any drugs/booze/ or anything of that sort for hmm... 4 months now... it's nice to see that I can actually live without those things... never thought that I would have been able to, yet never tried to live without them ever since I was 15 or so.

They key is to find positive ways to escape... distractions... music, hobbies, work, anything... I do not like this reality, and cannot stand this society... but ya know... where are born into it, and there's not much we can do about it... gotta face it somehow... drugs are a fairly destructive way of coping with it... not too productive too.

 

it's all about distractions, i think. like being on this site for example, can be addicting and an way for me to escape from the reality that i am presently in.

 

It's a tad sad though, that modern life (or well, life in general) is so depressing that we have to constantly distract ourselves from it.

Anyhow, I'm just gonna get through the whole college thing, and then man... I'm gonna roam and roam and make sure to learn how to love life so much that I could just sit around staring at the clouds all day and feel eternal bliss.

 

aww sounds so ideal, but is it really reality for all of us to be able to do such things. sometimes i feel like there is never time to just roam. always something has to be done or rather you gotta continue going with the flow of the world, or you may never catch up? but who would want to be with the world anyways, with everything happening? sometimes it seems like nothing is ever going the way i would like it. even my escapes aren't what they used to be or rather i never have time to do it or motivation for it.



here i go, rambling...

 

I think the question here is why are so many substance users artists?

 

Very good question.

 

makes their creative juices just flow...

 

Wouldn't a gigantic cider press be just as effecti.... no wait... wrong juices, sorry.

 

well, i think for a lot of them, being in a job outside of mainstream allows them more freedom, as wella s the fact that they don't have 9 to 5 jobs requiring they get up reliably. there's also the hipness factor of it all, added to the self-indulgence and ego required to be a person who can put for their art again and again. maybe it's just a personality trait. but for me, the thought of anyone hearing me sing, seeing me paint or looking at my ceramics is not something i relish.

 

because they think they have to be

 

I have known people who THINK they're artists, but are really just burnouts with a paintbrush.

 

I'm an artist (a real life EMPLOYED artist) and I find this thread rather silly.

I've used various substances in my life. The only ones I'm addicted to are caffeine and nicotine. None of my drug use has ever been related to my art, or enhanced it in any way. I think most artist figure that out the first time they get high and try to create...it usually doesn't turn out real well.

Drugs are different things to different people. One person's "escape" is another's "mind expansion".

Artist have no monopoly on substance abuse. The thread could have just as easily been named "Why are roofers, landscapers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, school kids, homeless folks, etc. so often addicts?"

 

Are artists often addicts or are addicts often artists? I think addicts are often artists, because they know of human suffering, which is often a muse for many people. Pain=emotion. Emotion=expression. Expression=art.

 

I was reading this yesterday, it seems as good an example as any;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

1 of the 5 main psychological traits of personality is openness to experience, people who excel in this catergory generally show appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination and curiosity.

I think it is in an artists nature to want to experiment and explore with drugs.

 

I thought the 'drug using artist' is a pretty romantic cliché out of the past century.

Doing art is plain work like any other job, to survive in a world where the art is not defined by the artists alone, but by a pool full of sharks they gotta live together with in kinda symbiosis. 'Art' is not free, nor is the artist, and this is another cliché ... but as long as you take for real what is suggested by the media, you might believe this too.

A today's artist certainly needs to meet other criteria than just openness like in said article.

Like - nowadays it seems important (for visual artists at least) to preserve their own style and not play around too much - as when they do, their art might not sell good any more.

And escape - this whole society is built on reality escape - do you really believe that which you feel like you wanna escape from, is the real thing ?

Just venting.

 

OH! THE WIT! THE WIT!!