Why does it seem like so many “artists” seem mentally unsound?

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
Overcast

Overcast

Buttmunch
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
Obviously not all artists, but between people like Chris, Dobson, Kricfalusi, Hartman and the plethora of people in places like Tumblr and DeviantArt, I just wonder why so many of these people are into drawing, painting and writing.

Is it because that kind of stuff gives them some sort of power or control they don’t otherwise have?

Even Bill Watterson, the man behind Calvin and Hobbes became super reclusive after finishing his comic. Then there’s the whole thing with Van Gogh and his ear.

Is there some kind of connection between art and mental illness? Or is it just a coincidence?
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
  • Like
  • Late
Reactions: Arm Pit Cream, Dead Mime, weedsneaker13 and 4 others
  • Like
  • Dislike
  • Autistic
Reactions: Arm Pit Cream, Dead Mime, Icasaracht and 3 others
 
  • Agree
  • Feels
Reactions: Eryngium, I Love Beef and Orion Balls
I don't know that there is any direct correlation between mental illness and creativity, but I agree that some of the best artists in the world may not have created such great works had they been "properly" medicated. People who have "abnormal" outlooks on life often seem to create the most original content.

Art and writing are regularly used as therapy in modern mental health care. It's considered a healthy outlet to relieve anxiety and work out emotional stress.
 
Last edited:
I think it's just a solitary habit you can do that's easily accessible, requires little supplies, has a work-at-your-own-pace learning curve with no prerequisite knowledge, is a very forgiving medium, and allows a lot of expression. It's a pretty "soft" skill that has a minimal chance of challenging or damaging your psyche and doesn't demand any real commitment. So, in sort, it's something to do for reclusive people.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Iwasamwillbe, Maiseisinthetea, Agent Nahman Jayden and 7 others
It's no coincidence but there's also no real correlation to speak of. "Art" and "mental illness" are attributable to virtually anything under the right circumstances and you can't really determine where the two overlap (with the exception of artists with severe pathologies such as schizophrenia.) It may be that people with evident mental illnesses (or cognitive deterioration like Alzheimer's) achieve infamy because the work gifts the viewer with insight about the mental decline. See William Utermohlen (he suffered from Alzheimer's) as an example:
Dementia.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Informative
Reactions: Mad Asshatter, Agent Nahman Jayden, Beluga and 2 others
In my opinion most of the people that would qualify as the crazy creative type are very ego driven to a fault. This makes it incredibly hard for them to take criticism or even have healthy relationships and this leads them into isolation or perceived safe spaces. If anyone spends too much time in their own head they will almost inevitably embarrass themselves and “go crazy”.
 
  • Agree
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: Dawdler, The Fool and I Love Beef
"Creator breakdowns" tend to produce some of a creator's most popular work. Something about depression or going through some really hard times drives a person into producing something passionate and raw, almost like they're lashing out in the only way they know how: the arts. This isn't always the case since the lolcow artists tend to not be good to begin with and they're seemingly in a perpetual state of depression anyway, but being cynical and angry at the world tends to be where the artist goes "I don't give a shit" and makes whatever the hell they want because, to them, it may be their last work or the only way to convince themselves to continue living another day.

There's definitely something different between artists and normal people, and it's not coincidental a lot of them tended to be antisocial and/or loners, and they become the starving artists as a result. It's sad and frustrating to have a talent that goes virtually unnoticed and waived off as the work of a lunatic (unless you draw porn for a living, but that's not any better) until the artist is long gone, and that's a huge weight to carry. It's a lot more easy for artists to find each other and support each other than it was even a hundred years ago, and that's either made a huge difference or has made things much worse.
 
  • Winner
  • Agree
Reactions: Dawdler and The Fool
The artist lifestyle is unhealthy from a lot of perspectives. If try to solely live off the art you make you have to worry about deadlines, getting commissioned to do work, how long certain projects take, all while making sure you make enough to eat, pay rent, and lucky enough getting time to excersive and leave the house. Living under these kinda conditions for years screws up some people's mind's permanently. Not sure if any kiwi's here are fans of the Sleepycast boys but the touched on the topic of living as an artist/animator.
It's not a line of work you get into because it's financially stable. You make serious life decisions/changes if you try to make a living on "art". Most people develop certain was of coping to counteract the stress this shit produces. I'm not saying being an artist makes you into a au-tis-mo but it's no wonder that living under these conditions for years fucks up some people's brain.
 
I’m not trying to be redundant by double posting but speaking from personal experience art school is full of lolcows. You can tell almost immediately from the start, with few exceptions, where the wreckage will settle. There are a handful of stereotypes that art students fall into, some of them good most of them bad. The bad ones mostly consist of special snowflakes types that don’t understand they are just a part of a larger sperg storm. Realistically, most of these students exist in a sort of gray area but it’s guaranteed that a handful are beyond the pale and they are just going to do whatever the fuck they want to the bitter end. These are the types that end up being the “crazy” ones as they are incapable of learning.

It is arguably getting worse with the advent of some increasingly popular art forms and styles and it can cause some real problems (often hilarious ones). You have everything from unapologetic furry fetishists and the Deviant Art OC crowd to the people that are absolutely incapable of drawing anything but anime. Can you imagine trying to teach these types of people proper fundamentals? All of their life they have basically been told by their mommy how amazing their Dragon Ball OCs are and they only really went to art school because the parents are getting desperate.

Not tying to step on any toes here but anime is a perfect example of this problem. Any decent art teacher/school’s first order of business will be to mercilessly beat the anime out of you as to deprogram you so they can then start with fundamentals and any art school that doesn’t do this is just taking your dumb money and telling you whatever dumb shit they think you want to hear. I’m not trying to shit all over anime as the same can apply to more western comic styles too but anime is by far the biggest example of this and you can go back to drawing whatever you want after you shut up and do it someone else’s way for a time. I have found that people that struggle with this concept are highly likely to fall into the crazy/lolcow artist category wether they ultimately graduate or not.

Ironically this is a very western problem in a way. There is an anecdote that if you tell a classroom of say ten American students to draw an orange, you will get ten very different oranges and some of them won’t even resemble an orange. You ask ten Japanese students to draw an orange and you will get ten oranges that look quite similar. I’m not arguing that one result is better than the other but this is largely true. At least the Japanese teachers have a baseline whereas the American teachers are called homophobic ect. for telling kids to stop drawing furry porn when told to draw an orange.

My favorite art teacher told me a story about the time he spent learning under an old Italian master in Florence. This type of arrangement is interesting as he and a handful of other students would get to train under him in exchange for doing various chores and work around his property and it was his way or the highway. My teacher was tasked with drawing Michelangelo’s David in charcoal. This drawing took him a couple of days but when he was satisfied he presented it to this old master. The old master proceeded to take a long look at it before wiping portions of the charcoal drawing off with his hand and telling him to continue with improving the drawing. What my teacher didn’t realize is that this old master would do this same thing for months upon months casually brushing off portions of the charcoal telling him to continue improving on this one drawing until one fantastic day while taking another long look at it he ripped it in half and told him it was finished. The old master was never interested in seeing another rendition of David, he was trying to teach an entirely different lesson that some people are just not capable of learning as you need patience, humility, adaptability and a whole bunch of charcoal. Do you think that Chris Chan despite drawing Sonichu over and over again for over decade will ever draw a better Sonichu?
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Dawdler, Lords Greatsword, Hans and 2 others
Artists tend to be tormented in some way. Be it the society they're in or their personal issues, it seems like they have something driving them to scream for help through a canvas or create a world to escape into. Their adversity is both a boon and a bane. It drives then to create masterpieces sometimes, but at the same time, it eats away at their souls, and the deeper they dive, the madder they get.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dawdler and Lords Greatsword
theres definitely a link
i know a girl that is really good at drawing and for whatever reason she just uses he/him pronouns
doesn't correct anyone else who call her "her", no other weird shit
its just she refers of herself as male which is very noticeable in Russian since it very gendered language
Im afraid to think what would happened to her if she was raised in another "more progressive" country
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: Dawdler and Mad Hunter
DefinitelyNotMe said:
theres definitely a link
i know a girl that is really good at drawing and for whatever reason she just uses he/him pronouns
doesn't correct anyone else who call her "her", no other weird shit
its just she refers of herself as male which is very noticeable in Russian since it very gendered language
Im afraid to think what would happened to her if she was raised in another "more progressive" country
Click to expand...

At least she doesn't sperg out when referred to with female pronouns. Probably a troon afraid to come out, a genderspecial who uses both pronouns, or someone in a rebellious phase.

Reminds me of this stupid thing where everyone was saying "no it's possible for lesbians to be he/him because muh history." That's like saying it's OK to be openly racist because people in the past have been openly racist, too.


Screenshot_20250122_154051_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20250122_154109_Chrome.jpg




I've also done some research and people with an addictive personality (people prone to developing addictions) tend to love art. That can also explain the hippies who like psychedelic and lefty type nonsense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back