agatha speaks - art - life on the edge

No one is normal—that's a construct of psychology. But to be an artist, one has to be even less normal than average. Artists live on the edge—they have to in order to be able to do what they do.

Artists tell us in their various ways who we are, what we're doing, what we look like. They show us the culture that the majority of us are so immersed in that we cannot see it, which is why art is sometimes puzzling or disturbing.

Psychologists say that the human mind is only capable of accepting one small step away from the status quo. At the time when the common knowledge was that the world was flat, it was impossible for almost everyone to conceive of the earth as a globe. It took a long time for that fact to become acceptable, and probably a lot of people went to their graves clinging tenaciously to the flat earth image.

One way that a culture learns to accept new ideas is for artists to introduce them through art. And for artists to have the perspective to see what is happening in the culture, they gravitate to the edges of society.

Satire and allegory have long been ways to expose to the masses the hidden machinations of governments. The creator of the story The Emperor's New Clothes thought that the policies of the rulers were insubstantial to the point of being ridiculous, but the majority of the people couldn't see that, and those huddling close to the one in power pretended not to. The writer used the symbol of the clear open eyes of an innocent child to name the problem, and used the distance and perspective of an artist to present it in a manner so that the people—at least some of them—could begin to see it.

Artists are often “not like the other kids,” not just refusing to play by the rules but unable to. One who can see that the emperor has no clothes on and knows there is nothing to gain by pretending he does, cannot just go along with the crowd without suffering internal confusion and pain.

Artists also need distance to have the space they need to create. Often, their senses are wide open and it's painful to be in the midst of a group who isn’t as sensitive, to be subject to sensory extremes of light, scent and noise, to the shallowness and artifice of a culture, to impractical and sometimes cruel and dangerous activities.

Our culture reveres the beautiful, the light, the bright, and prefers to deny that there is any ugliness or darkness, either in the culture as a whole or in the individual. So the darkness comes out in art. Horror films and books are popular because they acknowledge all the hidden things that the culture pretends doesn't exist. Young people especially are troubled by this claiming that the emperor is wearing fine clothes when in actuality the he may be naked or perhaps wearing a hangman’s hood and carrying instruments of torture.

All of us have darkness inside, desires to hurt others, to lash out in anger and frustration, but we do not allow ourselves to admit these desires, and know of no way to let them out safely. Authors and film makers bring these things out in their works so we can participate vicariously and safely. Ideally, we learn from what artists show us, but it may take many exposures to such truths before we can accept them.

When a person's income depends on not seeing, it is nearly impossible for that person to be convinced of a wrong. People who had slaves often believed they were doing the right thing. They believed that Africans were lesser beings than white people, believed they were doing a good thing for Blacks by taking care of them, giving them food and shelter and something useful to do. Many stories have been written about the wrongs of slavery, segregation, apartheid, but some people still cannot shift their views, so more stories will have to be written.

Artists also have distance because what they do causes them to be ridiculed, shunned or abused. Part of the nature of the artist on the edge is a need to stand up and speak out about the ways of a culture that feel wrong. Artists sometimes want to shout to the silent sleeping majority, Wake up and look around! People don't want to be told they're asleep, that the beautiful world they're living in is a fantasy with no solid ground beneath it, and are inclined to attack the messenger rather than listen to the message. Artists need to be sensitive to do what they do but that very sensitivity makes this exposure all the more painful.

It's hard to live being different—blessed, or cursed, with broader vision, deeper insight, the need to say what those senses find, and the willingness to do it. Often the nature of the artist wants quiet and solitude while what they have to say requires them to expose their deepest beliefs to a society that will denigrate the artist and deny the beliefs.

It is a blessing to have the gifts of the artist, a great and wondrous honor, but it is also a burden, sometimes to the point of being unbearable. Though it’s the nature of the artist to doubt, to question, even their own souls, many would never choose to be any other way.