Rage & Sorrow

There are a lot of emotions on the scale we feel our way along in life. Happiness is one that we all seek. Unalloyed happiness does promote creativity, but in my experience happy art is generally rather tacky and shallow. There's a general lack of 'oomph' to it, and everything seems overly bright and flat. The result is bland, rather than expressive. It's not beautiful. It's merely decorative.

The two passions that bring out the beautiful work in most of us seem to be rage and sorrow, as they pertain to love, the third and most commonly expressed artistic theme. What is it that causes this? I have a theory, but it's embryonic, as I've only started developing it since I've been working on LILT.

I think rage and sorrow are negative feelings, and as they're harnessed to create art they often stem from love, a positive. This naturally creates contrast and depth. The basis for the rage and/or sorrow needs to be described, or the negative is merely a blackness. There's no detail, and thus no expression or depth. Given that the underlying need in art is to express oneself in such a way that will provoke feelings in others, the detail and contrast are necessary, so the love is put into the work as well; positive and negative for contrast, allowing high- and low-lights, finer detail, and profundity.

Unmixed happiness doesn't span much of the emotional scale. That said, when happiness is expected and not achieved the result is more often than not sorrow or rage. So, theoretically, if you expect too much and don't get it you bring the negative in. If you want to create beautiful art be arrogant about your emotional future. You never know. It may bring about your magnum opus.

[discuss]