I was talking to some artist friends of mine and I found it interesting that they all said they had OCD. Their attention to detail was very acute and it became obvious that their ‘condition’ was part of their skill. ‘Obsession is an important part of what makes me artistic,’ was one comment that was made in fact ‘I cannot see how you could produce work without it’, they went on to say.
Maybe the labelling of this condition as an illness maybe shooting the goose that lays the golden egg in that we may be losing the artists in our midst by trying to help those with states of mind that ‘normal’ people term as an impediment.
In the distant past the differences were often embraced as a gift but there is a theory that these differences were subject to a form of religious racism. In the west these Christian ‘values’ have been incorporated into our thinking including the idea that the experts have the answers and the public need to be saved. The experts have swapped their church robes for white coats but I would caution that the things that look right today may not be right in the future as our descendants look back to us. Ask yourself how confident the people in the past were with the teachings of the Church? Were they convinced they were right? They had God on their side; of course they believed they were right. Now we are confident, we are right and we have our god, science on our side.
The one thing that seems so evident is that science never seems to spot the unexpected consequence, the black swan, and how can it? However it can look sceptically at its actions and maybe see that often they are taking us down roads of no return.
How much longer will it be that anything that deviates from the norm will be considered something to be changed, this was tried in the most draconian terms with homosexuality but something like thinking differently is much harder to defend against because in many cases it can be a problem if the world is wired up differently to your world, that does not necessarily mean it is wrong, just different, and to be a great artist you need to be different.
Vic
www.bluescampuk.co.uk we need keyboard players for bluescamp this year!
Maybe the labelling of this condition as an illness maybe shooting the goose that lays the golden egg in that we may be losing the artists in our midst by trying to help those with states of mind that ‘normal’ people term as an impediment.
In the distant past the differences were often embraced as a gift but there is a theory that these differences were subject to a form of religious racism. In the west these Christian ‘values’ have been incorporated into our thinking including the idea that the experts have the answers and the public need to be saved. The experts have swapped their church robes for white coats but I would caution that the things that look right today may not be right in the future as our descendants look back to us. Ask yourself how confident the people in the past were with the teachings of the Church? Were they convinced they were right? They had God on their side; of course they believed they were right. Now we are confident, we are right and we have our god, science on our side.
The one thing that seems so evident is that science never seems to spot the unexpected consequence, the black swan, and how can it? However it can look sceptically at its actions and maybe see that often they are taking us down roads of no return.
How much longer will it be that anything that deviates from the norm will be considered something to be changed, this was tried in the most draconian terms with homosexuality but something like thinking differently is much harder to defend against because in many cases it can be a problem if the world is wired up differently to your world, that does not necessarily mean it is wrong, just different, and to be a great artist you need to be different.
Vic
www.bluescampuk.co.uk we need keyboard players for bluescamp this year!
