Artists Passion

My mother has always been an artists. She’s also always been a very practical woman. She paints from photos, and her art usually consists of flowers, beach scenes, and forest creatures. There is only one time I can think of where she let her creativity have full reign. And, the result scared her. Scared her to the point that she destroyed the painting.

It started out as a tree with souls. It was really cool. Then, a kid emerged playing on a swing. Then, a figure emerged behind the kid. From there, the painting took on ominous undertones. My mother couldn’t deal with the images sprouting from her subconscious, so she killed them.

Some artists embrace their darker sides. There are horror movies, horror paintings, heavy metal and other kinds of music dealing with the scary recesses of the brain that hold the creepy crawlies of our minds. Justin Stanley creates sculptures and prints of fantastical torture, for example.

I’m all for creative license, but I can understand why darker art intimidates some of the ordinary folks out there. Some subject matter is hard to get through, and a good piece of art does have an impact on its audience. Everything we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell changes a piece of us before its through.

However, I believe every piece of art out there deserves to be put out in the public sphere, so everyone out there can make up their own minds. Even if a piece makes me uncomfortable. Then, I read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.

It’s based on a true story; the novel is about a 12-year-old boy whose neighbor chains a teenage girl in a bomb shelter in her basement and lets the neighbor children torture her for fun. To them, it’s a game.

The novel is a study on how ordinary people can get caught up in evil; it was very hard for me to read. I had to stop and start to get through it, and I was emotionally tired afterwards.

Does the subject matter of a group of people getting together to torture a young girl bother me? Of course. Do I believe it is immoral for a woman to allow kids to torture one another? Of course. Do I think Ketchum should be banned or censored because of the content? Not at all.

Things like this happen all of the time, and Ketchum wrote in a special section of the novel that he wrote The Girl Next Door because some people scare him, and the story of a real=life woman who also let neighborhood children torture a girl in her care was haunting him. I also think it’s important for people to let themselves feel uncomfortable every once in a while. We live in a society where we insulate ourselves from bad feelings. In safe settings, like while viewing a work of art or reading a book, bad feelings can help us grow.

They also help us see where we stand in society, and they can help us move forward in intentional living. Seeing there’s something wrong can help us find remedies. Are you worried about the environment? Take some time out of every day to actively take care of nature. Worried about all of the food recalls out there? Read up about your rights as a consume and what the government’s really allowed to do for you. And, when life gets you down, go out and create, even if it’s just for therapy. Even if the outcome disturbs you and will never see the light of day.

But, even if even you can’t stomach your work, someone may still get something positive out of it.

Just something to think about.