Okay, so there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world today and closer to home isn't any better, especially in this election year. I'll get to creativity in a second. I don't care what side of the isle you're on, watch either of the two Presidential candidates talk, and their faces, voices and gestures are filled with anger. Elsewhere you find police shooting citizens, citizens shooting police, citizens shooting citizens, race issues, protests and a bunch of fists in the air … and oh, you want to be creative?

So, do you let it all in and allow it to be a controlling part of your creative energy or do you shut it all out as best you can and derive your energy from a kinder source? Do you power your creativity with an agitative growl, gripping your brush, slamming the paint, crushing the clay and banging the keys? Or do you shut it all out like the heat on a hot summer day, chilling with some tunes, and relaxing with your chosen form of self expression?

Maybe you just shut down and wait for the world of twisted deeds to blow over, telling yourself it will all eventually be better. That a new day will come, when the birds sing, the roses bloom and calm fills the air. I personally can't imagine ever turning my creativity off. Frankly, that would only make me angry and be like trying to plug a dike with my finger anyhow. The dam would eventually break within and I'd flood my surroundings with anger. I'd be just joining the A club.

Anger is an emotion. Hell, some amazing art has been created out of anger and man's aggressive behavior, but much, especially recently, has been destroyed too. I personally have never been one to thrive on angered creativity and to be completely honest, I've said it proudly that creativity has been my salvation. Without it I would have imploded if not exploded first.

So are anger and creativity strange bedfellows? Some studies in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology seem to indicate a bit of this. Highlights of one of these articles [Nov. 2010] comparing angry and sad people indicates:

• Anger leads to a less systematic and structured approach to creativity tasks than sadness.
• Anger leads to initially higher levels of creativity than sadness.
• Anger more than sadness depletes resources.
• Creative performance declines over time more for angry than for sad people.

Okay, so don't get sad, get angry? Yet another study seems to say, "They asserted that angry feedback increases task engagement leading to an increased production of ideas, which in turn increases the likelihood of generating a good idea…" Further noting, "… that some reputable scientists and artists were angry people and that some great scientific discoveries have stemmed from intense rivalries between "competing laboratories, with their academic directors driven by distrust, anger and frustration"

So listen, studies aside, here's my personal view. I've been creative all of my life, the last three decades as an artist. My parents divorced when I was young, back at a time when most couples lived "unhappily" ever after. I had the only divorced parents in graduating class of 600, but trust me, there were plenty of unhappy and angry parents to be found. Added to this dysfunctional upbringing, my father passed away when I was 22. So look, there has been plenty to be sad and angry about. BUT, it was creativity that leveled it all out. The more creative I am, the happier I am and that is a fact.

There are many people that might loose a loved one and become sad, and that sadness turns to anger and they become creatively raged in disbelief, sorrow and maybe even guilt. I've seen a fair amount of this art and unfortunately some of it in judging many high school age art shows and competitions. Is it good art? Well, lets first ask if it's therapeutic? Yes it is and therefore, managed properly it can have a good purpose even if the art itself is not good. But, for those of you news stressed artists who feel the daily battering will help your creativity, or that creativity will help you handle it, please just do your best to tune out the news and tune in yourself. By the way, that goes for me too!

Live An Artful Life, Tom