The Sad Truth

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.”— Pearl S. Buck

If you do not show your sadness, betimes, then you are not authentic.  We do not need denial in life.  We need authenticity.  There are times to fake it 'til you make it.  The key word in that is 'fake'. There are times we need to know you are real.  It helps us with our own real.  The more creative we are, I feel, the more sensitive you are because you have opened all the closets in your heart where you have tucked away those feelings you have not expressed.  That said, I am not a sad person nor do I cycle between highs and lows.  I am simply authentic and if a sad portrait comes out, it might be from something far in the past that was still there even with all my cleansing.

I have been smarting, though, a bit since, some time ago, someone said my portraits/paintings are always sad as if I am not to allow my Muse to suggest the reality I paint on my faces.  I remembered it is not my interpretation but hers because society has conditioned us to think being sad is being weak.  Do you have any idea how intimidating it is if we do not show our Real Self?  It gives the idea that, somehow, we are not enough.  I spent way too many years with a smile pasted on my face because smiling is acceptable.  Well, it wasn't.  It was another way to hide reality in a small town that hid many things, by people who hid things.  I know this now.  But, when I was growing up, I did not realize I was growing up around fake people.  So, in being authentic, sometimes my faces ARE sad, not because I am, but because that is what my Muse decided was best to release through creativity.

Of course there are times we are happy, happy, happy.  But it is not real to be all of the time.  Sometimes we have a million reasons to be sadder than we are.  If we are authentic, yes, of course, we have the gift of every emotion and sadness is one of them.  It is okay to be sad.  When you are an artist, your very soul gets involved, or should.  If you are truly in the artistic soul-expression zone, you will express what is there.  Art has been used as therapy since we once carved figures in stone.  It is an authentic way of expressing what we may not be able to express any other way. 

When we look at some highly creative people like, Milton, Michael D'Angelo, Swift and Hogarth, Plath, and many more, poured and painted and wrote their hearts out.  You see, a contented person ( who and where are the real authentic ones) do not WISH to share their most authentic healing selves in order to help others see strength and courage and the things that others might truly, right to the soul, relate to in deep ways.

There is a great strength in being willing to acknowledge that we might feel sad betimes.  Of course, it is a given that what we push down, deep, is eventually going to seep out.  Sadness can be a real gift, as are all our emotions.  Sadness is often more close to our authentic self than happiness can be.  Sadness is, of course, a sign of our vulnerability to life itself.  We need to honor the sadness's, not dwell in them.  In expressing sadness, in our art, we are truly being our most beautiful, vulnerable selves down here where life can be difficult sometimes.  I love those who are willing to share their true selves.  If you are sad, be sad.  If your art wants to be sad, let it be.  I will love your art most for being truth.  Beautiful Be.

©Carol Desjarlais 6.4.19