Creative Legacies: Communism & Mad Ingenuity

"Salute", Yue Minjun 

Li Dazhao

Today is the birthday of Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. There's a special place in my heart for China - not because I'm Communist, I'm not that Mad - it's for their Art. One of the Ba rong, ba chi state::

Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless

Through deep satire, China's subculture of Mad Art is just that - chaotic & lawless . . . hence their place in my heart.

Steve Jobs, 2.24.55 - 10.5.11 

Sadly, We have lost one of our own, Steven Jobs - truly a Mad Genius. Admiring the influential legacy forged by his creativity & imagination, I reflect on what creative legacy I wish to forge . . . Although, I don't try to KNOW what lies ahead.

In the diary of a 16 year-old Robert Schumann, the fellow Mad Boy puts it best -

What I really am I myself do not know clearly. I am certain of having some imagination, and nobody has denied me this. I am not a profound thinker: I can never logically proceed along a line of thought which I may have started well. Whether I am a poet - one has to be a poet, never can become one - posterity will have to judge.

The Mad Boy

Fame: Side effects may include Panic Attacks

Actress Amanda Seyfried recently said in an interview that she regularly see's a therapist to help with her Panic Attacks. 

Makes me wonder what other effects a high-profile has on an Artist affected by Mental Health issues . . .

The Mad Boy

Hate? Nope just Depressed

Depressed people don't hate you, just themselves . . .what a relief!!

The Molecular Psychiatry Journal published a study finding that depression seems to uncouple the brain's "Hate Circuit" . . . of course, I have to no clue what any of that means. But researcher Jianfeng Feng does -

"One possibility is that the uncoupling of this hate circuit could be associated with impaired ability to control and learn from social or other situations which provoke feelings of hate towards self or others, this in turn could lead to an inability to deal appropriately with feelings of hate and an increased likelihood of both uncontrolled self-loathing and withdrawal from social interactions."

Neat.
The Mad Boy 

Requiem for a (antidepressant) Dream . . .

Self-explanatory

It's easy for us artists to get lost in our dreams. . .actually, most everything is a dream to us. A recent article published in the WSJ Health Journal explores the effects that Antidepressants, among other medications, have on our dreams -

". . . Sleep experts say medications particularly apt to bring troubling dreams are those that affect neurotransmitters, the brain's chemical messengers that influence sleep cycles, among other things. That includes most antidepressants, as well as antihistamines and anticholinergic drugs used to treat a broad range of conditions, from overactive bladder to bronchial spasms. Sleeping pills can also disrupt sleep cycles and cause nightmares. . ."

I don't really mind these vivid dreams. However disturbing they may be, dreams are the neurotransmitters that influence superlative art.

Dream on, Dreamers.

The Mad Boy

Madly Brilliant: Odd Nerdrum

Odd Nerdrum is a Swedish Artist whose work is full of No Modernism. That's all I'm going to say, the Art speaks for itself, don't you think?

  

"Buried Alive"

"Three Name-givers"

 

"The Singers"

"Guardián Nocturno"

There are infinitely more works - and they are exhilarating . . .

The Mad Boy