Enna wrote:
Sorry if this isn't the correct thread to continue discussing this topic, but I think what happens with truly great artists who suffer from melancholy or depression is that their art brings them their greatest joy. In the process of them sharing their artistic talents with us, no matter how painful to them, it gives us all some of our greatest moments of joy and beauty. So even through their suffering they are able to give others so much! They couldn't possibly work in any old mundane job otherwise where would their creative genius be released. Their real fulfillment comes from their art. Who knows what causes a person to commit suicide. Perhaps they just want the emotional pain to stop and unfortunately they don't see another way out. Yet there are so many ways out if only they could look beyond the moment of sadness and sorrow and have faith in a better or brighter tomorrow.
Just to go along with this, it also works the other way, and most likely does. For depressed artists, creating art because very painful because it's a mirror of who they are in the moment. Frida Kahlo is an excellent example. She injected in her work all the misery and pain she suffered in life. For the audience we're appreciative because the results are so touching, or aesthetically pleasing, or meaningful in different facets. And the artists continue to produce because, as Enna said, it's a venue to expressing their inner selves. No matter how painful.