Topic > Behind every painted canvas - Introduction to the artist's soul

“The most interesting thing about artists is the way they live”, quoted by the famous French artist himself, Marcel Duchamp, who had created works representing the unusual and incomprehensible. You see, artists are somewhat similar to scientists. They are weakened geniuses who have directed their inner turmoil towards a medium called art to satisfy the insatiable need to create and be heard. Here we could peek behind the scenes into what truly makes an artist a completely different being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First let's talk about a brief history of art from chapter 4 of the book titled Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Came From and Why. The word art was coined in the late 18th century during the period of the Enlightenment. This comes from a topic called aesthetics which addresses the type of visualization that originates from ideas, emotions and one's own originality. Since the art dates back to the Renaissance period, artists famous at the time are still remembered to this day. Why? It's because of the stories behind their paintings. As read from a history article, The Famous Paintings and Their Backgrounds by Ananta Sharma, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was originally painted to celebrate the birth of a child. Edward Munch's painting titled Scream was created from what he originally saw one evening while walking along a dirt road. One artist who stood out was Vincent van Gogh, where his famous Starry Night was originally painted out of sight of the window of his asylum. Now Vincent van Gogh had faced many struggles. Most of his popular artworks depicted the severe bouts of mental agony he experienced. He has gone through numerous psychiatric institutions and psychotropic drugs and yet has not yet been declared normal. Among all these, he was still able to produce such admired pieces that seemed to be the visual representation of his entire being. The difference between an artist and other people is his ability to express his own inner emotions, feelings and ideas, destructive or not, and create them into something beautiful. The ability to create, or even imitate life itself, is what distinguishes an artist from an ordinary person. The imitation of life is actually a drive to venture further into one's abilities and imagination, thus resulting in what we would call madness. Don't go any further down the rabbit hole as they would say. Artists are similar to scientists. Perfectionists as you may call them, and imperfection is a particular thing that will drive them crazy. Their mind includes that of otherworldly entities which cannot even be explained in simple terms. An artist's imagination would be described as complex. The gears in their brains would presumably turn endlessly. He is in a state where he is always imagining anything outside of everything his senses can grasp. Like a relationship with Vincent Van Gogh, whose mind had remembered what had happened from his confined state and that included the view outside his window. This shows that, in theory, an artist's mind is as close as photographic memory. Therefore, imprinting that memory combined with the innermost feelings into a medium would result in a masterpiece. If they somehow couldn't replicate that memory, everything would head towards frustration. Their lives are equivalent to the pictures they would paint. The different shades of color that clash together in maximum harmony symbolize the great tragedies and the moment of peace that they had experienced throughout.