On Creativity, part 5 - Irrepressible Souls

Some creators seem to obsessively express their authentic selves regardless of the many forces working against them. They often start with very little community support, scant financial resources, and negative critical feedback. They are the true starving artists, doing their thing in their own way, unaware of or actively ignoring the cultural standards for their medium and time. They may have nothing going for them outside their own personal resources and a few hearty comrades. Free from expectations and rewards, they create art so original and true they may be shunned, ridiculed and attacked. But they keep doing their thing anyway.

Many people know the story of Vincent Van Gogh, the dutch painter who died by suicide, penniless and obscure. Vincent truly desired popular and financial success in his lifetime, but was unable to create a painting anyone would buy. It seemed he couldn’t bring himself to make art in any way but his own. And without the prescient determination of his brother’s widow (Johanna "Jo" van Gogh-Bonger), who promoted his work after Vincent was long gone, we would likely know nothing of him and his paintings today. She alone saw the value of his work in his time. Van Gogh’s art reflects that fundamental creative impulse that defies worldly influences and obstacles.

In more recent times I look to the early careers of a quartet of musical groups who fit the same mold: Black Sabbath, The Ramones, DEVO, and The Butthole Surfers. Look into their humble beginnings and how they made music out of step with their time and pushed new genres into existence. The Ramones’ End of the Century documentary lays bare their unlikely story.

Someone I’ve recently learned about through her books, music and film work is Cosey Fanni Tutti. Her story is of a working class childhood in Hull, England, leaving home at 17 to escape an abusive father and crafting a life out of communal squats, avant-garde performance art, and sex work, culminating in pioneering the Industrial Music genre. She affirms her existence this way: “My life is my art, my art is my life.” Her autobiography tells of an irrepressible spirit whose energy dragged her through a life of being broadly dismissed and reviled while pursuing and achieving wonderful, authentic self-expression. Her lucid, inspirational autobiography is Art Sex Music.

I imagine countless creators with a spirit like Vincent’s or Cosey’s who were ultimately defeated and lost to history. I expect few find themselves in a place or time where they can survive all the slings and arrows and come out creatively alive in the end. The stories of those irrepressible souls whose work survived show us the way to a truly beautiful and authentic self-expression - despite it all.