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The Artists/Creatives Mood: What Makes for Great Creation?
The mood is the environment we need to be able to create.
It was a line from The Story of Tchaikowsky that helped me put this together with R.G. Collingwood’s definition of art in The Principles of Art. According to Collingwood art proper is the expression of emotion. An artist has an unexpressed emotion that comes out through their art. The artist’s true emotion is not foreseen before it is expressed. By expressing emotion the artist partakes on an exploration of his own feelings. Art, then, becomes a mode of expressing emotion and discovering what is inside of us. Versus craft that has a particular end in mind. A craftsman has a preconceived idea of what they want to accomplish. Both use skill, but one uses skill to express emotion and one to create a preconceived end.
Bowen and Von Meck, however, in talking about the composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, describe what mood created the greatest outpouring of music and for Tchaikovsky that was happiness. Peter required a sense of well-being, security, and peace in order to create music. It did not matter what preceded, but these conditions must be met in order for him to create. When the conditions were met Peter would write, “I am working enthusiastically on the symphony.” Peter had fragile emotions and intolerable situations would damage his mental health. It is said…
