Welcome to Tuesday Poetics! This is Melissa from Mom With a Blog. It is no secret that I have an affinity for the haunted souls of the artist and poet. I have always been drawn to people who perhaps empathized with the chaos that intrudes into the human mind. Today we will focus on three artists who had various mental health struggles.

“From the moment of my birth, the angels of anxiety, worry, and death stood at my side, followed me out when I played, followed me in the sun of springtime and in the glories of summer. They stood at my side in the evening when I closed my eyes, and intimidated me with death, hell, and eternal damnation. And I would often wake up at night and stare widely into the room: Am I in hell?”

–Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch had a very traumatic childhood. Both his mother and one of his sisters died early deaths, which his father, a Christian fundamentalist who struggled with his own bouts of mental illness, explained as “divine punishment”. Anxiety, depression, and loss, among others, are seen as constant themes throughout Munch’s ouvre, as he shared his emotions and mental state in his art. His condition, coupled with his heavy drinking, worsened after the death of his father, and he suffered a nervous breakdown. He spent time recovering (he also gave up drinking), after which his health improved and his artistic style became brighter.

“I do not believe in the art which is not the compulsive result of man’s urge to open his heart.”

–Edvard Munch

“To create one’s own world takes courage.”

–Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe was the second of seven children. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. After high school, she was determined to study and pursue art professionally. Early on, she focused on traditional painting techniques. Later, she experimented with abstraction. In 1916, renowned art dealer and photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, was the first to exhibit her work. O’Keeffe and Stieglitz would later marry.

O’Keeffe became one of America’s most well known and successful artists, famous for her paintings of New York skyscrapers, flowers and desert landscapes. She suffered with anxiety and depression throughout her life, especially during her forties, and in her stifling relationship with her husband. She eventually had a nervous breakdown (perhaps due in part to Stieglitz falling in love with a younger woman) and spent time in a hospital. She recovered from this breakdown. She lived out the rest of her life in New Mexico, where she had taken many trips alone while her husband was alive. She continued painting until her end when she was almost blind.

“I think it’s so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary–you’re happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.”

–Georgia O’Keeffe

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”

–Vincent Van Gogh

The son of a Protestant minister, Vincent van Gogh quit school at age 13 for unknown reasons. He took on various jobs after that, including art dealer, schoolmaster, lay preacher, among others. He wrote letters to his younger brother, and often included small drawings in this correspondence. It was at Theo’s behest that Vincent decided to focus on art. Theo even supported him financially later on. Their parents were not pleased with Vincent’s decision to live the life of an artist. He painted many things over the course of his career, from rural life to cafés, countrysides, floral and other still life. He even took a liking to Japanese woodcuts.

Throughout his life, Vincent van Gogh was plagued by mental illness–evidence suggests he suffered from manic depression. He was hospitalized several times, the most well known of these being his voluntary admission in 1889 to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. He spent a year there, and produced some of his most famous works. He threw himself into his art as a way to dispel mental unrest. At times his condition seemed to improve, however it always continued. Distraught by his unabating mental illness, it is thought that he took his own life in July of 1890, although an alternative theory was later suggested.

“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”

–Vincent van Gogh

And now for your poetic prompt: select one of the pieces of artwork presented in this post. Write an ekphrastic poem about the work, incorporating the emotion it evokes in you and/or the emotion evoked through the eyes of the artist. Be creative! Go wherever the art and artist take you! Feel free to use the artists’ quotations as inspiration in your work.

If you’re new, here is how to join us:

• Write a poem (or two, or three) in response to the prompt. Only include one artwork per poem.
• Enter your name and a link directly to each post containing your poem into Mr. Linky. Remember to check the box to accept use/privacy policy.
• Read other poets’ work as they enter their links into Mr. Linky. Check back as more will be added.
• Please link back to dVerse from your post(s).
• Have a wonderful time!🎉