Hawthornes The Artist of the Beautiful, Pollacks Stitches in Time, an

Nathaniel Hawthornes The Artist of the Beautiful, Barbara Pollacks Stitches in Time, and Car Jungs The Spirit Man, Art and lit The artist has been a mystery to many of us unexplainably driven in his cypher seemingly unconcerned with any other aspects of his aliveness often oblivious to the world around him. The artists in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Artist of the Beautiful, Barbara Pollacks Stitches in time, and Carl Jungs The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature represent some or all of these characteristics. I decided to base this paper on these readings because I found the ideas presented in them interesting and worth exploring.Jung writes a very interesting piece that examines the artists source of creativity. He dismisses Freuds claims that art stems from the personal experience of the artist. Jung believes that the true essence of art grows from the rising above the personal and utterance from the mind and heart of the artist to the mind and heart of mankind (para 156).Hawtho rne also pull outes this idea through his protagonist Owen Warland. Warland overcomes his feelings of frustration and rejection from society to complete his creation and express his ideas. Through his beautiful (his creation) he is at last able to show what occupies his mind and heart. Warlands audience - Robert Danforth, Danforths wife Annie, their little son and Annies father Peter Hovenden - is amazed Warland has finally completed his beautiful. The reader experiences similar amazement with Stitches in Time it is amazing how women who have little or no formal education, who spend most of their day farming, toiling and caring for families, can create such magnificent quilts from scrap material.Quilting fo... ...sts and the artsy types, which aligns with the views of many people, has generally been persons who have some sort of problem with themselves, their family and/or their sexuality. Jung notes that the artist cannot have time to develop his human side for he essential foc us on his artistic side for these are nothing unless the regrettable results of his being an artist, a man upon whom a heavier burden is laid than ordinary mortals. A special ability demands a greater expenditure of energy, which must necessarily leave a deficit on some other side of life (paral 58).All three pieces portray artists who are driven to create, be it to fulfill their destinies or simply for pleasure. I believe the artist, like the women of Gees Bend, should not separate himself from the world around him but immerse himself in the wonder that is life and draw from it the energy to create.