Art is strength

Someone once said to me "Out of pain comes art", as I watched this person romanticise this idea, my chest immediately tightened and my eyes filled with rage – and it still does when I think of it/him/her today.

I thought, "How dare you romanticise such a thing?". I have watched people very close to me try to end their life, grappled blades out of the hands of someone who couldn't feel anything anymore, saw depression eat away at someone until their eyes were hollow, watched hopelessly as someone who was meant to be there for me for the rest of my life consider running away, had friends who couldn't handle the pain anymore and so they chose to end it all. If those people had a choice, they would choose not to feel that kind of pain in that moment.

So no, I do not believe art comes from pain. Art comes from the strength of those people who push through the context of pain. And yes, I understand that the two are very similar — the strength comes from feeling the pain in the first place, but it's the strength that creates the art, not the pain itself.

Art is strength.