NEW INTERVIEW: Anonymous

1. Hello there. What is your name, your game and favourite Canberra haunt?

Simian man, I don’t rightly know, and the ghosts in the garage. I sound pretentious already!

2. Do you think there are connections between mental illness and creativity? Why?

There are very definite connections, but that is not to say that creativity can’t flourish from anyone. Nonetheless, in my experience (through people I know and, begrudgingly, myself) people who have cases of anxiety, depression or other forms of mental illness often create artworks, music or writings of an apparently more abstract variety, creative works that aren’t often seen as conventional or normal by many people.

3. Do you practice any creative expression yourself?

I enjoy writing and drawing to an extent, but am not overly public with anything I do, nor do I think that I am very talented in those areas, and I like to keep it that way.

4. Any experiences with yourself or friends, regarding mental illness, which you can say had links or effects to the products of creativity?

Not really a friend or myself, but someone I know went through severe depression, leading them to spend a large portion of his life in a mental institution. He writes novels, short stories and other brilliant tidbits, all of which are highly descriptive and highly original. I don’t really like to believe that their mental problems lead to their abundance of creativity, but that sometimes seems to be the case.

6. Who comes to mind when you think of the topic? Thoughts on their life experience?

Daniel Johnston would be the first, as his artworks and songs all encapsulate feelings of despair and the thoughts behind a paranoid brain, he was a man whose world seemed to always be against him, and he drew inspiration from that.

7. Do you have any theories as to why extreme episodes of mania and depression have influenced many artists’ works?

Possibly because they bring out extreme thoughts and emotions, radical and new ideas that are screaming to be expressed.

8. Do you think there is still a lot of stigma related to mental illness? Why?

I don’t like to think there is, it’s an off-putting thought.