There’s something volatile, emotive, and… and something that makes me really quite angry about going through the process, of both making music and doing visual arts…

David Bowie, 31 March 1998, Interview with Charlie Rose

Hyperlink to YouTube video David Bowie: To be an artist is to be “dysfunctional” (Mar. 31, 1998) | Charlie Rose

Transcript from 00:01:03

Charlie Rose (CR): Tell me the satisfaction of completing a painting that you… that… where you’re on, that you like a lot…

David Bowie (DB): For me, to be quite frank, it’s finishing it so that I can get on to something else. I mean it’s just weird, it’s getting through it. It’s the process, there’s something in it that just turns me to jelly. Turn my heart, my mind, just… just… I can’t explain it, it’s a very strange feeling. It’s not particularly pleasant either. I can’t really say that I enjoy… I can’t really say that I enjoy music or painting in quite that… I mean it’s not like sex or something which you can kind of really enjoy. [CR: I knew you get back to sex! DB (laughs): It’s important!] There’s something volatile, emotive, and… and something that makes me really quite angry about going through the process, of both making music and doing visual arts… but you know what? I guess that’s my problem.

CR: No… but let’s deal with your problem. (laughs)

DB: But if you deal with my problems, I might not be able to do these things again. (laughs) You see, I’m wary about analysis.

CR: Yes Sir, but let me point out to you… Knowing your history and knowing your family, and knowing your background, you have always, always resisted any notion that this creativity that you have comes from any form of dysfunctional or…

DB: You know…

CR: … Madness out of family.

DB: I think… I’ve often wondered if being an artist of any way, of any nature… is a sign of a certain kind of dysfunction, of social dysfunctionalism anyway. It’s any extraordinary thing to want to do, to express yourself in such… in such rarified terms. I think it’s a loony kind of thing to want to do. I think the saner and rationale approach to life is to survive steadfastly and create a protective home and create a warm loving environment for one’s family and get food for them. That’s about it. Anything else is extra. All culture is extra. Culture is you know, I guess it’s a freebie. It’s something we don’t… We only need to eat, we don’t need a particular colour plate or particular height chairs or anything… I mean anything will do but we insist on making one thousand different kinds of chairs, fifteen different kinds of plates. It’s unnecessary and it’s a sign of the rationale part of man. We should just be content with picking nuts. Not mine I might add.

Thoughts

The main thread that stuck out for me was hearing David Bowie describe his emotions of the creative process. I think it’s very important to lend credence whenever artists or creative types talk about the pangs of creating. Many times the non-creative, or non-artistic world see the whimsicalities, or only the finished works, and assume that the process of creation, or the application of creativity is not at all torturous, labourious, or perhaps even maddening.

I think there are clues in the ending statement by Bowie, about how humans only need to eat to survive. By extension, we only need to perform the act of copulation for reproductive purposes. But when you see how he compares how the artistic process should be fun, like sex, it’s dissonant to the point he is trying to make.

Whether he knows/knew it at the time or not, I think he’s right that all art and culture is indeed a freebie, or an icing on the cake. And in the same vein, art and culture is proof of the meaning that we humans create in our feeble lives, or it is what can give life meaning. The act of creation can be a meaningful endeavour. Or if it is indeed a freebie, then it is also a windfall of grace that we should be visited by a muse to taste this particular enjoyment.

I’m thankful that there is a record of Bowie’s articulation of his creative process at the time. I think there are facets of some high functioning dysfunction. There is a palatable negotiation of catharsis versus compulsion, and the anguish that bubbles beneath. And should we all be so fortunate to live a life of meaning or be consumed by demons lurkin within.