Читать книгу First Aid for the Artist's Soul - Christina Barandun - Страница 10

In the theatre, artists are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They’re sandwiched between a creative, sensitive work task and the often gruelling working conditions. As the image below shows, an artist must be sensitive and, at the same time, have a “thick skin”; in other words, he must be both sensitive as an artist and strong as a person. It works, no doubt of it. However, a “thick skin” – which in its positive version I interpret as grounded in self-confidence, easygoing poise, a high level of empathy, appreciative, polite conduct with others and sound capacity to deal with conflict – is often less strongly developed than excessive sensitivity.

As the communication expert Friedemann Schulz von Thun describes¹ any virtue or quality that is fostered in a one-sided way will turn into a devalued exaggeration if the twin virtue balancing it is not correspondingly fostered.

For artists, this means: If only sensitivity and self-centred delicateness is fostered, a volatile, egocentric lump of emotions will emerge. Conversely, an artist whose skin is too thick will make a rigid, inflexible, uniform and colourless impression, and move the audience little on an emotional level, like an artistic steam roller.

These two twin virtues of the artist – “sensitivity” and “strength as a person” – must be developed in tandem. Since the former is the main focus of the artist’s training, the other side, the “strength as a person”, is our subject.

Dilemma of the artist