I became interested in the subject of emotion in relation to creativity when I was making my collection of portraits, "20th Century Woman". For the role of the protagonist, I adopted the name Cressida and transformed myself into approximately 35 different 20th century women.
The collection was hailed for its originality. Yet there were just two exhibitions after which I made a journey from New Zealand to several countries distributing each portrait to its place of provenance. Only photographs of the original portraits remain. For many years I refused to discuss this collection after being accused of being narcissistic.
Now in the final phase of my life (I was born in 1929) I no longer care. My portraiture is a combination of photography and painting. The photograph presents reality as seen with the eye and the paintings are the images of emotions transformed into shapes and colors. Like the actor, I absorbed the character I was depicting. I asked myself why it was that in some of the portraits there are actual physical resemblances to the subjects I depicted. (Mask of the Sex Symbol Exploited is one such image.)
I went on to research the lives of many truly great artists and found that they were driven by their emotions. There are scientists who endorse what I discovered through art. Emotion releases chemicals that influence creativity. Deeply felt emotion has a substantial influence on creativity. Moreover, some scientists believe that emotion is the nexus between mind and body. It makes us ONE.
Thus, we can begin to understand why it is imperative that we allow our emotions to enhance what we create. The chemicals of emotion are released from the brain and travel through the MIND / BODY. An artist creating a picture of a sad woman should be feeling her sadness. He / she should become the subject, absorb her pain. Only then will the picture be so compelling that the viewer will not only see a sad image but will feel the sadness. It will be a MIND / BODY image of a sad woman.