Artists intentionally manipulate emotion through depiction on canvas, through theatre, and with countless other mediums. They make their living by accessing their unconscious to do so. Just like with professional pitchers throwing a baseball. Anyone can throw a ball, but with much practice they can hit a desired target following a specific path of flight. This is also true of what artists do. They pick certain emotions to pass on to others in their art. Through time they become more attune with their unconscious because of willful access. It the willing access of the unconscious mind that helps artists understand their inner desires better. They learn how to better manipulate the desired emotion to make it more receptive to audiences. The need to be able to access and manipulate unconscious desires becomes a major aspect of the life of an artist. How an artist begins to do this as Freud says, “Is his innermost secret.”
The act of taking inner feelings or thoughts from the unconscious mind and intentionally manipulating them into art brings those hidden aspects into the conscious mind. This has to be because art is intentional by necessity. Therefore an artist must know and understand what desires and emotions he/she is trying to reproduce. This reasoning seems to suggest that Freud’s understanding of art is contradictory. Freud says that art is skillful presentation of an artist’s daydreams. Daydreams are a manipulation of hidden desires. Therefore the art is a presentation of the hidden or unknown. Artists must know the feelings that are being portrayed because they careful crafted their works in order to pass on these feelings to others. For them to do this they have to be conscious of the desired emotion behind the piece.
How can an artist not know the true meaning behind his/her art, when art is the intentional manipulation of feelings or desires? How can they manipulate what they don’t know?
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