Mike Kelley: The Escape Artist
By: Kelly Crow

I found this article, in particular, to be so powerful. This article came to me at a very serendipitous time. I've been marinating on this romanticism that people have regarding artists and depression. I've been thinking about this a lot because I go through my own highs and lows, being an artist with natural bi-polar tendencies. It's interesting how famous and wealthy he became but his depression kept growing and eventually killed him. I feel like I've been so obsessed with money and financial matters lately that I think that "if I just had enough money all my problems would be solved", "if only I became a successful artist all my problems would be solved" but this is a prime example of that. Then this led me to think about depression medication and "if only he was just put on depression meds he would not have killed himself" but then "would he have made such critically acclaimed art?" This also brings up another question "after being so successful how do you keep impressing the audience? and what do you do when you lose faith in art/your own art?"

Artists are such fascinating and complicated creatures. They are such intuitive and emotional creatures that they sometimes feel too much and sometimes this is great because they can produce art that touches people and evokes a reaction but they can also feel too much of the bad shit of this world and it clogs their pours like a sponge. I feel like I looked at his life like a case study. I was a psych major before I switched to art and maybe this has an influence on how I'm reacting to this article. I feel like his vibrant life story and art greatly contrasts his dark depression and ultimate suicidal end. I want to use this as inspiration to keep level and to learn from his life story (his successes and failures).