Art and Culture

from a newsgroup:

> I've cross posted this. In my experience a good artist can adopt several different styles of painting. If they use a certain style or explore a different technique will this mean that they are ' psychologically disturbed' ?

I think this question only make sense, if you give better concepts for "artist" and "the methods or style of the artists". Now, the question looks like you are assuming a Cartesian theater where "the artist" controls some part of his mind that then give a certain style to his work. The dualist view is misleading in questions related to the mind. Once you adopt a multiple-agent-viewpoint of the mind, you could argue that a good artist must be very sensitive to certain experiences, and
in turn, must be able to amplify these certain mental states (that are caused by the experiences directly in combinations with impressions from his long-term memories). Of course, we not always like to have certain mental states amplified, and in turn, our culture provides ways of thinking to avoid confrontation with them. On the other hand, good art often originates from the confrontation with average ways of
thinking. That is where your paradox comes from: On the one hand, it can be dangerous to leave safe cultural waters, on the other hand, it can be safe, no to stay in average cultural waters.