Separating the Art From the Artist

Are the two inextricably linked or not?

Photo by geralt from Pixabay via Canva

Despite their talent, entertainers are gloriously imperfect human beings just like you and me.

They put their pants on one leg at a time. They have — and are entitled to — their feelings, beliefs, and moral code (or lack thereof.) More often than not, they are emotionally messy, deeply disturbed, hopelessly flawed individuals.

Yet, we — individually and collectively as a society — have this funny habit of putting artists on a pedestal, elevating them to some exalted god-like status, and venerating them in some bizarre, misguided form of bestowed sainthood.

Whether musician, writer, actor, or painter, artists create and we consume, and consequently, we become emotionally attached to their art. We recurrently feel a deep sense of personal connection to the artists themselves, despite never having personally known them. Nostalgia and sentimentality are strong feelings that often bind our emotions to artists and their work.

For better or worse, we typical…