Just a brief response to your response to my level 4 response which is the only one of my responses (the level 4 response) which I feel is worth responding to.

I think that I get somewhat put off by the whole "artist must suffer" notion. And as a result of suffering, the artist somehow benefits. I really believe that artistic talent is just another word for creative talent.

And no, I don't believe that creativity is genetically determined (though genes may play some role). Creativity is very much influenced by the environment, but I don't believe that the "suffering" environment plays any more important role than any other part of the environment. Though this statement is certainly not as romantic as the artist must suffer statement. Suffering may come with the territory of being an artist, but I can't buy that it creates, or helps to create artists more than some other phenomenon.

Suffering forces, or helps, us all to grow whether or not we are artists. Love and happiness does the same thing. We all grow because of what happens to us, we all gain insight because of the events happening around us and within us. But can you really say that suffering brings more personal (or artistic) growth than enjoyable events?

We can be dragged kicking and screaming out of our ruts or knocked from our comfortable little window by more than just suffering. Very pleasurable experiences can wake us up and lead to wonderful revelations.

And, by the way, who says being uprooted and thrown in the air is suffering?