Presenter: Yuliana Arango mesa

Faculty Sponsor: Isabelle Gagne

School: Bunker Hill Community College

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

Session: Poster Session 2, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM, 165, D7

ABSTRACT

This research examines the relationship between the creative process an artist undertakes and their reported well-being, with a particular focus on art’s potential as a tool for emotional release and stress reduction. Ten artists dedicated to a wide variety of disciplines, including dancers, painters, tattoo artists, and poets, completed a survey of the number of works completed in the previous month. The researchers compared this to their perceived self-esteem, the frequency of stress experienced, and how art as a coping mechanism. The findings demonstrated that artists who depend on their art financially tend to feel more stressed by their responsibilities M= (2.4) and have lower self-esteem M= (1.8) than artists who do not depend on their art financially M= (1.2), M= (2.6). Artists who produced more artwork in a month tended to have higher levels of stress M= (2.2) and lower self-esteem M= (1.8) than artists with low artistic output M= (1.4) and M= (2.6). Likewise, it is evident that when stress levels decrease, the feeling of emotional release increases. Limitations included not taking into consideration the sociocultural context of the artist sample, resulting in a lack of uniform data interpretation. The study emphasizes the need for further research examining the behavior of the creative process under stress when an artist produces works commissioned by clients, compared the art created for the artist's own desires.

Key words: stress, wellbeing, creative process, artist.