1. INTRODUCTION:

When I started writing this paper, I kept thinking, can I write a good article? Or what is the significance of my writing? I think this is not just a paper. A good article makes people learn something. And my article is to let people know how to live a better life in the face of sadness. I hope what I write, happy life for human beings, is closely related to everyone. And I wish I could write in a way like having a heart-to-heart talk with readers, make them understand what may happen and what needs to be avoided. I think readers ' feelings are very important to me so I don 't want to fill my article with too much professional knowledge. I hope they can read this article with the idea of better understanding themselves and how to live better.

So, I began to look for the train of thought of this article. Just at this time, my friend fell out of love. He was very sad and didn 't know how to vent his emotions so I often accompanied him, sitting and talking together. So I started to study the project of dealing with sadness reasonably. I think the sadness everyone will experience is not getting what they want and falling out of love is one sad emotion that most people will experience. This is what I want to discuss. Because I found that many people, including my friends, would hurt themselves or others during this sad period, and do many things they would regret later. So I hope to find a way to tell people how to spend this period in a better way by discussing the meaning of resonance, empathy and souvenirs in my article. Also, I want to find a reasonable way to vent their emotions, letting them know that they are not the only ones in downtimes. I read a book, which mentioned that we share similar lives. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of the book. But I still remember the general idea of that sentence. Each of us will experience the emotions of gain, loss, sadness, confession, missing, collapse and struggle. Yes, these feelings are experienced by everyone. When we know this, we seem to become less lonely or need to bear these sadness feelings alone. Because this writer has also experienced it, if you look carefully, most people will experience it. Therefore, being lovelorn is not a small-probability event. We just need a good way to deal with it.

When people are lovelorn, they need others' understanding. Once when my friend was in pain, he even hurt himself. He often quarrelled with his parents and friends. He said that he didn't want to do this, but he was always full of sad emotions, which made him out of control. Later, it got worse and he even hurt himself. He said he knew it was wrong, but he didn't know what to do. We made a lot of phone calls. I could feel all his negative emotions. I tried to take him out to climb mountains, watch movies, dine at good restaurants to kill time. But I could feel that he was pretending to be happy, so as not to waste my time. What I took him to do can only make him escape from sadness for a short time, so I have been trying to find ways to help him, let him release these emotions, and find some suitable ways to make him better face his life.

2. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND INTERVIEW:

After I thought about this problem, I began to look at myself. What would I do when I was like him, or what other people would do? I also searched online. I always want my works to be full of some emotions and meanings, so I will release all my emotions into my works and look at them again after a while. I will re-examine my state at that time to become more aware of myself by exploring art. I have added elements such as destruction, struggle, pain and so on to my works and kept those elements. I don't think that's wrong. We need to face up our negative emotions to accept ourselves better. This is the most reasonable way I can think of to vent our emotions. And when I have negative emotions, I will also observe some other people's works of art. When I find the same feelings, I feel understood, which helps me relieve negative emotions.

I went to interview some of my other friends to see how different people deal with negative emotions.

I first interviewed my friend Max, who had experienced falling out of love and done works of art on this topic in university. He once discussed his lovelorn works with me.

He said: At that time, I slept all day sleeping to escape from reality. After waking up, I would listen to songs and watch movies crazily. Because I dare not look at anything related to her. But when I heard sentences related to my love in the lyrics and saw similar scenes in films, I smoked a lot, and those things make me suffer. But after thinking about it, I found that maybe this was also a way to vent my emotions. I watched the people in the films smoke a lot of cigarettes. I can feel his pain simply by looking at the ashtrays. Therefore I started to create and took a group of photos, using ashtrays, cigarettes, soot and so on. This gave me the pleasure of venting and makes my heart feel more at ease.

I also asked some other people, and some of them chose to face these emotions and release them. Some chose to run away, pretending it never happened or replace those emotions with busyness. They dealt with it in different ways, such as sleeping, working, running, cooking, travelling and so on.

“ Emotions are complex. According to some theories, they are states of feeling that result in physical and psychological changes that influence our behaviour.”

1 Scirst Daniel L, . (New York, NY 10010: Worth Publishers,2011).p.

Therefore, when emotions overload, everyone will make some unreasonable behaviours. We cannot fundamentally avoid those behaviours or prevent emotions from controlling our behaviours. And when our emotions accumulate to a certain point, they will burst out, deeply affecting our behaviour or actions. Emotions are also divided into positive emotions and negative emotions. When positive emotions appear, we will smile, while when negative emotions appear, we will cry and make inappropriate venting behaviours.

My friend Li would have fierce quarrels with his friends or parents when he was lovelorn. He said: At that time, I was in a bad mood, and I always felt full of grievances. When others talked to me, they would easily touch my button and I would raise my voice, beat the table with my hands or say something mean.

Many people will feel pain or regret because of their emotional outburst and unreasonable behaviour. I just want to tell them that this is normal because emotions have been controlling us. It's just that we should find a correct way to deal with these negative emotions.

Therefore, in this article, I will discuss the theme of transforming sadness into a form of art and discuss with you the benefits and methods of doing so.

I have been looking for a reasonable and valuable way to release our sadness. Gradually I began to resort to my own experience. Most of the time I feel the impulse to create, especially when I am sad. Whenever I am desperate to tell others my thoughts and my sadness, I am unable to spit out even one word in a real conversation. Then I will turn those negative emotions into a piece of text, a piece of music, a photo, and a work. In this way, I vent my sadness and create my works of art.

When I feel sad, I don't need to deliberately look for beautiful and desperate works of art. It seems like all I need to do is stroll on the street. Those sad emotions will lead me to find out trivial beauty in our life. Usually, when I see puddles and petals on the roadside, I simply pass by without paying attention to them. However, when I'm sad, I will sense the beauty of that scenery. Raindrops hit the petals and fragmented petals fall on the ground. The puddles present different patterns on the uneven ground, and some footprints disappear one by one. All these symbolise the broken pieces of our fate, the damage brought by fate, and some passers-by in our life. I just need to draw the scene to create a work of art. In this way, sadness becomes art, and I will be somewhat relieved.

Sadness is different from happiness. It wraps me gently like a web, with despair drifting in the air. Those subtle emotions help me to think, and to appreciate Shakespeare's plays or Venus de Milo, which are laced with sorrow and pitiful beauty. It might be true that tragedy is often more beautiful and moving than comedy. Therefore, I always create art when I am sad.

When human beings are sad, it's very hard for them to bear those negative feelings alone. Therefore, human beings need to be understood and relate to others. Sometimes when I am very sad, songs and works which comply with my sad mood will help to lift me out of the depression. They make me feel that I am not alone. Also, I will create some artworks when I am immersed in sadness, which helps to vent my sorrow. Those works born in sadness are

kept in my portfolio for future reference. I always review and ponder on those works, thus finding inspiration from them.

It is sensible to imprint our works with sadness as human emotions are magical things. Multiple pieces of research define emotions. Emotions

These definitions decently explain why I always have the desire to create when I am sad. If emotion and creativity are intertwined, it would be wise to capitalise on emotion-related creativity to create something. Creativity is a

2

Panksepp, Jaak Affective neuroscience : the foundations of human and animal emotions ([Reprint] ed.). (Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press,2005). p. 9

3 Damasio AR . "Emotion in the perspective of an integrated nervous system". Brain Research. Brain Research Reviews.(May 1998).

4 Ekman, Paul; Davidson, Richard J. The Nature of emotion : fundamental questions. (New York: Oxford University Press,1994), p.291

5 Cabanac, Michel "What is emotion?" BehaviouralProcesses (2002).

6 Scirst Daniel L 41 Madison Avenue ( New York, NY 10010: Worth Publishers,.2011),p. .

phenomenon whereby something somehow new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting). Thus, we can turn sadness into art forms by using creativity and personal character incorporated in sadness. In this way, we can properly vent our negative emotions and also create perfect and unique works of art.

I will elaborate on the benefits and methods of converting negative emotions into art forms in 5 aspects. First, transforming sadness into art forms helps to record our life and recognise, understand, analyse our true selves. Second, this kind of transformation is significant due to its memorial meanings. Third, a brief method of transformation will be illustrated. Fourth, empathy and the feeling of being understood can eliminate loneliness. Fifth, the reasons for the attractiveness of works of art laced with sadness will be explored.

PART 1:

Transforming sadness into art forms helps to record our life and recognise, understand, analyse our true selves.

First, there are multiple benefits of transforming sadness into art forms to record life. For example, most of us keep a diary. A diary is a book which has a for each of the . You use a diary to down things you to do, or to record what in your day by day.

Diary or any object can be an art form. Every time we imprint memories on an object, we create a space and record a story. By reading the diary and finding some old gadgets, we can relive what happened to us at that time in that space. Whenever we encounter self-doubt and negative emotions, we will know ourselves better by recalling our memories.

Many people complain that they always don't know how to live and always feel bored. They don't understand the meaning of life and don't know how to be a better self. Also, many people say that they don't know themselves and feel disoriented about their future. Some people even hate themselves. They

7 (accessed 12 November 2020)

8 (accessed 26 November 2020)

just forget what they have done and what emotions they have been through, be it good or bad, important or trivial. Our life and personalities need long-term development and recording. When someone forgets to feel their emotions, he or she will barely be able to observe themselves and their lives.

If we record some important moments, we will surprisingly find that we have many opportunities to know ourselves. We can understand and accept ourselves by recording our lives. We will know what we need at certain moments, or who we are. When we know ourselves, we can live a better life and find what we need.

Experiencing significant grief in our life may suddenly deepen our understanding of ourselves. Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has , to which a or was formed. Although conventionally focused on the response to loss, grief also has physical, cognitive, behavioural, social, cultural, spiritual and philosophical dimensions. While the terms are often used interchangeably, bereavement refers to the state of loss, while grief is the reaction to that loss

Only when we lose important things or people will we be pierced with grief. Also, only when we suffer from grief will we know what we need. Our feelings and thoughts are particularly true when we experience unbearable grief. Sadness always surges when we can't get what we want. Sadness makes me painful, and I think it is the same for others. Whenever I am struck by sadness, I will find a wall and push it with all my strength. Even if I try my best, the wall will not move for my efforts. I call it "push". In my opinion, it is also a kind of performance art. In this process, I express and release all my sadness. When I pushed the wall, all I was thinking is to try my best, even though I can't make it. Similarly, when I am desperate for something, I will do my utmost to make it, even though it's impossible to get what I want. However, I will begin to reflect on myself when I exhaust all my strengths. I'll start to think about why it happened, what I should do afterwards, and whether there is any possibility for a change. In this way, I will know myself better by analysing my real needs. I'll even reflect on myself, analysing my mistakes, my current situation, and my experiences. Anyway, what mentioned above is just my personal experience of understanding true selves, only serving as advice for you.

9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grief(accessed 2 January 2021)

I saw the passage below when I was searching for knowing ourselves. A "journey of self-discovery" refers to a travel, pilgrimage,or series of events whereby a person attempts to determine how they feel, personally, about spiritual issues or priorities, rather than following the opinions of family, friends, neighbourhood12 or peer pressure. The topic of self-discovery has been associated with Zen

The process of creating "pushing" helps me to know myself. Everyone has their ways to explore their true selves, thus what we need to do is find the way we like and are comfortable with. A friend of mine, Rebecca, chose the art form of taking pictures of his crying to understand himself. He also keeps the photos so that he could recall the reason why he was sad and crying later. I think this is also a good way to record.

Recording our emotions is a journey for us to discover ourselves. We will understand our feelings more clearly and avoid blindly listening to other people's opinions. When we turn sadness into some kind of artwork, we will recall what happened at that time once we see that artwork again. It's like meditation. We go back to that space again to know ourselves and discover ourselves. When we recall what we have done, we will know our personalities better. Our strengths and weaknesses, as well as our likes and dislikes, our real and false needs will also become vivid and clear. Once we know our true selves, what we need to do next is self-identification, or accept ourselves.

ourselves.

“Self-identification

n. the act of construing one's identity in particular terms, usually as a member

of a particular group or category (e.g., "I am Hispanic," "I am a lesbian," "I am a father") or as a person with particular traits or attributes (e.g., "I am intelligent," "I am unlucky," "I am fat").

11 , "" (February 12, 2010)

12 ""( February5, 2002)

13 KPBS.org, ""( August 11, 2009)

14 (accessed 19 January 2021)

We need to understand ourselves first to obtain a sense of self-identification. We need to accept our strengths and also weaknesses. Only in this way can we capitalise on our full potential and be satisfied with ourselves. The lack of self-identification will exacerbate our sadness. Our shortcomings are also a part of ourselves, we are unique because of our one-of-a-kind shortcomings. We can generously expose our shortcomings by imprinting our traits on our works of art. When we keep watching those works, we will constantly change and adjust ourselves. When our unique shortcomings become part of the works of art, they will become unique too.

PART 2:

this kind of transformation is significant due to its memorial meanings.

Then let 's discuss the benefits of converting sadness into art form in terms of commemorative significance. Commemoration is defined in Chinese as a feeling of nostalgia for people or things

When we feel sad because we have lost something or someone, we will try our best to recover the lost thing. But when it is not possible, all we can do is savour, miss and then recognise the reality. Because what is lost is very important to us, we usually hold a ceremony, that is, a memorial ceremony.

When some events that cause sadness occur, especially when we cannot solve those saddening situations, we may hold some ceremonies to commemorate the lost things or express the sadness. We may make some souvenirs to place our emotions. For example, when a person we cherish dies, the sadness caused by this incident must be beyond our solution. What will we do at this time? It is common for people to hold funerals.

“Common secular motivations for funerals include the deceased, celebrating

their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may

have religious aspects that are intended to help the of the deceased reach the , or .

15 Baidu Encyclopedia , (accessed 19 January 2021)

16 (accessed 20 January 2021)

First, I believe a funeral is an occasion where people can reasonably and freely vent their sadness while being understood, forgiven, sympathised and cared for by others. In my opinion, it may be regarded as a memorial ceremony, an "art form ", or performance art.

After we hold the memorial ceremony- "funeral ", we will make some objects to continue our thoughts, which is called souvenir- "tombstone ". "I believe that articles can be used as containers for our nostalgia. " When we lose our cherished person, we will continue to miss him/her. But the person will not be alive again and we cannot make our thoughts disappear, so we made a container for nostalgia and the tombstone was created. "Objects are products or containers of stories. " Therefore, we have given it a certain meaning to replace the lost ones and place our love and thoughts. The tombstone provides a kind of emotional protection and companionship, so that we will not feel that everything about the person has disappeared. Therefore, to some extent, tombstones are also "souvenirs " or monuments. When we are sad and helpless, we need something to stabilise and relieve our emotions. This is why we need souvenirs.

The definition of souvenir:

“Souvenirs refer to items that can bear commemorative significance. Souvenirs are usually physical and can be preserved for a long time. In interpersonal communication, they can play a role in improving relationship and deepening impressions”

When we encounter some major tragic events, such as wars, earthquakes and other natural disasters, we will build some "souvenirs ", or "monuments ". As such sad events are irreversible, we cannot solve them. The function of setting up the monument is that the government and the people value the sadness and feelings of the victims when negative incidents occur, so that people related to the incident know that we have not forgotten their sadness and value incident as much as they do. I think monuments are an art form. We make monument because we acknowledge and pay attention to the negative emotions brought by events. When people have negative emotions, they tend to have two solutions: One is to avoid and pretend that the emotions did not happen; the other is to face and release emotions. Sometimes it is not a good thing for people to be full of negative emotions. Some people even stay away from those with many negative emotions. But as the government or people make "artworks "-monuments, the rationality of people 's negative emotions is acknowledge, which is also comforting to people.

17 Catherine MondoaThe ， Things We Treasure:Unpacking Sentimental Object Attachments and Envisioning Futures

（2010）

18 Catherine MondoaThe ， Things We Treasure:Unpacking Sentimental Object Attachments and Envisioning Futures

（2010）

19 Baidu Encyclopedia， https://baike.baidu.com/item/纪念品/28479?fr=aladdin (accessed 1 March 2021)

When people release their grief to the monument, they should then learn to admit that things are irreversible and that they must get back to a rational life from the immersion in sadness. Many people cannot accept the fact that they have lost something, and they have an attachment to the lost: Within attachment theory, attachment means an affectional bond or tie between an individual and an attachment figure (usually a caregiver)

When we lose the things we are attached to, we will be constantly exposed to uncomfortable negative emotions such as uneasiness, boredom, anger, anxiety, fear, etc. At this time, people will choose to deceive themselves. “ It has been theorised that humans are susceptible to self-deception because most people have emotional attachments to beliefs, which in some cases may be irrational.”

If people always live in self-deception and irrationality, it will cause troubles to themselves and others. The reason for self-deception is that people are not ready to face the negative emotions caused by losing attachment. For example, a lovelorn person may deceive him/herself into believing that they have not broken up or they are still loved, but it will only make life worse.

So we have to face the reality one day. The memorial ceremony sometimes represents a farewell ceremony, though many people cannot accept the departure of cherished people. So we hold funerals, in which we admit our sadness. In other words, we admit that we can no longer have our beloved ones with us. This is actually a way for us to accept reality (losing) rationally, stop self-deception, and be prepared for the pain. When we are definitely about the fact, we will become rational and think rationally about how to live in the future, instead of escaping or living in illusions.

When we are sad because of what we have lost, we also make a souvenir for comfort. The final result is not that everything has disappeared. When we want to miss someone/something, we look at the souvenirs for a while for comforting ourselves.

PART 3:

a brief method of transformation will be illustrated.

20 Bretherton I ， "The Origins ofAtachmentTheory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth".(1992).

21 (accessed 1 March 2021)

How can we turn sadness into an art form? First, we can collect our emotions and then analyse them. Sadness may cause many other negative emotions, such as uneasiness, fear, anger, jealousy, helplessness, and grievance. We can first find out which emotion occupies the dominant position, and then use it as the main creative material and choose the creative method. For example, we can first discuss how to create with pigments. If anger prevails, we can choose red to express it. To me, anger means out of control and disorder. So I will express it in a fast-paced and powerful way in creation. I may pour red paint on the canvas. Of course, if I am angry to the extreme, I will step on red and black paint with my shoes and then stamp on the picture. Then, I will think about any other emotions and express them in different forms. Another example is grievance, I will choose to express it with blue. I will first analyse my character and reflect on what is grievance to me. Grievance, to me, is a kind of unspeakable sadness, entanglement, and being misunderstood while being eager to be understood. After my analysis, I will choose to express it in an appropriate way, that is, to paint with hands with blue paint on and draw many curves.

If another art form is used, such as sculpture, when you are angry, you can take any action on the mud in your hand to vent your anger. This way is much better than quarrelling with others and venting our anger on others or ourselves.

Of course, people can choose the way they like to express different emotions, such as art forms other than painting or sculpture, which can include music, novels, and photography.

When we turn negative emotions into works of art, we also endow negative emotions with some value. Many people believe that negative emotions are bad. But most of the time it is negative emotions that make us, because life itself is complicated and we cannot eliminate negative emotions. It is impossible for someone to say that they have no negative emotions. Because they may unconsciously suppress their negative emotions, and avoiding feeling these negative emotions will cause greater harm to their physical and mental health. Therefore, when we convert negative emotions into works of art and record them, we can think and analyse our negative emotions again, and I believe that when certain emotions in our hearts dominate us, our eyes and brains will also guide us to find objects or scenery related to emotions. Sometimes I believe that our works will know us better than we do, because those works express things that have already appeared in our hearts. We create works of art to help us know ourselves better, achieve reconciliation with ourselves, and then live a better life.

PART 4:

empathy and the feeling of being understood can eliminate loneliness.

After we convert sadness into art forms, other people will also feel the emotions and strength we imprinted on them. The audience will feel assured and understood as they can relate. Therefore, I conducted some interviews

and research on the assuring and relieving artworks of sadness.

My friend Max said, "At that time, I listened to a lot of songs about breaking up. I also watched many struggling and painful works of art." Another friend Li said, "When I am sad, I will talk with people who also suffer from sadness, as chatting with happy people can only make me more painful."

I tried to analyse their thoughts and find out the reason why they want to look for works that have a similar vibe and people who share similar feelings?

Oftentimes we think that no one understands us, and no one can share our pain. Ourselves are the only ones to bear it. When we are sad and painful, we prefer to believe that others are no able to relate. We need someone who has the same experience as us so that they can understand us. Otherwise, we hope that they can try to understand by assuming that they have been through the same thing. When we are inflicted by sadness, we need to be understood and know that we are not the only ones struggling with pain.

We often close ourselves up and bear negative emotions and loneliness by ourselves to avoid being judged by others. I once asked the interviewees a question: Will you feel lonely when you suffer from negativity? Max said, "Yes, I slept all day at that time. When I woke up, I stared blankly at the sky. I didn't feel like talking and didn't know what to say." While interviewee Li said, "Actually, it's okay. I talked to my friends and hang out with them every day." I asked Li again, "What about when you are alone?" Li answered, "Then I will feel lonely. I feel lonely when I am at home. I don't want to talk to my parents, because they usually end up with quarrels. Therefore, I simply play games the whole night to avoid communication with my parents.

“ Loneliness is an unpleasant response to perceived . Loneliness is also described as —a psychological mechanism that motivates individuals to seek . It is often associated with an unwanted lack of connection and intimacy. ”Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social pain - a psychological mechanism that motivates individuals to seek

social connections. It is often associated with an unwanted lack of connection

22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loneliness(accessed 6 March 2021)

and intimacy. When we are in pain, we want to vent our emotions. However, there are always all kinds of worries, fears preventing us from doing so. It's been tacitly agreed that it is inappropriate to shout, to express anger, and to smoke and drink. Many people only see our behaviour, while they don't know the reason why we did that. Their criticism will only make us more irritated and rebellious, as they didn't even try to understand why we did it. Therefore, our loneliness largely stems from the lack of intimate relationships, communication, and understanding.

I asked Li and Max why they don't communicate with others. They think that many people don't understand them and it is difficult to pull themselves together to talk to others when they are in a bad mood. However, they will talk to people who share their moods or resort to works of art that convey similar emotions. Thus, everyone needs to be understood. When we are understood, our inappropriate behaviour can also be explained. People will see that our inappropriate behaviour comes from nowhere. Everyone could be negative sometimes. They may shout, get angry, or not behave. When others tell us that it is wrong to do so, artists imprint these suppressed emotions in their works. As we see those works of art, we seem to understand that negative emotions are universal and everyone may go through them. It is not that I am vulnerable, or that I am the only one who sometimes loses control, loses temper, and quarrel. Knowing that will calm our mood. Thus, human beings need to be understood. That's also why Max wants to listen to songs about a breakup, and why Li wants to chat with sad people. They were understood and not alone at that moment.

Therefore, we need to communicate. Without communication, we will feel lonely and depressed. People's pain needs to be answered and cared about. Most of the time those pains cannot be solved, all we can do is express those pains and expect others to comfort us. When someone has the same experience as you, they will know how to solace and enlighten you. They will understand your pain and help you better, or they will share their experiences with you to give you reasonable advice.

Therefore, after we convert sadness into works of art, we can help others and communicate with others through works of art. We will become emotionally stable when seeing people experiencing the same negative emotions in movies because we find that they will also lose temper or cry when they encounter negative emotions. The similarity makes us feel understood and makes spiritual communications happen. Communications help to properly release negative emotions as communications are cathartic. When we see works of art related to our emotions, we will feel understood. By the same token, when we transform sadness into art forms, others will also feel

understood when they see those works of art. Therefore, they will feel less lonely.

If we collect our negative emotions and turn them into art forms, such as songs, movies, and stories, we can help more people and spiritually communicate with them. Also, they will feel understood and know that their pains are not wrong. After all, we all experience pains that we cannot solve.

The thing is comfort and supports those stuck in negativity.

PART 5:

the reasons for the attractiveness of works of art laced with sadness will be explored.

The works of art born in sadness, to some extent, will be more attractive than other types of works of art. Why is tragic art more attractive?

“Tragedy will bring the pleasure of sublimity and magnificence. When we witness tragic events, we will realise, more clearly than ever, that life is a nightmare. We need to wake up from it. We will never be ultimately satisfied with the world in our life. It's not worth being obsessed with the material world. The essence of tragedy leads us to be desperate and eliminate our desire. The goal of tragedy is always killing our desires and hopes for survival.”

——Schopenhauer's Essay on Schopenhauer's Aesthetics

The most basic physiological and psychological need of human beings is survival. People are most concerned about their survival, including how to live a better life and what could result in death. All topics related to life will receive people's close attention. Almost all tragedies are related to human survival. A

person's death in misery is the greatest tragedy. As tragedies are all related to human existence, they are bound to be at the centre of attention.

Love is an important part of people's life. It will make people strong and happy. Love help human beings proliferate, so it is also closely related to

23

Arthur Schopenhauer , Schopenhauer 's Essay on Schopenhauer 's Aesthetics ， The Chinese version，（Shanghai,2009）

people's survival and development. Based on these, people's desire for love is instinctive and cannot be controlled and suppressed.

Most tragic works take love stories as clues, triggering a series of stories. People's instinct for love makes them pay attention to love stories, especially love with sad emotions, which is more likely to arouse people's regret, sympathy, and resonance. Therefore, when we convert the sadness caused by love into works of art, we will get more attention from others, and people will be unconsciously attracted to think about the meaning of the works. These characteristics of works full of sadness can attract more attention from people.

People tend to look forward to a happy ending, but they are very keen on tragedy. When watching tragedy, driven by perfectionism, people often find it difficult to accept its incomplete and sad ending. Sometimes we are obsessed with the happy ending, so the tragedy will linger in our mind for a long time, which explains why tragedy can be impressive. Some people define tragedy as showing the audience the destruction of beautiful things. Through the ups and downs of characters in tragedy, people feel sympathetic and compassionate with them, and then people will reflect on how to avoid tragedy.

Art is thought-provoking. The reason for the attractiveness of Shakespeare's tragic works lies in Shakespeare's skills at exploring human nature, arousing people's thinking, and incorporating emotions and reason with tragedy. Shakespeare's several famous tragic works all share a similarity, where the protagonists there are all courtiers and their relatives who are powerful in feudal dynasties. Also, all the tragedies are caused by the protagonists' pursuits of power and desire for the throne. The tragedy is caused by the characters' desires, ambitions, or greed. However, desire, greed, or ambition is instinctively part of us, and they are all acceptable. The way we deal with ambition will decide the ending. The thought-provoking nature of Shakespeare's works is what I admire most. In his tragic works, those dead people are not the most pathetic or poor characters, but those who are alive and full of loneliness are the most miserable ones. They live in this world with sin and loneliness. This is the essence of tragedy, which makes us think when we feel sad.

When creating tragedy, we can capitalise on audience sympathy to transform our emotions into tragedy art. We need to be deft at imprinting our negative emotions in our works to arouse the audience's same feelings. We can also amplify the negative emotions to trigger the audience's sympathy and understanding. In the process, we need to explore the characters' negativity and establish a connection to the audience to complete the tragedy. Also, the

death of characters is not necessarily the ending of tragedy. By the same

token, not all the destruction of beautiful things is a tragedy. Quality tragedy art is supposed to be moving and receive people's sympathy.

3. CONCLUSION:

We have made a new interpretation between sadness and art form, creating a new answer to the way of venting sadness and an artistic value for the process of venting it. As an art lover, I often think about how to make art more attractive. I believe good artworks should be emotional and thought-provoking. Most of the time, I think art and life are inseparable. We are not creating art, but expressing art, emotions and thoughts.

When I explore sadness, I knew that negative emotions would negatively influence in powerful way. When people are traumatized, they may start self-protection and hide in their own world. However, people are always reborn in destruction, find a new self, and reuse the powers to make themselves stronger and regain personality strength, just like a phoenix that is reborn from ashes. Creating artworks is a self-healing process, in which we slow ourselves down in the fast-paced life, feel life, reflect on ourselves, enter our own world and heal ourselves. When we use the art of expressing sadness, it is also a process of thinking. Though we may be too busy to grieve, we should save some time for ourselves, feel our sadness carefully, face it and embrace our complete self. Sadness may destroy us like a hurricane, but we can always find our true self in the quiet in the centre of the storm.

The truth and method I mentioned are superficial. I am not a supporter of sadness or sad artworks. I just hope that people can find an outlet when they encounter confusion and troubles, and do not indulge themselves and be defeated by sadness. Many philosophers believe that only after experiencing sadness can we know what true happiness is. The best individuals and nations in history have experienced their sad moments before they become great and complete. It is those negative emotions that make them complete.

Therefore, in general, we do not appreciate the occurrence of sadness. We attach importance to our own feelings and how to deal with them if sadness occurs. Sadness is worthless, but we admit that it gives us some strength, which makes us self-examine the process and bring value to the art forms that can be created.