Is it sinful to entertain the idea of “Creepiness”

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Hey, I am an artist and musician, and I’ve been wondering about this recently. For a while now I’ve been intrigued by the mentality and the science behind what makes things creepy and unsettling. In art, I’ve been interested in how I can make a picture a certain way as to induce a tiny bit of fear. In art, these art things like crazily distorted human faces, dark empty eyes, creepy smiles- stuff like that. In music, it’s thinks like droning high pitched and low pitched noises, and other creepy sounds. My intent in exploring the phenomenon is to create art that truly affects you to the core. In fact, as a Catholic of course, I love to put Catholic spins on my artwork in the terms of addressing the darker issues of life with these creepy elements in order to show that these things are bad. However, during this inquiry I was wondering if what I was doing was wrong. I’m in no means obsessed with this to an unhealthy level, most of my work is quite positive. I thought that making certain things more creepy would make my creative projects more interesting and convey a certain message. Is it morally wrong to explore these deeper and darker places of the mind at all?
 
MoonDove123 said:
Is it morally wrong to explore these deeper and darker places of the mind at all?
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It would be a good idea for you to have spiritual direction while you’re exploring this subject.
MoonDove123 said:
put Catholic spins on my artwork in the terms of addressing the darker issues of life with these creepy elements in order to show that these things are bad.
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How would you show that those things are bad. I mean, do you think that you’ll be able to get your point across?
MoonDove123 said:
making certain things more creepy would make my creative projects more interesting and convey a certain message.
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The “message” of art is usually lost on people. How will you be sure to convey any message?
 
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No, there is nothing inherently wrong with art that arouses fearful or unsettled emotions.

I guess I would only caution against art that ultimately anesthetizes those who look at it, to the extent that things that really ought to arouse empathetic upset feeling don’t turn a hair. (I’m looking at you, Criminal Minds.) The only other thing I can think of is to be careful not to give certain uneven facial characteristics (which some people naturally have) an unsettling connotation or stereotype. People with uneven facial characteristics get enough odd looks from total strangers as it is. That’s a part of our nature that doesn’t need reinforcement. I don’t think that is what you mean, though.

Think about the gargoyles they used to put on cathedrals. There is a place for unsettling art even on sacred places, in the right place and the right degree.
 
Thank you very much with your advice. To clarify, with the facial distortion thing, that would never involve facial/bodily differences that are realistic. What I was getting at was the “unbelievable” kind of difference, such as a 20 foot tall humanoid figure with a weird face. I certainly would never make fun of people for their real facial abnormalities. Also, with the subject about anesthetizing the weight of things we should be empathetic about, I definitely wouldn’t want to address any kind of topic like that in a disrespectful way. With the whole “creepiness” thing, I was talking about more subtle and ways of presenting that kind of emotion. For example, a painting of a group of owls looking at directly at you, all with dark sunken eyes, or something like that. It’s more of a way to trigger the minds fear response slightly, but not in it’s self being a real serious, or dangerous thing. I do like your analogy with the gargoyles.
 
Sorry for not clarifying what I meant by the whole “sending a message” thing 😅. I was mainly referring to the musical side with that, where I would write lyrics about said subject, therefore delivering a certain message. I don’t expect one to pull an immediate message from my art necessarily, but it would invoke certain emotion and they could take it as they do. Mentioning that in my question probably made the question confusing.
 
MoonDove123 said:
Thank you very much with your advice. To clarify, with the facial distortion thing, that would never involve facial/bodily differences that are realistic. What I was getting at was the “unbelievable” kind of difference, such as a 20 foot tall humanoid figure with a weird face. I certainly would never make fun of people for their real facial abnormalities. Also, with the subject about anesthetizing the weight of things we should be empathetic about, I definitely wouldn’t want to address any kind of topic like that in a disrespectful way. With the whole “creepiness” thing, I was talking about more subtle and ways of presenting that kind of emotion. For example, a painting of a group of owls looking at directly at you, all with dark sunken eyes, or something like that. It’s more of a way to trigger the minds fear response slightly, but not in it’s self being a real serious, or dangerous thing. I do like your analogy with the gargoyles.
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I thought this is what you meant. No, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with letting your art go in that direction. The truth is, if art always strictly steers away from any tension of the kind you describe, it is going to eventually become vapid and saccharine. Worthy art and story-telling usually take us in places that notch the internal wariness level up a bit in some way or other, wouldn’t you say? Even Disney movies have to have some tension in them or even the kids get bored.
 
That was s’posed to be a funny… :roll_eyes:

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EXTREME CLOSE UP

:crazy_face:

When I read the title to your post - I was like… "Hey, I resemble that remark…"

It’s an aspergic thing…

I dont see why you needed to ask… Dante walked through and wrote about hell… The Blessed Mother took the children of Fatima on a tour there, too… We hang crucifixes, not just crosses, in our churches… And, when we got the colusseum, where around 750k worth of people lost their lives - did we tear it down? No… And, many times what’s left of many a Holy Saint we have hacked up and distributed across every corner of the globe… We eat the body and drink the blood of Christ crucified in memory of and redemption for our sins… And - derelicts that we are - we meditate on the beauty of it all constantly to the greater glory of God…

I honestly don’t think there’s much you’re going to set forth to shock the conscience of the court…

You could talk to a Spiritual Director about it, if you like, but there’s nothing one could tell you you couldn’t just see by walking into church…

Is it scary? Weird? Creepy?

Yes…

But it also takes courage to be a faithful Catholic sometimes… Saint Theresa of Avila says we should be in touch with our dark side… But looking at Christ in so doing… It is safe with Him…
 
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Sorry for ruining your joke 😅. Great insight you got there, and very true. I’s possible that I’m being a bit scrupulous with this whole thing
 
With permission, but - out of creepy curiosity - what kinda music is it?

Is it Goth? It doesn’t sound like you’re into the Nashville Contemporary Praise and Worship thing… which is nice… but not really creepy… just very down home…
 
Well, my favorite type of music is an alternative rock/ experimental rock kind of thing, and my favorite bands are Radiohead, Muse, and Sigur Ros. I have a few songs I’m working on that are about dark subject matter, and I thought putting creepy music elements would really spice it up. The creepy stuff is definitely not something I’d listen too much of regularly. From my experience of researching this stuff, I did make the mistake of taking in a lot of creepy at one time, which left me in a weird mood for a bit of time.
 
MoonDove123 said:
Well, my favorite type of music is an alternative rock/ experimental rock kind of thing, and my favorite bands are Radiohead, Muse, and Sigur Ros. I have a few songs I’m working on that are about dark subject matter, and I thought putting creepy music elements would really spice it up. The creepy stuff is definitely not something I’d listen too much of regularly. From my experience of researching this stuff, I did make the mistake of taking in a lot of creepy at one time, which left me in a weird mood for a bit of time.
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One way to think of it might be to look at it as a catharsis…

Fear is imperfect; but love conquers all…

Some fears are normal, but don’t let fear get the better of you either. If it’s only art, then being afraid of it is like being afraid of your own shadow. And, if you don’t like what you made, well - throw it out and go back to the drawing board til you come up with something you like…

That progression is purgational… Throughtout it you confront your fears, learn humility (self-knowledge), and search for something new and better… It’s actually (Spiritually) healthy, if done correctly… cause its meditative, and you get over stuff that holds you back where you otherwise need not be held back…
 
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Well said my friend, I think my issue with this is pretty much fixed then. Thanks for your advice! Have great rest of the day, and God Bless:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:👍
 
I have the same problem. I guess you could call it an imperfection but not a sin.
 
As far as I have ever been aware, there is nothing necessarily evil about exploring “creepy” or unsettling art forms. Alfred Hitchcock raised this to an art form, and as far as I know, he was a faithful Catholic.

Personally, I find these forensic facial reconstructions to be creepy — they are just lifelike enough to be disturbing, what is called the “uncanny valley”. And I have family members, not raised in the Faith, who absolutely cannot assimilate the concept of saints’ relics. If you stop and think about it, this would be disturbing to modern-day culturally Protestantized Americans — it goes against the whole notion of death as being something sanitized, air-brushed, and supposedly preserved.
 
I don’t think this necessary wrong nor bad but a simple look on a perspective that we may or may not think much about. There have been a lot of artists in the past that explored this, Francis Bacon comes to mind with some of the stuff he did. A person above posted Munch’s famous “The scream”, which is technically a psychological self-portrait.
I sometimes like art like this, it’s inviting the viewer to think about other emotions and that it’s not always sunshine and lollipops in our reality. I’m almost curious now what your art looks like, I use to draw creepy personifications of metal health disorders to show how they are not pretty to view nor feel.
My art is more peaceful and colorful now, but I still enjoy looking at “creepy” art to get a fresh look on the harsh sides of reality, to remind myself this and try to be humble about it.
 
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