Introverted extraversion - extraverted introversion

by Stefan à Wengen (2013)

Translated by Barbara Wagner

The painter's interim loneliness in the studio is an essential prerequisite for the creation of his work. The writer, too, spends lonely hours in front of his laptop and lacks any social presence. Nevertheless, such lonely and, so to speak, introverted hours of work are not necessarily deprivation or must even be felt as drudgery occasionally. C. G. Jung in his psychological typology used the adjectives introverted and - as an antonym - extraverted. So painters and writers are introverted fellows too; they do introvert, even if only temporarily, during the period of their creative work. It is, of course, the simplicity of means that allows the painter his introversion; he does not need collaborations, specialists, technicians, or equipment that needs to be handled by more than one person in order to execute his work. And, of course, a hint of genius hovers over his intimate, introvert doing; the grand master painter every now and then endows the world with a new masterpiece from his quiet chamber whose emergence happened in complete secret. Or are these rather tricks and ruses the painter has to use or adopt in order to circumvent a certain inability here and there in the execution of his ideas that he does not want to reveal or even share?>> continue...