Artists are often considered to be different by “normal” people. They are labeled as weird, eccentric, pretentious, messy, mentally unstable, and so forth.
When you look at the art world in general, and at the most famous artists in particular, you cannot deny that there are many individuals that exhibit some odd behavior.
Salvador Dali, for example, is reported to paint himself blue and walk around with a loaf of bread strapped to his head. Oscar Wilde used to walk his lobster on a leash, and Charles Dickens would fight off imaginary people with his umbrella.
These are some extreme examples. Nevertheless, there are the ordinary artists around the corner that don’t paint themselves blue, don’t walk their lobsters, and don’t shadow-box with imaginary opponents. Still, those artists may be perceived as weird by their surroundings.
Why is that? What actually makes artistic people different?