Strange habits of popular artists and what we learnt from them!
It’s no secret that we all have our quirks and strange habits. Irrespective of our upbringing, our personality, our status in society or how we present ourselves to the public, we all do things that others might consider weird.
The truth of the matter is, we’re all just creatures of habit, some stranger than others.
And this includes famous people too!
Be it to preserve their youthful charm, help them find the right inspiration, or to simply keep their luck in line, celebrities have strange little habits that help them feel comfortable.
The art world, especially, attracts a lot of unusual people. Some of our most revered artists had some pretty weird hobbies: stealing pens, carrying around guns, making time capsules. Others just really needed a bath.
Some of these artists, like Salvador Dalí, have famous quirks and are known for being unusual. However, even those who weren’t known as quirky artists have their own strange habits, influences, or traits.
We all tend to idealize famous people, especially those who lived way before us and left some outstanding art pieces under their name. Although they fully deserve the appreciation they have received, it’s important to remember that they were people just like us, and humans tend to have some very weird, sometimes even unbearable, habits. Let’s take a look at some of them, shall we?
Michelangelo
Strange Habit: Not taking a bath
Michelangelo, the painter of the Sistine Chapel, was one of the lucky artists who became famous during his lifetime. However, despite his wealth, Michelangelo was pretty lackluster in the hygiene department. He apparently never bathed and rarely changed his clothes. In fact, on his deathbed, it is believed that his clothing had to be peeled off of him. YIKES!
Our Learning: If someone as famous and revered as Michelangelo can go years without taking a bath, we sure can miss one or two showers during the winter.
Salvador Dalí
Strange Habit: Taking excruciatingly short power naps
When someone thinks of surrealism, chances are that Dali and his pomade-covered mustache comes to one’s mind. He was fascinated by the intersection between unconsciousness and reality, once declaring that his pieces were, “hand-painted dream photographs”. Such was the importance of dreaming to his art that Dalí invented a tactic to enable him to access this hypnagogic realm: settling for a nap, he would hold a key over a metal plate and, as soon as sleep came creeping through, the clanging of the dropped key would wake him, allowing him both the micro rest he required, and the ability to immediately record visuals experienced on the brink of the unconscious.
He even delivered his lectures in a swimsuit, claiming it helped him dive into his subconscious.
Our Learning: In order to create masterpieces, it is extremely important to take multiple naps throughout the day. Oh and also, ALWAYS BE BEACH READY!
Leonardo Da Vinci
Strange Habit: Setting birds free
Well this is a cute, albeit strange one! Da Vinci is popularly recognized for his incredible art and mechanical creations. He was also a devoted vegetarian who had a habit of buying caged birds so he could let them go. No wonder he is considered Italy’s sweetheart and PETA is his biggest fan!
Our Learning: To quote Aesop, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Honoré de Balzac
Strange Habit: Having a latte coffee…get it?
The famous French novelist was addicted to coffee, so much so that he always said he was able to write so much because of the caffeine. It is said that he drank about 50 cups of coffee a day!
Our Learning: There’s no such thing as over-caffeination!
Virginia Woolf
Strange Habit: Keeping the gluteus muscles active!
Recognised as one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf believed that the only way she was able to write something meaningful was to do it while standing. She looked for desks, tables or any high surfaces to work on.
Our Learning: No matter how intensive your work is, it’s important to keep your lower body muscles activated! Here’s how you can stay active while sitting on your desk!
Erik Satie
Strange Habit: Peculiar eating habits and timings.
The prominent French composer Erik Satie was weird. Not just weird, but incomprehensibly bizarre. He only ate food that was white, such as eggs, sugar, grated bones, salt, coconuts, rice and similar. Each day he rose at 7:18 a.m. and would have lunch strictly at 12:11. Then dinner at 7:16 p.m. and he would go to bed at 10:37 P.M. Also, he was a hoarder but a very specific one – he loved umbrellas and had over 100 of them.
Our Learning: Maintaining a strict routine and following it religiously boosts productivity!
Igor Stravinsky
Strange Habit: Doing headstands
Igor Stravinsky, the boundary-bending Russian composer, applied a strange technique to get his creative juices flowing. Each morning, he performed a headstand for 10-15 minutes, in order to clean his head and be ready to write down some soon-to-become modern classics.
Our Learning: The world being upside-down is not necessarily a bad thing.
Andy Warhol
Strange Habit: Collecting wigs
Andy Warhol, the face of pop art, is easy to distinguish from a crowd. He took great care of his looks, and most importantly, his iconic hairdo, which was actually a wig! Speaking of hair and unusual habits, Warhol connected both of these elements, by having the unusual habit of collecting wigs. Eventually, he hoarded a collection of 40 wigs!
Our Learning: There’s no shame in experimenting with your looks!
Francis Bacon
Strange Habit: Working with a hangover
Prolific painter Francis Bacon was notoriously a creature of habit: rising early and painting for several hours a day, he would then indulge in drinking, dining and socialising from midday until the small hours of the morning. “I often like working with a hangover […] because my mind is crackling with energy and I can think very clearly,” he famously said.
Our Learning: It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, and hangovers don’t always have to suck.
This was quite a ride. If some of the most iconic creative geniuses that have ever lived on this planet didn’t shy away from indulging in their strange habits, we sure can cut ourselves some slack for pouring ourselves an extra cup of coffee on Mondays.
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Photo by Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash
