The Effects of Alcohol on The Artist

What are we losing to the drink?

The Artist & The Drink

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren’t open that early. —Daniel Boorstin

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Alcohol’s Influence on Creativity and the Brain

For centuries, alcohol and art have been tangled lovers. But what if the romance between them is just love unrealized—a honeymoon phase, where facts are mere inconvenience? So let’s take comfort, and rose-colored anything, out of it. Let’s look at what the science says about how alcohol actually affects our creative minds.

A Moment for The Drunken Genius

There’s a seductive archetype: the tortured, brilliant writer or painter with a glass in hand. From Hemingway to Bukowski, from Van Gogh to Winehouse, alcohol has loomed large in artistic lore. Some claim it “unlocks” creativity and removes inhibition, quiets the critic, and stirs up emotion to throw onto the canvas. Others, especially those who’ve tried to write through a hangover, know fuzziness, fragmentat…