Oooh the subject of taking heavy life experiences and turning them into art is one I have BIG FEELINGS about. This is not something everyone has to do! This is never required! You can make light, fluffy art even if your life had been so hard! It's allowed!

ALSO it is unlikely that you will do this WHILE HARD THINGS ARE HAPPENING. Turning things into art takes TIME and SPACE and PROCESSING. Doing it in the moment may be a fantastic therapy process but you don't owe it to anyone to share that immediate, vulnerable work publicly.

People who do immediate response public artwork are brave and generous and incredibly good at distilling things down into artwork! But it is imperative to understand that it's a personal choice and not at all - NOT AT ALL - a requirement or expectation to put upon anyone.

Also we have got to distinguish between finding signs of lived trauma in artwork and intentionally putting them there.

Anyways fun fluffy escapist artwork is absolutely as valuable as deeply reflective work about darkness, struggle, loss or pain, and no one gets to tell artists which they have to make to be valid.