The short answer for me is that while art can be part of the artist, it's more a person's actions that count over their words or pictures. Because a lot of art comes from trauma and stuff like that but I like to look at an overall picture of their behavior rather than not. Yes, you're right it can be apart of someone but also, there's many factors to consider in which you could separate the art from the artist by saying that your trauma isn't necessarily you either.
The longish answer?
Trauma comes out in weird ways, some of it may not be known to the artist itself. That's kind of why art is sometimes the artist but while art may be apart of an artist, it could be other stuff going on so it's separate but not at the same time. For example, when I was a kid my mom had a brain tumor and I don't want to make it seem like my mom was a monster. She wasn't, she was a good mom. But at the same time I can't deny that she screwed me up a little bit. Since she had a brain tumor she was also quick to snap too. I knew of a guy at work who had a traumatic brain injury and couldn't be around his kid, he was court ordered. While he was a good person generally, his injury made him snap off and unpredictable.
Like she would leave notes about how she loved me so much, she was so carefree and would turn up Ace of Base, I saw the sign really loud in the car. She'd be really goofy and make funny faces and had a dark sense of humor lol. Simultaneously she would lock me in a room by myself if I spilled on the carpet. And one time she yelled at me for sitting on a public toilet bare bottom. She yanked me back and pointed angrily at the toilet telling me there were germs and gave me this whole speech about how I could die and what would dramatically happen if I sat on that toilet bare bottom.
That's actually only from stuff I remember though, I blacked out other stuff who really knows.
So in turn, I grew up thinking I was going to die and how sick I was. I actually didn't live most of my childhood because I thought I was dying. I used to get great anxiety from it until I discovered Santa Muerte. That helped me cope.
But later on I turned to drugs and fried my brain because I got some freedom and relief over not worrying if I was gonna die or not. Believe it or not, I actually had a social life I guess. Looking back I realized it wasn't healthy and part of that was trauma. But you don't recognize it because you just think it's true, whatever you're thinking at the time even if it's a delusion.
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As for other things, there are some other things that could influence someone's art.
Like I been wanting to see a therapist to see if I have DID, I have some elements of Dissociative Identity Disorder and also a little bit antisocial as well.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell you that I'm some edge lord on tiktok or whatever, I have legit reasons for thinking so and don't really care to broadcast whatever I may have.
But I wanted to point out that you might have to just consider an overall picture and while some art is apart of you, it could be outside influences or other things that may "not" be exactly you per se.
