In the comments to my previous post, a friend (and much respected sempai) said :

Hum, there are beauty too in joice, but it is really harder to make it appear without sounding naive, akward or simplist.
It is simpler to draw beauty out of sadness, nearly all people can do it.
But being a true artist is needed to do the same from happyness. And it is propably easier with painting than with word, because words are ... a little not very well cut to describe happyness.
Do you agree ?

I do not and as I was writing an answer I realized I had a lot to say on the matter XD
Enough to make it a post instead of a comment. Here goes!

First, I don't think so many people can draw beauty out of sadness. I never cease to amaze at how many people I show my poems to seem unable to see any kind of beauty in there at all, and shrug it off with a "it's dark so it can't be good".

Now, as for why it is easier to make art in periods of sadness than in periods of happiness, I have my own theory and it goes as follows.

• Dark emotions are much more overwhelming than light ones. I know it sounds pessimistic, but I don't care. Countless times I saw my happiness annihilited by little bad things, countless times I attempted vainly to rejoice at little good things when the overall situation was bad.
• Dark emotions are more easily shared than light ones. Think about two words : compassion and jealousy. Knowing that people you don't like or are indifferent to are happy is unlikely to make you any happier (it isn't even automatic when you love them ^^'), but it is part of humanity to feel sad for people completely unrelated to you.
• Dark emotions are hard to handle. Artists tend to be highly sensitive people and their creativity sometimes makes their emotions even harder to handle... expressing these emotions is a good way to put them into perspective, plus it's an instinctive urge in many people.
• Good emotions never last long enough and you may get too busy enjoying them while they're here or worrying about how to protect them to share them.

Finally, words are exactly as fit to describe happiness as they are to describe sadness and that is : not much. It draws on talent more than on creativity to fit words to emotions, situations, etc... but that's the same with every art. Most people are barely able to draw something that can be recognized, let alone carry a whole dimension of emotions to it. Now why would manipulating words be any different than manipulating pencils ? I think it is the same.

Phew, it really turned way too long for a comment XD

On to something completely different : I said good-bye to EB a few hours ago. I won't see her again for years to come, but I know I will someday, so I won't cry (anymore ^^').

Take care, EB.