John Currin is an extraordinary painter working in a traditional form - oil painting on canvas, in the mode of Velasquez and Courbet. There's a great article about him by Calvin Tomkins in the latest New Yorker, (no link yet).
I came across this quote and well, it just rang a bell with me.
"I came to the conclusion that there is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about it's own making." - John Currin
Yes, even when you are writing about misery, there is no misery in the making. It's all about the YES!