Another 5×5 canvas with many previous lives (read: layers). Added some Pentalic Woodless Pencil 2B, collage, and Golden Regular Gel (Gloss). Feels like it’s starting to come together.
#wip #artinprocess #artistsofinstagram #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #creativity #creative365 #creativeprocess #creativesandbox #abstract #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #livingacreativelife #yes
January 10, 2015 at 10:19AM
Nova Color Cerulean Blue Hue and Chromium Oxide Green, applied with a palette knife.
#artinprocess #wip #abstract #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #acrylic #livingacreativelife #creativity #creative365 #creativeprocess #creativesandbox #15minutesaday
#artinprocess #wip #abstract #abstractart #abstractexpressionism #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #acrylic #livingacreativelife #creativity #creative365 #creativeprocess #creativesandbox #15minutesaday
How Your Art Will Save the World
Lately, I’ve been battling the demons of self-doubt. (Yep, creativity instigators deal with the same crap as everyone else!) I figured it was a good time to pull a classic from the archives, originally published on August 21, 2011.
Enjoy! xoMelissa
Oh gentle, creative soul, have you been beaten down by the prevailing cultural programming that says that art – that your making your art – isn’t important?
It’s a lie, my love.
I don’t care if you make a penny from what you do. I don’t care if you do it for pay, as a gift for someone else, or purely to nourish your own soul. The Universe wants you to create.
The Universe needs you to create.
What you do has value and meaning and critical importance.
Just the fact of your creating it makes it so.
I don’t care if it’s profound or fluffy, somber or silly. If it’s in you to create it, the world needs you to do so.
In my job as a Creative Instigator, I work with brilliant and talented folks of all stripes (though they rarely characterize themselves this way). I have 1:1 clients and Creative Ignition Circle members (and friends and acquaintances) who make their living from their creative efforts…
…and end up so focused on bringing in income that they stop creating to feed their own soul.
This was my own story too.
What happens when you stop feeding your own soul?
It begins to starve. It begs you for nourishment.
You may be able to silent it for a time, but ultimately you end up walking around in a state of low-grade misery.
This is not what the Universe put you on the planet to do!
Did the Universe put a fish on the planet to hike? Or a hawk on the planet to swim? Or a horse on the planet to fly?
Of course not! Fish have an innate talent for swimming; hawks for flying; horses for running. This is what they were made for. This is what they were put on the planet to do.
Anyone with any sense wouldn’t try to prevent them from doing that thing they were born for. That would just be silly. And cruel.
You, too, were born with a unique set of gifts and talents, the things that make you feel alive when you do them.
Yes, those.
The purpose of your life is to use those gifts and talents.
Anyone with any sense wouldn’t try to prevent you from doing what you were born for. That would just be silly. And cruel.
Still not convinced?
Art is more powerful and important than our ridiculous society would have us believe
Here’s an example.
A few weeks ago, I got a call about a calligraphy commission. A recent widower, who’d lost his wife in a sudden, unexpected tragedy a few weeks before, wanted a broadside (a “poster,” as he called it) for her memorial. Could I do it?
Now, I’m very selective about the commissions I take on these days. This one was a rush job, which meant my life would be rather more stressful for a couple of weeks, but it was a job that felt meaningful and interesting to me. Money was not an issue (I’d be well-compensated for my time); I’d get to play with letters in a way I rarely do these days; the man was extremely appreciative and admiring of my work – he truly valued my talents; and as he put it, “This is the last thing I can do for my wife.”
He took me to lunch, told me the story of how they’d met, and how she died. He said he knew I was the person to create her memorial piece; he had no interest in working with anyone else.
I got to work.
Working to a client’s specifications is a different animal than playing in the Creative Sandbox. If that’s all I did, I wouldn’t be happy. But when the client saw the finished piece, stopped in his tracks and almost burst into tears, I got a bit choked up myself.
“You’ve made an old man very happy,” said this man who’d recently suffered the worst loss in his life.
I couldn’t imagine that anything would make him happy right now, only weeks after losing his best friend, partner, lover, mate.
Yet my art gave him comfort, and yes, made him happy.
“I will look at this every day for the rest of my life,” he said, exuding gratitude and appreciation.
And they tell us art isn’t important?
“But that was something someone paid you to make,” you argue.
True. But the art that I make while playing in the Creative Sandbox, art that nobody commissioned and paid for, makes me happy.
And I get emails and tweets on a regular basis from people who have been moved and inspired by the creations I (used to) send out in my not-quite-daily ArtSpark newsletter and the videos I post here and on YouTube. And when I perform in public as a jazz singer/songwriter/Uke Diva, people invariably thank me.
I’m not saying this to promote myself, but to encourage, embolden and empower you to get to that creative thing that’s calling to you.
You have no idea whose lives your work might touch, what difference it might make to them.
You do know one person it will make happy, though: you.
The Talmud says “if you save one life, it is as if you had saved the whole world.” I suspect the rabbis who wrote this were talking about the physical saving of lives; the difference between life and death. But I’ll go ahead and take the liberty of applying it a bit more broadly.
If you save one life from low-grade misery – your own – it is as if you had saved the whole world.
Is that not enough?
Tell me, what are your unique gifts and talents, and how are you going to use them to save your own life?
PS – If you liked this post, please tweet, share, like and/or send it to a friend you think might like it too. You might just be saving the world.
It’s true! You were born to create! #sunday #morning #quote
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Question Time! Who Decides What Makes Great Art Anyway?
Today I have an answer to a doozy of a question, one that plagues virtually every artist/writer/maker/creator out there. I suspect very strongly that it plagues you, too, and I think my answer will be helpful.
First, though, some background:
You may or may not know that, in addition to the business I run here at Living A Creative Life, I also co-run an online course and community for emerging artists at the beginning stages of selling their work, Art Empowers Me.
(Note: My partner over at Art Empowers Me, Cory Huff, runs his own excellent blog, The Abundant Artist, to which I contribute articles periodically. And the two of us also co-host a podcast, Creative Insurgents.
This confuses a lot of people. I’m not sure why it’s so confusing, but it is. So if you’re one of the confused, here’s a breakdown of what’s going on:
Living A Creative Life = Blog, owned and operated by me.
The Abundant Artist = Blog, owned and operated by Cory, with articles by guest bloggers (including me on occasion).
Art Empowers Me = Private membership course and community for emerging artists, owned and operated by both me and Cory
Creative Insurgents = Podcast, hosted by both me and Cory (and our mascot, Minnie).
Got it? Good.)
Now, a couple of times a year Cory and I open the doors to accept new members over at Art Empowers Me, and one of the ways we raise awareness for the program is by hosting a series of free video chats over at Google+ Hangouts. For one of the video chats, Cory, who has monster creds as a marketing whiz, talks about the five things every artist needs to sell their art online, starting with Thing #1:
Make great art.
So that’s the first part of the background.
The second part of the background is this: A couple of weeks ago, Sandy asked how, if we’re following the directive from my Imperfectionist Manifesto to “make crap daily,” do we get from crap to great? I answered that question here.
This officially ends the background portion of this post. Now I will get to the actual question.
Yesterday, Sandy sent me this follow-up question:
I just can’t get this thought outta my head!! The convo we had bout the making great art.. and making crap?? Well…. Who decides if your art is great? Who makes that call? I just keep wrangling this round my wee brain… Thanks for any insight…
(Note: You may have noticed that Sandy’s questions have gotten a lot of attention in these Question Time posts. This is because she takes the risk to actually ask them. If you have a question, send it to me here and you may find yourself featured in a future Question Time post.)
Great question, Sandy! Here’s the short answer:
The way I see it, whoever is judging makes their own call. Your job as creator is to decide whose authority you care about.
When someone bought four paintings from me the other day, she was the one making the call. She decided that my art was great, and not just that, but that it was exactly what she wanted for her walls, and worthy of parting with her hard-earned dollars to own.
When I share my art on Instagram and Facebook, or publish articles here or elsewhere, the people leaving comments or clicking the “like” button, are the ones making the call.
When I entered two paintings in an art show recently (including the one at the top of this post), the jurors were the ones making the call. They decided that my art wasn’t what they wanted for the show, so my entries were rejected.
Different judges, different calls. None of which ultimately have anything to do with me.
The person who buys my art thinks it’s great. Other people who didn’t buy it may not agree. Or they may agree, but not prioritize spending the money on art.
Different judges, different calls.
When my art is rejected from a show, I can’t actually know the exact reasons for my rejection. It could be that they thought my art sucked, and this is where so many of us automatically jump when we’re rejected: “Oh, I suck. My art sucks. I should give up.”
But the reason my entries were rejected could just as easily be that they thought my art was great, but in a field of equally great entries, my art didn’t fit their overall vision for the show. Or it could be some other reason entirely.
Again, different judges, different calls.
The important thing, as far as I see it, is to focus on why you’re creating whatever it is you create, and for whom.
After a lifetime of being chained to the approval-seeking treadmill, I’ve only recently broken free of those chains. For too long I was paralyzed by perfectionism, afraid to make a move unless I was sure it would garner me praise.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. This is not a fun way to live!
I have worked very intentionally to free myself of the desperate need for validation and approval from others. Now I focus on creating for reasons that truly fulfill me:
- First, for me, because it gives me joy to do so.
- And second, for the people who will be touched or impacted by what I create.
I choose to enter shows sometimes because it gives my art a chance to be seen by more people, if it gets exhibited. I choose to submit my writing to bigger venues sometimes, because it gives me the opportunity to impact more people with my writing, if it’s accepted for publication. I understand that when I submit my art to judging by those with the power to accept or reject it, I concede to their authority for this specific purpose.
But I do not give the jurors the power to determine whether I create or not.
Just yesterday I taught an entire session for Your Big, Bold, Creative Life Academy that dives into this very topic. I call it Finding Your North Star: Accessing Your Authentic Voice and Getting Off the Approval-Seeking Treadmill.
This is your job, as a creator — to find your own North Star. Until you do this, you’ll be buffeted about by fear of criticism and/or a “frozen need” for external validation, either of which is a recipe for perfectionist paralysis.
So where does this leave us with the directive to “Make great art”? This is where my partner Cory and I diverge a bit in rhetoric. We’ve just seen that “great” is in the eye of the beholder, so what’s an artist to do with that?
Simple: stop aiming for great, and aim instead for authentic.
It’s your authentic voice that will ultimately make your greatest work in the end anyway, so stay true to yourself, your curiosity, your passions, what calls to you most strongly.
When you can aim for authentic and create from your deepest, truest place, you may still feel a sting when your work is rejected, and you may still feel delight when your work is lauded, but neither of those things will drive or paralyze you, and that’s the real goal as far as I’m concerned.
So make crap daily, aim for authentic, and go get creating!
PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!
