Some thoughts on a creative life
Patreon post reshare:
Creativity is a topic I love to learn and write about. I'm driven by the beliefs that we are all creative and a creative life is a better one. My on-going tiny experiments are helping me to reflect on my own creative identity and the questions of how and why I do this work.
My left brain says: "I'm super fired up by the simplicity of Seth Godin's words in The Practice. Creativity is the generous act of doing something that might not work for people who care. All we can control is our practice and the goal of the professional is to make generous work for enough people who care to be able to keep making a generous contribution."
My right brain counters with: "But you also naturally lean into the purposeful and slightly mystical framing of Liz Gilbert's Big Magic that our core purpose is to find our own buried treasure and commune with the forces of inspiration to bring forth a unique contribution. There's purpose here but also a healthy pragmatism that our job is to show up and dilligently do the work - don't wait for your genius. Creativity is in our nature and a great way spend our lives but it's also good to embrace it's totally superfluous so tread lightly."
There is a lot of common ground across these books in the importance of practice, time spent developing a craft, and letting go of the outcomes that we can't control. The tensions are found in whether it's really magical and what it means to be a professional.
I've found stepping back into the space of sharing via Patreon rewarding and helpful. It's made crystal clear that nobody is waiting for anyone's creative contribution these days (& perhaps they never were). Organic discovery is challenging in a world where we swim in so much wonderful creative content and only the most consistent & powerful sustained strokes result in connection. Even as I attempt detach from the outcome of how my creative work is received, I can feel that it'd be nice for this work to resonate with others at some point in the future.
I'm under no illusion that creative people have grappled with this challenge for centuries and it's part of the dance we do as makers. I'm just another human in a long line wrestling with what it means to create and share. Developing and sustaining a practice is fun regardless of the outcome so I'm making for the long haul - I just wanted to share a few thoughts this week on the dance.
PS more new music coming in the next few weeks - I'm currently shoulder deep in a new set of full band song recordings to share soon.
