Creative Director: Create

I Create: Creative Director of My Life.

I mentioned recently that I had come to the realization that I needed to purposefully make crappy art. Messy, awful, and bad. I had been struggling with working out a style for a painting I had in mind, and this was the only way to really work out what looked terrible, and to get a feel then, for what I would be able to do, and how. I had also been more recently following along with Amie McNee’s journey, with the launch of her book, We Need Your Art. She advocates for making crappy art. That if we all let our own art and expression come through, unfiltered, then we can evolve our work, and by doing so, it really is our signature, our own personal, individual ‘stamp’ that is ours and ours alone.

She was recently a guest on Jay Shetty’s podcast, which I listened to and appreciated every moment of their conversation. All creative works are ‘art’ whether it be cooking, gardening, painting, writing, poetry, costume design, video creating, or really anything that one can create. The world needs everyone’s unique expression, and by not putting forward or trying to do something with ideas, then that magic that could have been made ‘tangible’ is lost forever.

I love her mission that everyone should allow their creativity to be expressed. It’s how we end up coming face to face with our purpose, even if the path you started on, was different than where you end up. We only find that by creating, by experimenting and finding our ‘voice’ along the way.

It can be lonely work, it can be work that gets ignored or not acknowledged. It can be discouraging and disheartening. But we must remember why we are doing it. Why we started and why we keep going. For me, I had to create, or live ‘in pain’ with not doing it. I really did become more and more irritable. My excuses of ‘no time’ or ‘no place to work’ or ‘no where to put my supplies,’ were changing gradually from excuse to being uncovered for the lies that they were. Like a mask coming off to reveal the truth. I had to find a way, I had to make it work.

Time: similarly to Amie, I had seen how gradual progression can stack up huge over time. Some days, I’d do as little as 5 minutes. Even if it was just get an idea and a sketch of the beginnings of my next piece. That’s all it takes, and the next time, you know where to begin with the paint.

So create, even if it’s the tiniest minuscule amount or effort. That’s all it takes to start: at the beginning, at your beginning, or your creative time that day.

Until next week,

Devon