The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Even in perceived chaos, there is order and pattern. A cosmic undercurrent running through all things, which no story is immense enough to contain.

What We Tell Ourselves We have stories about ourselves, and those are not who we are. We have stories about the work, and those are not what the work is.

However you frame yourself as an artist, the frame is too small.

The universe holds a sense of harmony, a beautifully deep interdependent system. When you step back from a project you have been working on for some time and recognize a new symmetry you never knew was possible, you will likely feel a calm satisfaction. An excitement that contains at its core a sense of peace. Order appears. A harmonic resonance is

Why Make Art? As you deepen your participation in the creative act, you may come across a paradox. Ultimately, the act of self-expression isn’t really about you.

Being an artist means to be continually asking, “How can it be better?” whatever it is. It may be your art, and it may be your life.

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace,” Charles Mingus once said. “Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

What effect does each component have? Does it amplify the essence? Does it distract from the essence? Does it contribute to the balance? Does it contribute to the structure? Is it absolutely necessary?

If you’re working on a ten-song album and you’ve recorded twenty songs, you’re not aiming to reduce it to ten. You’re shrinking it to five, to only the tracks you can’t live without. If you’ve written a book that’s over three hundred pages, try to reduce it to less than a hundred without losing its essence. In addition to getting to the heart of th