The Creative Act: A Way of Being

How do we move forward, considering the stories we tell ourselves? One of the best strategies is to lower the stakes.

We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.

The best work is the work you are excited about.

The objective is not to learn to mimic greatness, but to calibrate our internal meter for greatness. So we can better make the thousands of choices that might ultimately lead to our own great work.

We don’t have to understand nature to appreciate it.

We can worry less about understanding why it works, or if others will understand where we are coming from. We are free to be present and allow the material to come through us, and free to stay out of its way when it does come through.

Meditation is a valuable tool for hitting the reset button. You may also try vigorous exercise, a scenic adventure, or immersing yourself in an unrelated creative endeavor.

Strip away the labels. Now how do you see the world?

Our thoughts, feelings, processes, and unconscious beliefs have an energy that is hidden in the work. This unseen, unmeasurable force gives each piece its magnetism. A completed project is only made up of our intention and our experiments around it. Remove intention and all that’s left is the ornamental shell.