Art of creating
The pressure to always be productive is distributed unevenly. Audiences move fluidly, entering and exiting work without obligation. Creatives, on the other hand, carry responsibility for continuity. For returning. For staying legible.
The Pressure to Always Be Productive as a Creative
Imbalance of dynamics between those who dip in and out as an audience vs the creator who always need to be “on top of” the game.
You don’t need a rented studio to build a creative practice. But you do need a space where you’re not performing for anyone, you’re just testing ideas, sketching, documenting.
How to Be More Artistic
Keep experimenting for the sake of it without being performative.
But creatives also need thinking time, a moment to rewind and allow old thoughts to leave and new ones to come in. Creative thinking rarely moves in straight lines. It benefits from pauses, detours, and periods where nothing tangible appears to be happening. These phases often feel rich from within, yet they offer little external proof.
In a culture... See more
In a culture... See more
The Pressure to Always Be Productive as a Creative
The in-between process between creating <> thinking, reflecting, digesting, learning and brewing has become the “gap” of why creators are absent and has added the pressure of needing to “over-explain” themselves for visibility.
Research at its best is digging for undercurrents: overlooked symbols, overlooked artists, gems in history, overlooked media. It’s about training your eye to notice what feels unresolved, then finding ways to translate that into something intentional.
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Research to notice what is underrated. How can we translate the gap into something tangible.
While having experiences, knowledge and norms help us make sense of the world and survive as a collective, it can also form limiting beliefs that stop us from seeing new possibilities.
“The impossible only becomes accessible when experience has not taught us limits.” (P.120)
[ Takeaway: p.120, Beginner’s Mind - The Creative Act: Rick Rubin ]
Being an artist is not strictly definitive to those who are conventionally seen as “creative” - it is more so an attitude, a “how” when it comes to interact with the world.
... See more“To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. Refining our sensitivity to tune in to the more subtle notes. Looking
Being a mindful creator that speaks with conviction, and speaking from a place of deep understanding rather than shallow relevance that comes with speed, is what going to build trust over time through accumulation.
“You don’t need to know who you are to become an artist. Art molds us into the shape it wants us to be and the thing that serves it best.”
The self is not something you can set out looking for; it reveals itself gradually through the choices you make.
The self is not something you can set out looking for; it reveals itself gradually through the choices you make.
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We’re just vessels of the universe, to deliver the messages and express the ideas that are ripen and ready to be harvested at the right time.
It’s both a blessing and a curse to be an artist: while artists give life to their emotions, it can also be a very isolating place to feel deeply, including sensitivity to judgments.
... See more“If you see tremendous beauty or tremendous pain where other people see little or nothing at all, you’re confronted with big feelings all the time. These emotions can