Our Relationship With Creativity

Creativity and being a creative entrepreneur has been on my mind lately, especially as I am pondering how to best introduce a multitude of income streams. It is important to do business in awareness, since creativity is such a personal topic, close to heart and soul. Here are some thoughts that are top of mind right now.

On Making Art

What is good art? And bad? I am re-reading “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon, and this has me asking the deeper questions, those with a multitude of answers, or perhaps no correct one at all.

The main thing that keeps my attention right now is the concept of fluctuation. My relationship with art fluctuates in the sense that some days I feel horrified by my work (imposter syndrome or similar), and other times I think it is good.

Or maybe good is a bit much actually. I rather consider it “not half bad” on the best days. As in “I like it, so maybe someone else could, too.” Not question mark or exclamation mark, but period. I definitely feel past the question mark.

Insights From The Dating World And The Realm Of Groups

An analogy from the world of dating is how I years ago matured from “Who would ever find me attractive?” (during the time when self-loathing was still very much an issue) to “Well, I don’t like everybody, so not everyone will like me either, but also if I like someone, they might like me back.” Again, a calm statement rather than question mark or joyous outburst.

A recent development is “Do I even like them?”, which granted feels a bit foreign still, but I will take this healthy approach nonetheless.

For example some communities have evolved into small cliques with their own, subtle hierarchies and stagnant ways, suspiciously cold approach to newcomers, and actual exclusion in true bully style. Those types of obviously insecure individuals are not people I wish to seek approval from anymore, so no, I neither like them nor care about how they view me.

I don’t think it is very flattering to be treated as air most of the time, but regarded as useful when there is something in it for the other party. And whether people can handle truth or not, there is quite a bit of this obnoxious nonsense in the creative world, too.

Remember, people can only meet you from their own level of maturity, even when you happen to be farther along in your development. Sometimes it hurts ridiculously much, so just because I talk rather neutrally about these things right now doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of being excluded, treated badly, etc.

Creativity Is Personal And Creativity Is Business

Hopefully I can fully integrate these insights, this real feeling of self-acceptance in body and mind, in my creative work, too. It is hard to put ourselves out there, but even harder to not live authentically. Choking on self-imposed restrictions is never a great idea, and yet it can easily be our modus operandi.

Speaking of “Steal Like an Artist”, I do have stuff in it to comment on, and seeing as this blog has a post category called Creative Entrepreneurship, it is relevant to share my thoughts in public.

I will post something once I have stewed on it a bit longer, because since reading it the first time years ago, I have done a lot of personal development, and also grown more into my creative expression.

In addition, I have learned several, extremely useful business lessons in the past few years, which are too important not to share with like-minded people.

Wrapping Up

Creativity as a topic is multifaceted, so your thoughts may have gone in a completely different direction. In my blog post What Is Creativity? from 2021, I pondered this question without coming to any sort of clever conclusion, and you may want to read my thoughts nonetheless.

The fascinating thing about it is that creativity is so subjective, and also not quantifiable at all. How do you measure having creativity? And the next logical question is “Why would you?”…

Because there ultimately is no right or wrong in this field, there is room for all of us. There are obvious boundaries not to cross into the unethical of course (goldfish in blenders are still not a fine idea for a museum installation and I am still as repulsed as decades ago), but other than that I would say anything is fair game.

Thoughts? Please share them in the comments below!