My favorite bands are mostly punk bands, the music I listen to most often, are bands like Social Distortion, The Descendents, and Face to Face, and several others. But when I'm in a creative mood, actually working on creative projects, I listen to this entire concert of the Lilith Fair in 1997. I've watched and listened to this dozens and dozens of times. This is one of the best documentaries on creativity I know.
"Writing's so bizarre. I think that's why it's so fulfilling. It's like you're... you're making something out of nothing."
-Shawn Colvin, Lillith Fair, 1997 documentary (above)
To be able to reach into the void, to literally stretch your soul out into that other dimension, and bring out something new, something you think the world needs, to breathe life into it, and set that creative piece on its journey into the physical world, that is the work of an artist. And that work requires every bit as much dedication as that of a doctor, or a soldier, to do it well, and do it consistently. An artist, a poet of life, may not fight battles with guns, but we are always fighting battles.
While in North Carolina, three years ago, living in a tent in the woods, and drawing my Sharpie art day after day, fighting the darkness of the deep shadows of the worst aspects of Old Southern Culture, it seemed like I was planting flowers in Hell. I wondered if it was all worthwhile many times, like when I was hunkered down, under a tarp, inside my tent, as a Carolina thunderstorm raged around me, thinking about drawing at the library the next day. One day I realized, if you plant enough flowers in Hell, it doesn't feel like Hell anymore. That is our work as artists.
To keep trying, keep creating, to build our technical skills, and learn our own creative process, to bring new things, new creative works, new ideas, into the world. That is our job. If you dedicate yourself to that over the long term, you eventually build up the drive to keep going no matter what forces of the evil parts of the everyday human world throw at you, or our own fears and personal demons we may be wrestling with.
That is our job. We light matches in the darkness and create new lights to share and pass around and light new paths. To do that, we must be sensitive to the creative sparks and the nuances, but also build a toughness to break past the doubters and haters. At this point, if you put me in front of a firing squad, condemned to die a moment later by the executioners' guns, I'd write a haiku on the spot and recite it, as my last work in this world.
You pull the trigger
Sending lead death to end me
A poem comes, I win
Sometimes it takes that level of dogged dedication to be an artist. History would forget the names of the firing squad members, and the leader who told them to shoot. But that poem, that haiku would be written down and remembered, I guarantee it.
Yes, sometimes it takes that level of dedication to your creative work to be an artist. Most of the time it does not, thankfully. But there is a dedication to being a poet, a painter, a sculptor, a songwriter, a musician, a dancer, a content creator, a director, a producer, an inventor, a graphic designer, whatever. You may not face the firing squad for your creative work, but you face days of creating crap, you face your insecurities, your personal bad habits, your doubts, your mom's doubts, your dad's doubts, everybody's doubts. You face moments, even days, where it doesn't seem to be working.
And then... that spark comes, from somewhere. That next right idea that you need to create. But the spark is the just that, the spark, it is not the poem, the song, the play, the finished work. Then comes the dedication that you've built over time, the work to take that creative spark and form it with your technical skills, into the piece of art to share with others.
Some pieces of art may be instant hits, going viral in your genre' to be admired and to inspire many people in a short amount of time. Other pieces may not receive much initial excitement at all. They may sit out there in the world, seemingly unnoticed, for months or years. But in that time, in their place, those pieces inspire one person here, and another there. And years later someone thanks you for creating that piece or work you'd long forgotten about. It did have a purpose, it was needed in the world at the time you created it. Maybe that "failure" ultimately inspired entire new people and new ideas while you went on, busy elsewhere. You never know.
There is a reason we are driven to create something. Sometimes it's just for our own survival. Sometimes we just need to get out of our everyday mindset and goof around, and make something to keep our own spirits up. Sometimes we create a gift for someone dear to us, to help them through a dark time. Sometimes we create a piece of art that speaks to many, many people. Sometimes we may create something that seems like no big deal at the time, but it sparks a whole new genre' of creativity in other people. Sometimes we may create a work that speaks to our times, and helps drive a major, needed, a change in society itself.
We never know, as artists what effect a certain piece will have. Our job is to actually live life, and to learn and grow as artists, to dedicate ourselves to doing the best work we can, as we journey through life. Our job is to learn our own creative process, to follow our our weird path, to build our technical skills, and to drop everything and create that next piece of work when the spark hits us.
The world of humans needs our work, even if it may not seem like it at the time. The world needs us, as artists, no many how many mean and seemingly evil people (most of whom are blocked artists themselves) may try to destroy us. The world needs new creative pieces of work, new ideas, of all kinds, constantly. The world needs you to create. Do your best to hold up your end of the bargain. Keep creating.
Become
You must risk
If you're to succeed
From when we grow
Sometimes we bleed
Each must climb
Over the fence
For the only cage
Is ignorance
Each Jedi Knight
And Shaolin monk
Evolved from
A lowly punk
Don't get caught
In the world's throws
We must become
Our own heroes
-The White Bear
(aka me, Steve Emig)
A couple of memes I made a while back, on the idea of creativity...
No comments:
Post a Comment