I saw this video by Ira Glass on the Huffington Post the other day and it made perfect sense to me.
It’s so easy to be frustrated with your work, so much that you procrastinate because the answer isn’t coming to you. But sometimes, it doesn’t come when you’re just thinking about it. Sometimes it comes when you’re knee deep into your process – even if you don’t know what that process is yet. Just like the video says, do work. Do what you love! And don’t give up. It is not always about the final product, but how you got there. And sometimes one weird idea you had will lead you to another.
THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.
The other thing that frustrates me is I know many people who had a life changing event happen such as a bad break up after a long term relationship. Or maybe they were rejected from the college they wanted to get into. Or they had a boss tell them how bad and slow of a designer they are. And they stop. Something brain washes them enough that they stop being creative, stop drawing, stop painting. Or that being and artist is bad and you’re going to end up starving on some street corner.
Well, no I don’t believe any of that!
All those things ^ up there happened to me. But this relationship between me and my creativity – not one thing can come between us. It will always be a part of me. No one can take that away, even if you stop using it.
Oh and one more thing – don’t scribble on work you think is bad. Don’t throw it out. Don’t erase it. SAVE YOUR ARTWORK. These are great teachers. It is wonderful to look back and see how far you’ve come. And you can’t do that if you’ve let it become trash. To me, looking at sketches and seeing the progress is awesome! Don’t hate on your past-self. It got you here!
2 Comments
I don’t know why people would stop their art for a bad breakup, but I think when it comes down to someone telling them their art is bad, it really just reinforces what they already believe deep down and need people to pick them up. Kevin Smith has said that there’s a million people who will ask you why, but you need to surround yourself with people who ask you why not? It helps push you to creatively where you need to be.
I am not physically creative in the slightest, I honestly draw worse than a 7 year old, and that always depressed me, but later on in life i learned that I am actually extremely creative when doing computer graphic design and web design. I have figured that I have a creative mind, but not a steady hand, so i find drawing impossible, but computer graphics are way more logic based, and thus I can enter numeric digits or code, and drag and drop to create a finished product that looks visually delicious!
Great read, I and I agree that you should never give up or even doubt your creativity.