Joseph Chilton Pearce once said, “To live a creative life,
we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Now, I’m not sure who this Pearce
character is, but I wholeheartedly agree with him. I’ve only been home for
about a week now, but since I’ve been home, I’ve gotten so many rad ideas for
art projects and things I want to write. I’ll think about starting a project,
get really excited and inspired by the prospect of it and how I think people
will react to it, then I will just leave it in my brain or half-assedly
outlined in my sketchbook. I did this all last summer as well, and didn’t
create anything until the last bit I was home. Last summer I told myself that I
needed to take a break from making things since it is my major and I spent the
past nine months doing nothing but letting my creative juices flow. Although
taking a break from what you do all the time isn’t a bad thing, I think I used
this mindset as an excuse.
Whenever I am home, I feel significantly less inspired than
when I am at school. I get most inspired by people I’m around or cool things I observe,
and when I’m home in a town where I’ve lived my whole life, surrounded by the
people I’ve been around my whole life, I struggle to be wowed and find inspiration around me. Instead of recognizing this and challenging
myself to seek out inspiring situations, I usually just accept it and go a few
months without creating anything cool. Well, truthfully that feels really wrong
and makes me feel anxious and kind of sad. Maybe I sound like an asshole, but
so much of what makes me myself I’ve discovered through art and creating. Making
art gives me a reason to be weird for no reason. I love that. Since art is
something that is so essential to me functioning properly and feeling happiest,
I can’t use my struggle for inspiration as an excuse. I need to work through
that and seek inspiration in new places. Keeping Mr. Pearce’s words in mind, I
must give up the fear of being wrong. Now, in this case I’m not exactly fearful
of being wrong or making something I’m not proud of. I’m just blocking myself
off from finding a creative routine at home since I’m so used to having a
creative routine at school. I kind of view my life at school as something
separate from my life at home, and I’m afraid to bridge the gap between those
two worlds.
I was looking at a bunch of quotes and stuff on Pinterest
last night, and it sparked several ideas for new projects I want to do. I went
to Michael’s today and bought a bunch of stuff, and thought of about five or
six projects that I could do with each supply I bought. Since I now have all of
these cool ideas brewing in my brain, I need to actually execute them. Summer
is good for lounging around doing nothing, but when creating is essential for
your happiness you must toss the classic summer doings to the wayside and make
stuff! Just play. Making things is playful and fun and
about experimentation. Even if you make something you don’t like, you
experimented with different techniques and ways of working to get there. And
now you know a way of working that doesn’t jive with your aesthetic. It’s a
win-win.
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| #Supplies |
I suppose I’m writing this out as a promise to myself that I
will start making something every day. I either need to write every day or work
on some of the projects brewing in my brain. I have also been working on updating
my artist website, and I need to actually get that done too. I fall into the
habit of starting a creative project, and without school to give me a deadline
for its completion, I just let it drag on for as long as possible.
So here’s my game
plan for the rest of the summer:
1. Finish my artist
website and update my resume.
2. Write some
poetry-I need to finish all of the poem nuggets I’ve begun and flesh them out
into something magical.
3. Make some art- I
have a bunch of ideas for paintings I want to do, and a huge four-foot by five-foot
canvas that I’m itching to get my hands on. I need to stop itching and actually
scratch it.
Now that I’ve addressed my complacency on the Internet, I
have no choice but actually do something about it. Thanks Internet for letting
me empty some of my brain pocket into your loving arms.
Stay cool friends, and don’t be afraid to make stuff.
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