Creativity, talent and fear
Advice TO visual artists (and especially to myself!)
Some of the clichés that I never quite understand is ‘artists block’ or ‘fear of the white canvas’. To me, living a creative life is showing up. Every day; get up, show up, fail relentlessly but do it all again tomorrow. Over and over and over again. Famous golfer, Garry Player said ‘the more I practice, the luckier I get’
I’ll be honest here, I really think ‘talent’ is overrated. And I really don’t think I got much of it. Through the years I’ve seen many artists far more talented than me turn towards different careers. The only reason I’ve walked this creative path for 25 years is because I’m stubborn. Darn stubborn. Curator Roberta Smith once said, ‘only be an artist if you absolutely have to’ and I absolutely do. ‘Talent’ can be like an excuse, it can let us off the hook. Seth Godin respond to someone claiming not to have talent; ‘well, show me all your bad work’. Seth also believe a ‘rut’ is a symptom that we are not brave. I agree.
If we want to live a creative life in the true sense of the word it simultaneously means being brave. Many artists never quite step out of the safe zone. We’ve all been there. We do something that works, we taste a glimpse of success and try to do it over and over again. We do what has been done before. Or something very, very similar. In 2003 I was part of a group of artists selling in ebay’s “self-representing artist” category. (The ‘Etsy’ of the day). A German artist did a painting of Koi fish, a bidding war started and a record price fetched. Guess what 10 artists were painting the next week?
Do you think Pollock, Rothko or Duchamp are exceptionally talented? I don’t. I think they all were exceptionally brave. And they showed up.
It is not about learning not to be afraid, it is about creating despite of the fear. And no, if you keep pushing against that edge the fear will not go away. Like Elizabeth Gilbert described in ‘Big Magic’, when she and creativity goes on a trip she simply invites fear along for the ride. If it was easy wouldn’t everyone have done it? When I am scared of taking a leap I often ask myself what is the absolute worst that can happen? And if we think we can survive why not go for it? So what if we waste some materials or time?
Marina Abramović said that a great artist may have one or two good ideas in their lifetime. Perhaps we’re a bit like drug addicts, we’ve tasted glimpses of that success-high. We had ideas that were almost good and now we will forever chase that feeling in the hope that one day we may create something that is really good. Over and over we go through the cycle, maybe the next piece will be it…