Looks as though we have the theme of stealing going for the month of May and this next post will be no expection. I finally purchased 'Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative' by Austin KLeon and it was an extremely quick but helpful read. I've been wanting to read it for a while and with all this talk about originality of ideas and stealing artwork I was reminded of the books existence.
The basis of the book discusses how no ideas are original. Everything comes from somewhere and it is only when you can't figure out where all the reference points are that people are fooled into thinking it's new. This concept isn't completely unknown to me. Back when I took a script writing class in university this was one of the first things our teacher told us. His words where closer to "don't try to wrack your brain for some that has never been done because everything has already been done before you. There are no new ideas so you may as well do what you want!" It can be quite a freeing and comforting thought if you let it. I with that thought I wrote a script that probably wouldn't be fit for a soap opera or channel 5 afternoon movie. Let's just say creative writing isn't where I was destined to go but at least the thought helped me get the job done.
'Steal Like An Artist' in many ways reminds me of a more bizesize version of Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Big Magic' which I have previously raved about here. Both books cross over in many ways but I feel Kleon's book is more concentrated on the steps of how to become more creative whereas Gilbert questions creativity as a whole and is more anecdotally driven. I love both books for there own qualities but Kleon's book is definitely more suited for those who are itching to get stuff done more immediately.
Some of the points that really resonated with me in the book where surrounding the chapter "Don't wait until you know who you are to get started". I know have been quite intimitated by the thought of creating personal artworks that represent me when sometimes I have felt I don't even have a firm grip on who I am. But quite rightly KLeon says that it's in the act of making work that we figure out who we are. Part of me wishes that one day I was going to have an epic epiphany and sing at the top of my lungs "I AM HHHHAAAZZZEELLLLLLLLLL!" in the style of Moana, without having to put any actual effort. I'm not exactly great at starting things. So when he touched on imposters syndrome in relation to all of this I felt like screaming "ME!"
He also talked about stepping away from technology in order to be more hands on and uses technology for finishing work instead of doing it which is something I can definitely relate to. While writing essays at university I found it incredibily hard to sit at a computer and just churn it out. I didn't feel any connection to what I was writing and it usually turned into a bunch of waffle to make up the word count. Eventually I figured out the only way I could actually work on essays was if I split the work up so that most of time I was figuring out my layout, wording and references with paper and pen. Only when I had a better idea of what I was going to say could I step over to the computer and type it up.
There are tons more things I could talk about from the book but then I might be verging on bad theft. All in all I really liked the book. It practices what it preaches and is filled with great quotes from other creatives and has a ton of great diagrams and drawings. It was a breeze to read yet it has plenty of substance. My favourite kind of book. Highly recommend it!
This time last year I was thinking a lot about New Year's Resolutions. I've never been one to make them and if I did it would always be silly small ones like drink more water or vague goals like get out of your comfort zone more often. And every year I would never follow through with them. And to be honest the idea that resolutions are saved for once a year is ridiculous. Changes can and should be made at anytime but I do understand that the clean slate feeling that comes with the New Year helps push people to try and better themselves in whatever big or small way.
So I was looking back at 2015 and thinking how little art I had been doing. And it suddenly occured to me how little I had done since 2010. Every now and again I would start something but it would usually sit on my easel unfinished taunting and shaming me. I would get sudden bursts of creativity out of nowhere but I wouldn't harness it in the moment and so when I got round to drawing the desire to do it would fade fast. I wanted to change this. I didn't want to feel like I couldn't do it anymore.
So on the days leading up to New Year's I started to think about drawing and holding myself accountable to it in some way. I wanted to challenge myself to be better. In the years I hadn't been drawing as much I could have been improving and developing my style. To think of where I could have been by now annoyed me so much but instead of wallowing in what I hadn't done I decided to make a start on improving. The only way to do that was to start drawing again and Sketch A Day 2016 was born. There was no hesitation, just the decision on New Year's eve that it was going to be my resolution. I hadn't thought about the logistics of how I was going to do it but instead jumped right in. And I'm so glad I did!
I considered January a warm up period where I would start to get to grips of how I would start to make it part of my routine. At first I thought of it as a wind down activity at night where I would spend 30 minutes to an hour sketching before bed and sometimes as a waking up activity. But eventually I began to move it around the day just so it didn't start to feel like work. The time I would spend on each piece would get longer because I began to enjoying it more but also because I started to grow self concious of uploading half finished pieces.
Even though I knew it didn't matter what I drew and what the finished piece looked like, just as long as I did it, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I had lost some skill over the last couple of years. Most of my sketches where small to begin with and I spent a lot of time trying to think how I could make the sketches like a diary of my life and also like a time capsule of 2016. I also wanted to try and draw with different mediums every couple of days to mix things up for both me and whoever was following along.
Thinking soon turned into over thinking and by the end of February/beginning of March I started to grow impatient with myself. I saw no improvement. My sketches didn't impress me for the most part. It was exhausting having to shush my self conscious mind just to make another small sketch. But in a way this type of thinking is what helped push me to make better things and it was a sign I was getting into the swing of drawing again. I knew I could do better and so I did.
The make a splash watercolour challenge came at just the right time. I craved colour but didn't have the time for my acrylics. Watercolours where the perfect gateway. At first, as always, I was rusty but despite that I still liked the colours which meant I always appreciated the final piece. My watercolour period ran into my marker period which then led to me trying out different papers and soon people started to express interest and so I began to take commissions. Now there haven't been that many but the fact that have been paid to draw is a pretty big deal to me. And since I haven't been overwhelmed with them I still have to time to do what I want and I haven't grown to dislike them so I've got an okay balance going on.
Let's not lie to ourselves here. I haven't held up my side of the bargain completely. There have been many missed days and dark periods of nothing. I even spread many sketches out over a period of a couple of days which cheated me out of a couple of sketches. So I don't have a total of 365 sketches to show you. But what I have done is kept my creative juices flowing everyday of the year whether that was drawing, painting, writing, making, reading and even singing if that counts. I'm living a far more creative life than before. I have dabbled with acrylics, watercolour, charcoal, graphite, oil pastels, soft pastels, all sorts of pens, markers and ink. I have used different types of brushes, canvases, paper, mdf and even done a little sewing with felt. I'm sure there is plenty I haven't done. Oil and gouache have still to be touched on but I can save that for next year. All in all despite not sketching every day I have done a lot! More than I have done in the last 5 years combined!
Little did I know on January 1st 2016 that this #sketchaday2016 was about much more than simply drawing everyday. At risk of sounding cheesy it was about putting creativity at the heart of my life. I'm not saying I'm magically living my ideal life at this moment in time. There is still a ways to go but I've taken steps to change my life for the better. I feel like I'm working towards something and I wasn't before. Now I don't have a clear and succinct answer of what it is precisely. I just know that I need art in my life in some capacity. Without it I feel like I'm lying or being someone else.
So where to go from here? As I've said before I will not be making #sketchaday2017 a thing. This time the challenge is to make but without the accountability of every day posting. I want to be able to draw without having to share it. And with that I want to start making more personal and original works. That being said I won't disappear off the face of the Internet. I will upload... just not as much. At the moment I don't know when my next blog post will be. We will all just need to wait and see. For now I just want to thank anyone who has liked, commented and followed me through this year. I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to show support in any way, shape or form. And if you've made it to the end of this particular blog gold star for you! It's been a journey.
All that's left to say is I hope you have a wonderful New Year and hopefully 2017 will finally be the year of drinking more water. See you in 2017!!!
A while back I bought a book called "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm usually not one for self help books but only because I never seem to connect with them. There intension is to help but I always leave confused with nothing I can actually apply to my life. For instance I always think about vague books like "The Secret" that are about the simple idea of putting good energy in the world and the universe giving it back - a sort of cause and effect deal. But when it tries to get deeper down into the subject it tends to waffle on and go round in circles.
So when I saw "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" at the bookstore I was cautious. However the title called out to me. I've been grappling with how to lead a creative life and whether I should keep it a hobby or turn it into a career. But also I knew that my life unfortunately is overwhelmed with fear. If I had an "Inside Out" scenario going on in my head fear would definitely be the leader of the control room. And with that thought I bought it.
It sat on my shelf for quite some time waiting to be read as I tried to get myself out of a reading funk. It was only a couple weeks ago on a sunny day while I was in the middle of the #makeasplash challenge I decided to start the book. That day I finished half of it in one foul swoop and rest of it on the sunny days after. It's been a while since I've read something that I felt so connected to. It doesn't feel like a self help book but instead more like a collection of stories from the author's life that have taught her lessons she wishes to pass on.
What I liked about it the most surprisingly is that it is quite a spiritual book. Gilbert talks about inspiration as if it is a separate entity on the hunt for open people to bestow its ideas to. Reading Gilbert's ideas on inspiration and creativity reminded me of one of my favourite pieces of writing about what is known as the blessed unrest:
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
-Martha Graham
What draws me back to creative living again and again is the process of turning inspiration into pieces of art - the act of capturing "Big Magic". Gilbert talks about the importance of leading a creative life but not necessarily have it be a career. Just as long as creativity is incorporated in whatever way it can improve your quality of life profoundly. We should be free to make what we desire and not have to worry about the response and judgement that comes after we put it out into the world. It's act of making that is what we should be in it for, not the approval of others (no matter how nice it can feel).
With this in mind Gilbert also talks about the pursuit of a creative career and the mindset needed in order to prepare yourself for the shit that comes along with the whole process (the shit sandwich as she calls it) and how she deals with it. Failure is part of the journey. In this part she touches on the idea of the tortured artist and completely debunks the idea which makes me internally cheer.
There's probably so much more I could say about the book but I wouldn't want to spoil it for you incase you do eventually decide to give it go. I've already passed mine onto a friend to read and once I get it back I'm definitely considering reading it again which is a rarity for me. I wouldn't say the book has changed my life but it has definitely opened my eyes. Whether my life changes is in my hands.
