BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Creativity RE: Article "Steps to Take to Be Creative"

Which one of the 12 steps would you say you have to work
on the most in order to be creative and why?

As an artist, making my living from being creative, the hardest for me has always been "Don't care what others think."
Artists are ALWAYS being judged, when we enter our work at exhibits or when prospective customers give our work the once-over; not to mention the judgement of our peers. It is easy to start to doubt yourself and get depressed if nobody seems to like what you are creating.

When I was studying for my MFA I had to submit my whole semester's paintings to a jury of the art faculty. They HATED my work, and one of them said, "Don't you know what they are doing in New York?" Yes, I knew what they were doing in New York, and it wasn't me, but the pressure to conform to the latest art fad was huge. So, seeing the writing on that wall I changed my focus from painting to pottery and learned enough about clay to go ahead and set up my own studio and earn a living ever since as a potter, but I never got the MFA. Not that I missed it! And, I never stopped painting.

Another story about being judged:
Once I entered 2 large paintings in a juried exhibit in a nearby city, and both were rejected. One month later I entered them in another juried exhibit in a larger city and won First Place for one of them and Honorable Mention for the other! It just goes to show, be true to yourself and don't get thrown by negative judgements.

Oh my gosh, that's an awesome story! How brave of you to chuck it all and go in a new direction! Congratulations.

Claybird - Congratulations on earning your MFA. I don't understand why someone would ask you if you know what they are doing in New York. Isn't being an artist about "doing your own thing?" Geez. Sorry you had that awful experience.

I had a showing of all my paintings at a gallery. I walked around the room to see what people thought. Some people loved the paintings, some people had little to say at all. One person met me and said I seemed nothing like the kind of person that could paint a painting like they just saw. What? The anticipation of comments, either way, was too anxiety provoking so I left. I didn't return until the next day to pick up my paintings. I can relate to your story so much.

Also, congratulations on winning 1st place on your paintings!!! Perseverance will work every time.

I left my "Sorcerer" painting sitting at home for several years for no one to see because someone said to me, "yikes, why would you paint something like THAT?" Before then I always thought of it as my own personal version of the "scream". I finally got over the comment just last winter and decided to submit it to Bella Muse and to my surprise it was accepted. Moral of the story. There are people out there in the world that love your creations, you just have to put your art out there and wait! I'm glad I took the chance. Getting your art looked at is all worth it. And in your case, getting it sold too.

"Not Caring What people Think" is a tough one that I always have to work on.

Working in advertising, then in retailing, actually gave me a different meaning to "Not Caring What People Think." Being a writer constantly thinking of unique concepts for our clients, it's sometimes hard to practice creativity in the workplace, especially when clients have a one-track mind, so to speak. We always had to care about what they think because if we don't we'd lose the pitch. Funny thing about most of our clients is that the concepts we think are most creative and beneficial for their sales would be discarded over a "blah" concept. What's worse, we had a client who'd say mean things about us which were not work-related if he wasn't pleased with our presentation! We had to "care" about what they say to win the pitch. Haha!

jeannie 117 - You make a valid point about the "client" end of things. From a paid customer point of view, it's often hard to stick to your creative guns even when you know you have a good thing going. I think the world of marketing and advertising is very hard to survive in sometimes because of the concept that the 'customer is always right' mentality. I worked at an advertising company and witnessed a lot of unhappy artists whose constant complaint was they couldn't express their own creative identity in their projects. Again, excellent point. Thanks for adding that end of the spectrum to the argument.

I am not sure if you touched upon this or not in your article, but I find the biggest area I have a problem with is deciding WHICH one of my ideas to pursue first!

It's like my imagination and creativity are on steriods! :<)

I get more ideas than I can possibly ever work on, and sometimes I end up spinning my wheels trying to decide which to work on.

I have found that making a list of pros and cons about each project, based upon what materials and resources I have, and how passionate I feel about that project really helps me choose.

Before I started doing this I found myself being very unproductive, and feeling depressed about not starting anything meaningful to me.

This little technique, plus asking myself the right questions, and relying more on my passion and intuition has made all the difference in my creativity.

P.S. I keep all those extra ideas in a folder, just in case I need them in the future!

Kim

KimL - I didn't go into "overload" in creativity in my article, but I certainly could have as it's a big issue for many artists, such as yourself apparently. I do know what you mean. I have been in states of mind to which ideas are spewing out of me so fast that I cannot decide which idea I want to create in a painting. I often have visions or dreams that drive ideas and have to write them down on a notepad so that I don't forget them, as they are usually the most inspirational. Like you, I keep a folder full of notes and sketches of things I want to paint in the future so I can be more productive as well. It has helped me too.

You are lucky to be overflowing with so many ideas all at once, instead of dried up and unable to find inspiration at all (nightmare). We all have those periods too though, don't we? That's why it's good to keep our notebooks around with those ideas from our more inspirational times.

Following your intuition is a good technique, Kim. Intuition never failed me in directing me toward working on the right type of painting at just the right time. I know, because when I'm totally absorbed in my work, I feel a connection with my higher self.