Originally posted on 10/17/2019
A swarm of ideas are itching under my skin. I’ve learned that if I don’t scratch them (that is, if I pretend they aren’t there), these ideas will soon leave me to get under someone else’s skin. However, if I am brave enough or annoyed enough to scratch, these ideas can bloom into something really great. A veritable rash of creativity.
If it were easy to scratch our itches, artists would have nothing to complain about. We’d all be basking in the glow of our gallery shows, Instagram followers, and TED talks, or whatever we say we want. Maybe it is that easy and I just haven’t figured it out yet.
The artists I know seem to have troubles. Lots of kinds of troubles. Trouble with focusing, trouble with choosing, trouble with earning, you name it, we’ve got troubles. Our troubles can spill over into other areas of our lives—for example, relationships, finances, housing, and health. (Wow, write the word trouble enough times and you start to wonder if you are having trouble spelling trouble.)
As part of my interest in the intersection of art and research, I want to explore artists’ troubles and excavate solutions. I’m not sure where to start. My brain is jumping around in my head. Coffee doesn’t help, I suppose.
Lately I’ve been operating under the premise that the solution to my troubles is taking action. In other words, creativity seems to flow more reliably if I focus on staying busy. Even if all I do is clean off my desk, taking some action seems to be more valuable than taking no action. When I focus on squeezing my creativity to cough up money, I suddenly find myself afflicted with a bizarre kind of paralysis.
For sure, we know it’s hard to steer a parked car. Art doesn’t happen by itself.
I know what I get if all I do is wallow and moan about how I can’t seem to get anywhere with my art. The only thing that has produced any results, good or bad, is getting busy. Action really is the magic word.
For those of you who might be wondering, am I still editing academic papers, the answer is yes. I’ve moved all my academic pursuits to loveyourdissertation.com where I’m a veritable blogging fool on topics of little to no interest to artists.
Remember what I said about artists have trouble focusing? Yep.