Challenge #18: Just Do It

Last week, we pondered the question, "Is an artist still an artist if they're not creating?" While I don't pretend to have the answer to that, I do have an answer to the general feeling of malaise and confusion about life that may result from a failure to make art -- and it's GENIUS! Are you ready??

Just. Do. It.

Sorry Nike, I know that's kinda your catch phrase and all, but really, it applies to so much more than athletic footwear.

Sometimes (okay, all the time), I don't feel like taking the dogs for a walk in the morning. But I do it anyway -- sleepy, grumpy, and generally zombified though I may be -- and by the time we get done with our walk, I'll have woken up, the dogs will have used up some of their crazy energy, and I'll get to come home feeling productive. Not to mention that getting up out of the computer chair every now and then is actually good for me. But when that alarm clock starts screaming at way-the-F-too-early o' clock, the only thing that keeps me from smashing the snooze button with the vengeance of a thousand She-Hulks is one simple phrase: just do it.

Art creation can happen under similar circumstances. It certainly did in college, at least for me -- the teacher would give an assignment, and I would work on it. Usually leaving most of the work until the last minute, but still, I would work on it. Whether I felt relaxed and inspired, or if I felt stressed and exhausted, I still did it, because at the end of that project was a grade, and that grade could decide the future of my degree.


"Real life," as many of us post-college noobs have taken to calling it, comes with the same demands -- it can just be a bit harder to understand how our actions will affect our future. Being in school gives us an artificial sense of movement and accomplishment, with graduation acting as the finish line. Once you're out of school, there aren't any finish lines, or checkpoints, or advisors waiting for you to come in for a degree check. You're just existing, same as everyone else, and you have to be accountable to yourself when it comes to setting and accomplishing goals.

Therefore, dear reader, this week we're challenging you to stop waiting for a teacher or a client to put the pressure on you before you create. JUST DO IT -- take 30 minutes every day to work on art. Even if you don't finish a piece this week, you'll still be a lot closer to finishing than you were when you started. Now grab your swag, and get creating!

Envy, Inequality, and Snobbery: Traditional Measurements for Success Kinda Suck

"What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas, and make sure that we own them, that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it's bad enough, not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of a journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along."

- Wicked-smart Alain de Botton, smacking all of us upside the face with some rock-solid truth.

Can I get a "AMEN," people?!

Seriously, let's take a look at the metrics we measure success by. Money. Fame. Sex Appeal. What's the problem with all three of these?

Oh yeah, they're entirely based on external forces that are beyond your control. Money will come, and money will go (just ask my wallet). Fame is like a viral video - it tends to happen by accident, and one day you wake up and realize no one's watching you anymore.

And sex appeal? Marilyn might have said it best:

"We all lose our shape in the end."

Ah yes, gather ye roses while ye may, beauties -- but don't forget that those roses are going to fade and die just like everything else.


Woah there, downer post, Kate.

Believe me, I realize that this isn't the kind of message that you might want to hear, but basing your success metric on Money, Fame, or Sex Appeal is about as reliable as leaving a giant chunk of cheese on the kitchen counter and trusting that your dog isn't going to eat it. I'm speaking from experience here: don't trust the dog.

When it comes to feeling satisfied and successful in your life, deep down inside you know what you need to do. The trick is learning to leave behind all those other measurements that society tries to make force on you.

Take it from India.Arie, then get out there and write your own.

Wreck This Journey Week 2 - Four Letter Words

That's right, the vlog is back -- and this time, I'm actually starting to understand editing!

Be sure to leave your suggestions for ways to improve our videos in the comments below, or tell us about your experience with Wreck This Journal. Don't forget -- we want to see your blogs too -- just email them to theartabyss@gmail.com, and we'll post them up here on the blog and on our YouTube channel.

Until next time, happy scribbling, and make sure to check out my second-ever vlog attempt - and goofy frozen face - below:

How Perseverance Helps Creativity Blossom

Guest Post Time!

Christi is the brilliant genius behind Novel Conclusions. A former English teacher and aspiring author who loves everything related to words and creativity, she currently writes and lives in Southern California. Go check out her blog at NovelConclusions.com - you know you want to. And now, let's get to today's post.

In Kadie’s post last Tuesday, she highlights a talk by Candy Chang where Candy reminds us that “life is brief and tender” and that we must decide what we will do with our lives. We must take action in order to create in our lives. Creativity, the art of creating, the act of innovating, requires decisive action and perseverance in keeping that momentum going. A spark of inspiration is great, but we have to fuel the fire to keep it blazing.

Being a master of your craft and of your own creativity requires perseverance, study, and figuring out what works for you. Anyone can have an idea, but you are the only person who can bring that idea to the world with your signature touch on it. The glory of art is in the execution. Van Gogh and Monet (and honestly, a ridiculous amount of people if you judge by the crazy amount on Google Images) have painted hay stack landscapes, but they look very different in the execution.

What Van Gogh and Monet have in common in this instance is that they painted prolifically to get things right. They painted everything around them over and over and over – and over again – until they couldn’t even look at hay stacks anymore. They persevered to get the lighting and the brush strokes and the color just so. Their creativity, the mastery of their craft, was fueled by persistently pushing forward and experimenting. They kept on working and trying new things when others would have stopped.

Author JK Rowling was famously rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury accepted the Harry Potter manuscript, but she kept on pushing. Pierre-Auguste Renoir suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, but he kept painting anyway and became one of the most prolific Impressionist painters of his era. Thomas Edison (who reminded us that "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”) was one of the most prolific inventors in history; his creative innovations in electricity led to the technological advances that allow you to read this blog.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he expands on this theory and gives example after example of individuals who became masters of their craft after putting in roughly 10,000 hours working on their specialty (check out this really cool detailed infographic about the 10,000 hour theory here). HOWEVER – big caveat coming up here, people – this does not take into account mindless repetition. If you play “Chopsticks” on the piano for 10,000 hours, you still won’t be Beethoven. So what does this take into account?

Perseverance in your craft means:

• Practicing areas of your craft that are (currently) outside your comfort zone
• Checking yourself (where am I at with this skill? How can I expand my knowledge of this aspect?)
• Always devouring ideas related to your field (like reading art-related blogs!)
• Working to create and innovate even when you want to be doing something else
• Not being afraid to fail – every failure is a stepping stone toward mastery

Perseverance can open up new avenues for your creativity. Sometimes when you push through, you find something you never expected. How are you taking action to create in your life? What have you created when you kept pushing? What else does perseverance do to support creativity that I didn’t mention?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.



P.S. Check out this awesome TED talk on grit and how it impacts success:





Want to read more from Christi? Check out her blog at NovelConclusions.com.

Doing Something Different, With Unexpected Results

This week, we're doing things differently. For me, this hasn't meant so much of a change in my behavior as it has a behavior in my thought process. You see, I've always hated running.
 
Still, two months ago, I started running with my husband. And I hated it, and sweated and whined and panicked my way through every single run, pretty sure I would absolutely die. Of course I didn't actually die, but that wasn't raising the fun factor.

I've been told that 5Ks are so much more fun than regular running -- so I figured in my case, that would translate to things being about a 5 on the suck scale instead of the usual 10. Thus, I signed up for the Neon Splash Dash with a group of friends.

And I dreaded it.

See how I'm regretting my decision here? Totally.

Here's the thing. I've always had this narrative about how much I hate running, and how much I am not a runner, but because of that silly 5K, I'm having to reevaluate how true - or useful - that narrative is for me.

We all know how this story ends -- I discovered that I might not actually hate running, I'm thinking about signing up for future 5Ks, and the whole experience was dramatically lower than a 5 on the suck scale -- maybe it even scored a point or two on the awesome scale. So yeah, breaking out of my normal beliefs is leading me to learn some pretty cool stuff about myself.

But what in the world does this all have to do with creativity? With making art?
Being a creative person isn't something that only happens in the studio -- your creative self is always there, even when you're not engaging it. Similarly, the parts of you that exist outside of your creative process are still present when you're making art, even if you don't notice them. And sometimes, this relationship between your creativity and everything else means that making a change in one sphere will affect the other.

That's absolutely what I've experienced with the whole running thing. No, I didn't come home from the 5K and start flinging paint at a canvas - but since I discovered I was actually able to do this one thing that I thought was utterly beyond me, I'm starting to suspect that maybe I can do some other things I've been avoiding -- like actually make some of the pieces that I've been holding in my brain, with the excuse that I don't have enough time.

I didn't think I was strong enough to run. What if my not having enough time to create is just another old outdated narrative?

This week's a good time to find out.

Pure, unadulterated enjoyment -- I mean, suffering. Uh huh.

Quotable: Alyea Pierce

Today's Take 5 artist Alyea Pierce provides plenty of food for thought about where creative drive comes from. My favorite takeaway moment? This:

What about yours?

Take Umm… 40? With Hugh MacLeod

Image © Hugh Macleod and gapingvoid.com

This Thursday, instead of our normal take five post, I wanted to share some amazing advice from cartoonist Hugh MacLeod. I recently got the chance to read his book: Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity and was blown away by some of the really powerful observations he made about living a creative life. I'll be posting up all 40 of his key points below, but I highly suggest you pick up a copy of the book itself because it is definitely worth the read!!!  Hugh even lets you read the first 25% of the book for free if you click here!

Ignore everybody.

“The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-the-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn’t I trying to do something that was easier for markets to digest, like cutie-pie greeting cards or whatever?”

The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

“The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.”

Put the hours in.

“Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina.”

Good ideas have lonely childhoods.

“This is the price you pay, every time. There is no way of avoiding it.”

If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

“Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.”

You are responsible for your own experience.

“Nobody can tell you if what you are doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.”

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

“Then when you hit puberty, they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the “creative bug” is just a weak voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back please.”

Keep your day job.

“I’m not just saying that for the usual reason – that is, because I think your idea will fail. I’m saying it because to suddenly quit one’s job in a big ol’ creative drama-queen moment is always, always, always a direct conflict with what I call “The Sex & Cash Theory.”

Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

“Nor can you bully a subordinate into becoming a genius.”

Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

“You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don’t make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness.”

The more talented somebody is, the less they need props.

“Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me.”

Don't try and stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

“Your plan for getting your work out there has to be as original as the actual work, perhaps even more so. The work has to create a totally new market. There’s no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.”

If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

"The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it’s going to. I know. It sucks. The being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it’s worth it. Even if you don’t end up pulling it off, you’ll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It’s not doing it – when you know full well you had the opportunity – that hurts far more than any failure."

Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

“The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice-versa. Even if your path never makes any money or furthers your career, that’s still worth a ton.”

Dying young is overrated.

“I’ve seen so many young people take the “Gotta do the drugs and booze thing to make me a better artist” route over the years. A choice that wasn’t smart, original, effective, healthy, or ended happily.”

The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do from what you are not.

“Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.”

The world is changing.

“Some people are hip to it, others are not. If you want to be able to afford groceries in five years, I’d recommend listening closely to the former and avoiding the latter. Just my two cents.”

Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.

“The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.”

Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

“They’re a well meaning bunch, but they get in the way eventually.”

Sing in your own voice.

“Picasso was a terrible colorist. Turner couldn’t paint human beings worth a damn. Saul Steinberg’s formal drafting skills were appalling. T.S. Eliot had a full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can’t sing or play guitar.”

The choice of media is irrelevant.

“Every medium’s greatest strength is also it’s greatest weakness. Every form of media is a set of fundamental compromises. One is not “higher” than the others. A painting doesn’t do much, it just sits there on a wall. That’s the best and worst thing about it. Film combines sound, movement, photography, music, acting. That’s the best and worst thing about it. Prose just uses words arranged in linear form to get its point across. That’s the best and worst thing about it, etc.”

Selling out is harder than it looks.

“Diluting your product to make it more “commercial” will just make people like it less.”

Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

“Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay, etc., especially if you haven’t finished it yet. And the ones who aren’t too busy you don’t want in your life anyway.”

Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.

“You can argue about “Selling Out” versus “Artistic Purity” till the cows come home. People were kvetching about it in 1850, and they’ll be kvetching about it in 2150.”

Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

“Inspiration precedes the desire to create, not the other way round.”

You have to find your own shtick.

“A Picasso always looks like Picasso painted it. Hemingway always sounds like Hemingway. A Beethoven symphony always sounds like a Beethoven symphony. Part of being a master is learning how to sing in nobody else’s voice but your own.”

Write from the heart.

“There is no silver bullet. There is only the love God gave you.”

The best way to get approval is not to need it.

“This is equally true in art and business. And love. And sex. And just about everything else worth having.”

Power is never given. Power is taken.

“People who are 'ready' give off a different vibe from people who aren’t. Animals can smell fear. And the lack thereof.”

Whatever choice you make, the Devil gets his due eventually.

“Selling out to Hollywood comes with a price. So does not selling out. Either way, you pay in full, and yes, it invariably hurts like hell.”

The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

“If you have the creative urge, it isn’t going to go away. But sometimes it takes a while before you accept the fact.”

Remain frugal.

“The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you’ve 'made it.'”

Allow your work to age with you.

“You become older faster than you think. Be ready for it when it happens.”

Being poor sucks.

“The biggest mistake young people make is underestimating how competitive the world is out there.”

Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.

“It sounds great, but there is a downside.”

Savor obscurity while it lass.

“Once you 'make it,' your work is never the same.

Start blogging.

“The ease with which a blog (or whatever social medium you prefer) can circumvent the gatekeepers is staggering.”

Meaning scales, people don’t.

"It may be modest, it may not be. It could be a little candle shop; it could be a software company with the GNP of Sweden. It doesn't matter. Meaning Scales."

When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.

“If you are successful, it’ll never come from the direction you predicted. Same is true if you fail.”

If this hit home with you, make sure to pick up a copy of Hugh's Book Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity so you can get the full story behind each of these amazing statements!

Hugh Macleod is a cartoonist, author and creator of gapingvoid.com and Social Object Factory.  He currently has three amazing books for sale: Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Evil Plans, and Freedom is Blogging in Your Underwear.

Creative Muscle - Use It Or Lose It?

Don't worry - it makes more sense in a minute.

Ah, life after art school. You graduate, you go get a real job because you don't know what else to do, and you let all that create-on-demand training that school instilled in you slip away, because now you don't have the time to create, much less the demand.

Just me? Okay then, consider this quandary I find myself in. I'm becoming convinced that all muscles can atrophy, including the creative ones. This week, we're challenging you to talk about your dreams with another creative person, not just because great minds come up with even greater ideas when they work together, but also because IT IS SO NECESSARY TO WORK OUT THAT PART OF YOUR BRAIN. If you're not an artist, it's still important, but for artists . . . well, let me put it this way:

As a runner, you must make sure to get out and run on a regular basis to stay fast. As a doctor, you must have an active medical practice to have a medical license. As an artist, your creativity and your imagination is everything - yes, there is technique involved, but the ability to visualize and make things up that didn't exist before is kinda where the rubber meets the road. If you don't practice that ability on a regular basis, I'm starting to think you risk losing a great deal of your artistic expertise. Not forever, thankfully (or so I hope), but you can find yourself woefully unprepared and feeling rather out of breath halfway into the race if you're not careful.

This also happened tonight. This pretty
much happens to every art project attempt.

That's what happened to me tonight. I have a live painting event coming up -- Denim Day Tucson (it's going to be awesome!!) -- and today is my time to do some prep work. I have two pairs of jeans I need to paint before models wear them this Saturday, and I am supposed to lay the groundwork for my painting tonight, to avoid any awkward crotch brushstrokes at the event.

It started out swimmingly (once I talked four very interested animals into leaving me alone), so I decided to go wild and sketch out my design on the jeans themselves. Or at least that's what I was attempting to do -- I reached the back of the jeans only to realize that I have no idea what I'm going to paint there. 

I know how you feel, marker sketch lady.

Now I'm stuck, hopefully only until tomorrow, when I'll wake up full of ideas and fresh perspectives. But in the meantime, I'm left wondering if this is due to my not making art for the last two years. Did my creative muscles atrophy? Do I have to make a New Year's Resolution to get them back into the gym of art school?

Hopefully not. But I can tell you one thing -- I will not be going so long between art projects in the future.

As long as no one needs to look at the back, these jeans 
are looking fabulous. Too bad they'll be on a model . . .

What about you? Do you have any quick fixes for creative atrophy? Don't be shy, post your solutions below!!

Challenge Number 2: Getting It On

You heard me… this week we are challenging you to hook up and get it on with a friend.  Well, your ideas that is.

Living human brain by Rutger Hauer

My life recently has been a bit all over the place.  I’ve been uprooted, dragged all across the country and now find myself living in Huntsville Alabama… and let’s just say the creative arts capitol of the USA, it is not.  When we first got here I felt totally out of my element.  I even told my husband that I thought I was suffering from hipster withdrawal syndrome.  I swear that is a thing…  I felt miserable for weeks and I kept growing more and more depressed.  I also started doubting myself and my ideas.  Every time I would sit down to work I felt like I was hitting a brick wall and then I would tell myself how silly my idea had been and how it would never work out.  

Turns out my husband is the most brilliant man ever and in a very manly fix-it moment told me that what I needed was a good long Skype date with my friend Kate.

We talked my art, her art, my life, her life, dreams, passions, goals and at the end of the conversation I felt amazing, empowered and energized to get to work on my ideas.  It was a conjugal date of ideas if you will, and it was what had been missing in my life. Here’s why:

1) Dreams need to be said to be seen.

2) Ideas need to play in order to grow.

3) Passions need to be shared in order to spread.

In the words of Matt Ridley our ideas need to have sex.  Our creativity flourishes best when shared with others, we need that exchange of ideas to grow our knowledge base and form new and varied connections we may not have seen on our own.  And to be honest, often times we just need the affirmation and excitement from another intelligent human being who isn’t our spouse to tell us that our ideas aren’t stupid or crazy.

Grab your challenge badge to share!

So your challenge this week, if you choose to accept it (sorry I had to say it just once), is to get your idea swapping on with a friend, over coffee, over Skype, over the phone, over drinks, I don’t care where or in what position.

Go now, spread your seed, and be fertile my friends!

* Wanna help share the love and inspire you friends to join in on the fun?  Grab this weeks challenge badge to post on your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or other social media feeds then hashtag it with #bravetheabyss 

The Audacity of Failure

If you've visited our "How" page, you know that Tuesdays are inspiration days. This week, we're talking about the challenges faced by creative individuals, and how those challenges can lead into the Art Abyss - but also how they can lead back out, into greater achievement and more creative fulfillment than ever before.

As I sat down to write this post, one creative individual immediately sprang to mind as an example of someone who walked through the abyss and emerged thriving. The tired stereotype of the starving artist suffering in a garret is often used to discredit and put down people who choose to pursue a creative lifestyle -- I personally can't count the number of times I've been told by family and family friends that they "just hope I can afford to eat," or that "I find someone to take care of me." In J.K. Rowling's case, experiencing that very form of 'failure' was exactly the transformative process she needed:



Does this woman sound like a failure to you?? Me neither. Some of my favorite takeaway moments:

"I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive." 

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." 

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you fail by default." 

"Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way." 

"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are ever after secure in your ability to survive." 

"Happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition and achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life."

Can I get an AMEN?? Seriously, the faster we rid ourselves of the idea that failure is a bad thing, the better. I had a music teacher at my undergrad who demonstrated the concept perfectly. He set up a music stand so the wide flat part was parallel to the ceiling, then asked a class member to throw a wadded up sheet of paper onto the stand. The first time, the paper completely missed the stand; the second, it rolled off; the third time, the paper landed perfectly. Afterward, he asked her how she felt when she missed -- was she a terrible person, a failure and a disappointment?

Of course not -- it was just throwing a piece of paper. What he then went on to explore was why, when we are performing a piece of music, or creating a painting, or writing a poem, we suddenly lose that sense of perspective. Failing at the task we are attempting becomes something that reveals a deeper lack within ourselves. By extension, failure to "live a successful creative life" -- becoming the ignored and starving artist in the garret instead of reaping the financial and social rewards of artistic popularity -- can lead us to feel that we are not worthy of anything more, that we don't have what it takes to follow and succeed at our passion. Yet when you really think about it, how is a creative endeavor any different from throwing that piece of paper? You conceive of the idea, you give it your best shot, and if it doesn't work out, you try again. What's there to feel bad about?