No days off (five thoughts on art, mindsets and creativity).

It’s okay to laugh.

But don’t just look at something (or listen to something) and start dismissing, mocking, or laughing at it right away. There’s what you see on the surface. And there’s what it means. Dig. You might still decide to laugh. You might decide you don’t like it. But it’s worth your time to try and decipher what it means before dismissing just because you don’t like the style or way it’s presented.

Do not take a day off.

No matter what you are doing, where you are at, or who you are with, you can observe, think, and feel. Take a few moments and keep track of your observations, thought, and feelings. It doesn’t mean you can’t relax. In fact, you should probably do more of that. What it means is that being an artist, thinking like an artist, living as an artist, does not embrace the stereotypes you might think it does, or should. It means whatever you’re doing is an opportunity to synthesize what’s around you and make something of it.

It does not mean spending your time off on social media, posting behind-the-scenes stuff in the name of being productive and ‘not taking a day off.’ That’s not what I mean.

It also doesn’t mean treating relationships or experiences as transactional: what can I get out of this? No. It simply means as you go about your life, whatever it is, that is your life. And your life is valuable and unique. So take some pieces and parts of it and make something beautiful. Or file it away for another day. Or just soak in the experience, soak in the minutes you’re alive, and consciously understand that relaxing and being in the present can be an incredibly effective way to later be productive…

Being good at drafting or copying someone else’s picture doesn’t make you a good artist. Maybe you are, but doing that isn’t what makes you an artist.

Regardless of what other labels or categories you apply to yourself - or think others apply to you - your identity as an artist is due to a mindset that is applied. It is not simply due to a mechanical set of skills, though those may be an important part.

So take no days off.

Art is like a good joke.

Whatever you make should function on some level without a bunch of explanation. If it depends on you having to provide additional explanation or exposition in order to be interesting or appreciated…it’s probably not very good or worth soaking up people’s attention. At least not yet.

There’s a place for walls, borders, frames, and fences.

Pay attention to the borders artists place around their work and the titles they provide. Is everything contained within the frame?

Go read some poetry. There’s an idea that the first line of a poem is the title.

Translate that idea to whatever creative endeavor you’re doing.

Start. Finish.

That is your frame, your border. That’s another way of saying: do work.

Do work.

There are all kinds of people with good ideas and even great ideas. They have big plans and giant visions. But they have trouble starting. Or have trouble finishing. Or both.

But the artists who do something? They do something. They start something. They finish it. Maybe not always. There’s value in quitting or stepping aside or having multiple things going that you return to. But at some point, you finish enough of what you start to make it count.

You have to finish some stuff. And then start some more stuff.

And keep doing it. Until you’re done. Then be done. And start again.