The anarchy of creativity
John Cleese in a talk I recently watched about the creative process spoke of those who are able to embrace the discomfort of indecision. He posited that those who make slow decisions, who say ‘what if’, who try a variety of iterations will get the best outcomes from their artistic endeavours.
On a level, I agree. There is a degree of pondering and experimentation to be done before you get an understanding of what a project is about and how you will realise an idea. But fortune favours the brave. There is never a simple track from idea to finished work of art. Some get stuck in the trialling stage, making samples and fussing over this and that. Some rush in and ill prepared find themselves floundering. Others fixate on the value of the end point, forgetting the value of the process to the artistic soul.
I love the sketchbook as a vehicle for mistakes, as a place to page-by-page make space and a pace for expression, each page a step towards an unknown endpoint.
Over pondering can inhibit process and progress. Accepting the mess, the failures, the overworked, and underworked (and empty) pages allows for chaotic growth. And yes, within the discomfort an unknowing. I have to sit with the discomfort Cleese speaks of where part of me wants rational order and to be able to justify my output and time spent.
Perhaps this is the nub of it. We have been educated to seek out purpose and efficiency; we want control and linear development. But the excitement of making art is in the unexpected. It is experiential and just as you grasp hold of something you want to pursue, along comes a podcast, a postcard, a book, an exhibition that sprinkles something new into the mix or takes you off at a tangent.
Embrace all of that, seek it out, stuff the pages of your sketchbook with the fullness of life, the mess, the clarity, the accidental, the colourful, the subdued. Once your sketchbook is full up, then you can edit, curate and find your voice in the mess. Nothing is born fully formed. Dance with the anarchy of creativity.
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I have a quote from Ai Weiwei on my board in front of me;
To conventional culture, I said art should be the nail in the eye, spike in the flesh, gravel in the shoe: the reason why art cannot be ignored is that it destabilises what is seems settled and secure. Change is an objective fact, and whether you like it or not, only by confronting challenge can you be sure you have enough kindling to keep the fire in your spirit burning. Don't try to dream other people's dreams, I told them, you have to face up to your own predicament honestly on your own terms, There is a huge gulf between your aesthetic passions as an artist and the indifference of the real world.
Does he, in a roundabout way, say almost the same? I'm not sure. I think it's about finding your own path and following it boldly.
Exactly! I’m 69, and this creativity, art and writing, just for me, explores my place in the world.