In her book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, author Elizabeth Gilbert describes the divine relationship between creativity and mankind. She explains that all of us are creative by nature, and the importance of incorporating creativity into one’s daily life. Of course, a creative lifestyle does not come without challenges. Gilbert shares her personal experiences and offers advice on creating wholeheartedly, without allowing any circumstance inhibit you.
Being a visual artist myself, I do and always have, incorporated creativity into my life. Regardless, I have never been so moved by a self-improvement novel, or any novel for that matter. Whether you consider yourself a creative person or not, this book offers extraordinary insight on creative living and our relationship to the arts. Here are a few major takeaways from Big Magic:
1. Never allow fear to make your creative decisions for you.
“If you don’t have the courage, let’s try to get you some. Because creative living is a path for the brave … I have never created anything in my life that did not make me feel, at some point or another, like I was the guy who just walked into a fancy ball wearing a homemade lobster costume. But you must stubbornly walk into that room, regardless, and you must hold your head high. You made it; you get to put it out there.” -Elizabeth Gilbert
Whether you are taking up a new hobby or starting a new job, we all know that doing something for the first time can be scary and uncomfortable. While doing something creative, I find that the discomfort is amplified. This is because when we create something, we are taking little pieces of our selves, emotions, ideas, etc., and transforming them into something that can be shared with an audience. This puts us in an incredibly vulnerable position. I experienced this recently while completing my Sr. thesis for my undergraduate design program. My project was about sexual assault and displayed very intimate narratives from women that I interviewed. At first I felt so uncomfortable working with such graphic subject matter among my professors and classmates. I feared that my project was too heavy in comparison to the others. At my Sr. show I received wonderful feedback on my project and more importantly, I was very pleased with my work. I believe the rawness of each woman’s story made it far more evocative than it would have been had I cut parts and sugar coated.
2. If you have an idea, do it, or someone else will.
“ideas are alive, that ideas do seek the most available human collaborator, that ideas do have a conscious will, that ideas do move from soul to soul, that ideas will always try to seek the swiftest and most efficient conduit to the earth (just as lightning does).”- Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert describes ideas as conscious beings. If an idea comes to you and you neglect it, it will move on and find another creator to be its partner. Scientifically speaking this phenomenon is called multiple discovery. It has been proven that two scientists will often independently discover something, either at the same time, or shortly after one another. If an idea comes to you, and you refuse to work with it, chances are in the near future someone else will.
3. Have a love affair with your craft.
People often argue, “I don’t have time to live creatively”. To this Gilbert describes one’s relationship to their craft as a forbidden romantic affair. Think back to your teen years, perhaps your first love. If your parents forbid you from seeing your first love, do you think that would stop you? No. Even if all you got was 20 minutes at lunch making out behind the bleachers, you know where every lunch period would have been spent. The limited time together may have even made things more exciting and passionate. This is the same for your craft.
My housemate claims she is the least creative person you will ever meet. I disagree with her. She does not see it, but her creative outlet is rearranging and redecorating her room. My housemate and her creative outlet have a love affair that persists, even during inconvenient times. During finals week, I often hear her pushing around furniture until she is satisfied with the result. In self-proclaimed artists, the love affair is far more obvious, but these love affairs exist among those of us who don’t consider ourselves creative at all.
4. Done is more important than perfect.
Ask any artist, musician, or athlete about their performance. They will most likely have a million criticisms about their work that you as a viewer, completely overlooked. The fact is if no one released anything before it was perfect, there would never be new material out there.
5. Don’t rely on your creativity to make you money.
“There’s no dishonor in having a job. What is dishonorable is scaring away your creativity by demanding that it pay for your entire existence.”- Elizabeth Gilbert
Rather than expecting your creativity to support you, hold yourself responsible for supporting creativity. If you demand that your craft make you money, not only do you become restricted in your experimentation, but also end up resenting the work. That is no relationship to have with an activity that once brought you joy. Instead, get a job. Any job, so that you can afford your paints, your film, your fabric, or what ever your medium you choose.
