The thinking part of being a creative sort - sort of

This post is a bit of a mixed bag but there is a thread running through it. Probably. I had a discussion a while back with siblings about writing style on the website, and it brought up two distinct approaches. One, that I should write as if I'm an established artist in a cool and professional manner with just the facts ma’am. Like a job application.

The other is to write more like I speak and not invent some high falutin' blah about where I’m at in my art ‘career’. This was incredibly hard when I started my first site (this is take 3). Not just because I didn’t know what to say about my work but also, I’m the type who never talks about my life or feelings to anyone, not even family. Anyhow, still working on how to talk art stuff (see this blog every week for proof), but the straight facts approach? Boring. And personally I get more from bloggers who are honest about their lives and work tangles. It makes them real people rather than an aloof artist doing artist-y things and...yeah, things like that. Hard to get a sense of who they are (says the woman who has no photo anywhere cos she hates cameras!).

Now, I have no idea what anyone thinks about my blog content (please do drop a comment in if you’ve read any of them), but while recently devouring a ton of art/life/success podcasts and blogs - some of whom are by extremely successful people - it’s struck me just how much more I’ve gained from those who share the good and especially the not so good. We learn most from things that don't quite work out and not so much from rah-rah-everything-is-awesome stories, cos that isn't real life is it?

So, this week I listened to a podcast (#216) by the quirky Andy J. Pizza (his field is illustration) and there was lots of funny, thoughtful content, which prompted this post. He put it out there that he wants to be a writer and states emphatically ‘I am not a writer’. But I'm pretty damn sure he’s going to be, and what’s more, his progress will be chronicled in the podcast. The show’s theme was personal transformation, and what he’s done with his life so far has been a change beyond what he (and others) imagined by making and acting on a few key decisions. He's really good on that stuff by the way - worth a listen. And his style is all his own.

And that’s what I’m doing here. Writing all the plans, doubts and mistakes in a blog because not it forces me to pay attention to what I’m doing week to week. Can't be lazy or boring if I have to show up and write something can I? Well, I may be boring (sorry if that's the case, I'm figuring out how to do this as I go), but also, it’s hopefully going to be a story – the road to a more fulfilling life via creative thinking and doing. So I’d better make it interesting by achieving something along the way and explaining how I plan to do it!

So the truth is - I’m pretty good at drawing and sculpting and there’s much more development to come, but I’m rubbish at self-promotion, lack confidence because I’m so self-critical and overly independent and much too used to doing everything myself cos I hate asking for help (Mr Pizza admits to the same thing - phew, not just me then). But I have to do this art thing. I have to get out of my hermit life and see what happens because I am so bored with where I am now and afraid of what life might look like in 20 years if I do nuthin’.

And you know what? I’d like to be a writer too, not just an artist, and maybe other things too. I was a kid who made up stories and mad poems, must’ve been the only student who loved writing papers and scorched through my dissertation first draft in about six weeks. So the blog is a bit of practice while I think about what form the writing will take. And hopefully, it's a wee bit of insight into how an arty person with no handy connections could actually get started...

I say - do more things that stir you, that stimulate your mind; create new ideas, new ventures and they will lead you to meeting up with diverse groups of people and the richer your life will be. That's my plan and I aim to stick to it.

Back in some century or other there were people who were accomplished in many, totally different fields like geology, languages and engineering. Today, there's a bit of snark at actors who think they can be musicians; science and medicine scoff at the brilliant amateur whose research calls into question accepted ideas and it’s only recently that some have started recognising that we can be more than just one thing (multipotentialite anyone? See Emilie Wapnick’s TED talk).

But humans are multi-faceted and creative by design; coming up with new stuff is what we do. We are much more than just the job we’ve had for 10 or 20 years; in fact many are much more accomplished outside of work than they are given the chance to be inside of it. This concept of multi-faceted people needs developing because with all the talk about AI taking the jobs, we need to come up with a new idea of what it is to be human and what our ‘point’ is in our societies. I am not an economic unit and I don’t think you are either, but right now, that’s how we’re seen by our leaders – providers of labour and taxes (the term 'leaders' is used very lightly here, this being Brexit Britain; 'governed' by the utterly useless, clueless, untrustworthy...sighs deeply).

Actually, I’m going to go away and think about that AI/human thing. And write some of it down. And YES, I have been sculpting and getting moving on stuff, not just delving into the philosophy of life. I have a workshop booked for next month and a sculpture to box up to a customer and finished pieces to photograph and upload. See? Action.