Perhaps one of my biggest takeaways in my time as an artist is that the way in which we live largely determines the art we make.
This can be observed time and time throughout history: many famous artists paint what is around them, or take concepts and philosophy’s that are important to them and find ways to intertwine with their art. The most notorious example that comes to mind in the massive amounts of religious art through history (think historical Christian art throughout the middle ages and renaissance, and Hindu and Buddhist art during the various empires of Asia.)
As artists, we create art that is highly dependent upon the places our minds wander, and the places our minds wander are in turn dependent upon the lives we live and environs we travel about. I find that art block often comes from not having enough lived experience, or excitement about life. Art block then comes not from being lazy, or even uninspired, but being unexcited and inexperienced (a whole other topic).
I think of life and art as a cycle, a life philosophy. We live life, and become inspired to make great art, this great art in turn makes us excited to live our lives. Art is essentially creating a mythos out of our experiences, in turn making us more excited to live more.
Knowing this, how can we then maximize our lives to allow us to make the best art we can? And to in turn create art that makes us excited to live?
My three biggest takeaways on this as a young 24 year old:
- Step out of our comfort zones.
This especially goes for when we are feeling art block, depressed, uninspired, or not wanting to step out of comfort zones. Life is easy when comfort zones are everywhere, but challenge is found outside of comfort. And challenge is the foundation of every quest.
Life, when it feels like a quest, often lends to more novel, beautiful experiences. When facing a challenge head-on, it can often create a sense of agency, as talked about my Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning. - Don’t be afraid to waste time.
There are SO many productivity gurus out there who have SOOO many hacks on how to waste less time. When do I unexpectedly have the best life experiences? When do the best ideas for art come? When do I learn something new? Often when I feel like I’m wasting time.
Granted: there are two types of time wasters: the type you feel are a waste of time because of fear, and the type that is genuinely a waste of time.
If I don’t want to go run because I am having art block and ‘need time’ to try and work despite the art block – I am wasting time out of fear.
If I am working on creating a font and it is not going well, and I start feeling like it’s a waste of time – I am probably wasting my time.
I’m still figuring out the two, but I’m realizing my time is only as valuable as the experience I am living. If I can maximize my experience further by wasting a bit of time, I will absolutely waste it. - Spontaneity is your best friend.
Let me tell you as Pierce the planner: I hate spontaneity so much. I derails so many things. It messes up my bedtime. It gets me behind on work. I really really really cannot stand being spontaneous. Don’t be spontaneous.
Now that I got that out of the way: One of the best features of the Elder Scrolls game series is the fact you can have 250 hours in the game, be on a main questline, find a side quest that completely derails the main questline, and spend several hours going down a rabbit hole you never knew existed. The Elder Scrolls and other amazing RPG games are built on spontaneity. Spontaneity is the foundation for some of the best quests, and is often what is needed to get a plan established in the first place.
So let me tell you as Pierce the artist: spontaneity should be sought out at all costs to live life to it’s fullest. Discover the unexpected. Live new stories. Get new brushes in your life toolbox. Your art will thank you later.
