Personal creativity is important
When you create art for yourself, you’re not doing a lot of other things.
You’re not doing chores. You’re not stuck in traffic. You’re not filing taxes. You’re not in meetings that could have been emails. You’re not frying your brain on TikTok. When we create art, a lot of things we say we don’t like doing, we’re not doing! On the base level, this is the gift of art. Spending a little less time on life’s bullshit.
Personal creativity goes beyond this, though. Especially when we’re creating in a medium we enjoy. We spend a greater percentage of our life doing things that enrich it. We move into a life with more abundance. More time spent doing what we love.
It sounds simple. But it’s not easy. This enrichment gets ruined when the invisible audience shows up. When we start to wonder what people will think, how it will be received, if it’s good enough.
These are all fine things to consider when creating art for the world, but so often, we allow these delusions of grandeur to steal the joy right from under our noses. When all is said and done, it’s unlikely future generations will engage with our work. We probably won’t be posthumous geniuses, cradled by culture long after we’re gone. Our art will probably fade with us.
If this is true, then why do we allow these unlikely scenarios to rob us of good time spent enriching our lives? Time spent creating art is good. We do a good thing for ourselves, and a good thing for those around us who engage with our work. Why does it need to be anything more?
