Pain and Art

“The best way out is always through.” - Robert Frost

Pain and art. A legendary combination. Emotional pain has fueled the creation of great art since…well…forever, right?

Is pain necessary to create great art? Of course not.

But when pain DOES come…when you feel it…when you experience sadness, anger or loneliness, as a creative person you have an incredible opportunity. You can turn that pain into art.

This is a gift.

I know I’m not revealing a big secret here. It’s just a reminder.

Amazing love songs are written by miserable, broken-hearted people.

The world’s greatest novels are often filled with tragedy.

Express your pain through your art, through your medium, whatever that is.

Pick up that guitar and play what you feel…

Open your laptop and write exactly what’s on your mind without censoring yourself…

BE sad. BE angry. Don’t resist it.

But don’t just sit there…

Use it.

Channel that pain into your art.

Because “the best way out is always through”.

Because when you write that sad song, or paint that angry painting, something really cool happens:

You end up feeling a hell of a lot better!

Do you use your pain to create? Leave a comment!

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Today’s special at Creative Journey Cafe:

A quote from Agnes de Mille:

Living is a form of not being sure…

But we take leap after leap in the dark.

How do you deal with the unknown in your creativity? Does it excite you? Inspire you? Scare you? Leave a comment…

“I was afraid to write Fear of Flying; ergo, I had to write it. I have lived my life according to this principal: If I’m afraid of it, then I must do it.”
- Erica Jong

Let’s dive into conquering the last 3 fears on my list:

3. Fear that you’re not good enough.

The result: You don’t create anything, and you feel unfulfilled.
The solution: Realize there’s always someone out there more experienced and talented than you, but your desire and talent is inside you for a reason, and we need your voice.

I think we’re all scared of being like those contestants on American Idol - the ones who are completely delusional about their skill-level. I can’t help but think those people are either putting us on, or they’re mentally ill. So before I continue, I’ll assume you have a healthy amount of self-awareness.

Everyone has a unique voice, and most of us are born with particular talents and inclinations. To not use them is really a waste and a shame. It also deprives others the opportunity to be inspired by you.

There’s some kid or person out there who needs you to create. Why? Because yours is the voice they relate to the most. There’s something about your style, your approach, that they can’t find elsewhere. Think for a moment of your favorite book or music. What if it didn’t exist? What if the creator decided they weren’t as good as Shakespeare or Beethoven, and so never created that thing you love?

John Mellencamp once said he could never write a song as good as Bob Dylan. He could have stopped for that reason, but he didn’t.

Let’s move on to the fourth fear:

4. Fear of overwhelm (of a big project).

The result: You don’t begin.
The solution: Make a list of steps, working backward starting from the end goal, then take action on each step.

Personally, I’m grappling with this one right now. My goal requires me to learn technical stuff I don’t feel like learning. But I realize my overwhelm is caused by not having an itemized list of tasks.

The way to clean a pile of dishes is to clean the one on top. Tell yourself you only have to clean one plate. By the time it’s clean you’ve got momentum and you reach for another one. Soon the whole sink is empty.

Let’s conquer the last fear:

5. Fear of looking foolish.

The result: No creating.
The solution: Prepare. Practice builds confidence. Then ask, what’s more painful? Going for my dream and risk looking foolish, or not trying at all?

I think it’s more painful to not try. It eats at you. You’ve got the desire but you’re bottling it up. Whether it’s getting on stage to perform a song, or asking someone out on a date, the question to always ask yourself is, If I don’t do this, will I regret it?

Everytime I post something on this blog, I get this residual feeling of panic. What if I just totally embarrassed myself? But what keeps me writing and posting is my stronger desire and goal - to share what I learn and discover with others, so that their lives might improve.

I’ll never forget watching a scene from a Making of Star Wars video. Young George Lucas is on the set of his first Star Wars film in the middle of the desert. Everything is going wrong. He’s surrounded by his nerdy creations - Jawas, Droids, Wookies - and it’s 110 degrees out. His actors are stuck in their costumes suffering from heat stroke. R2-D2 keeps toppling over. Legendary actor Sir Alec Guiness (Obi-Wan) is staring at Lucas, who looks sad and baffled, like the biggest loser in the galaxy.

But George Lucas had a strong vision, a vision that helped him endure the embarrassment of that moment. His Star Wars films went on to become classics and now, of course, he’s a gazillionaire.

And so ends my own personal trilogy about conquering the fear of creating. Hope it has helped you as much as it has me. Any comments? Leave one!

“A perfect poem is impossible. Once it has been written, the world would end.”
- Robert Graves

In my previous post I listed four of the most common fears creators experience:

1. Fear that what you create won’t be perfect.
2. Fear of not knowing what to create.
3. Fear that you’re not good enough.
4. Fear of overwhelm (of a big project).

You’ve been such a lovely audience that I’ve decided to add a bonus fear at no extra cost:

5. Fear of looking foolish.

Today let’s tackle the first two fears, and see if we can conquer them.

1. Fear that what you create won’t be perfect.

The result: You don’t create anything.
The solution: Remove the word “perfection” from your vocabulary - pretend it doesn’t exist. Be like a little kid again and make something simply because it’s fun. And then, realize you’re going to have to work hard to polish your craft.

When was the last time you saw a child hang a finger painting on the refrigerator and say, “That is terrible! I’m a hack! It’s not as good as Sally’s! My fingerprints are too tiny! Why do I even try?” Children don’t do that. They can’t wait to grab the crayons. They create with joy and excitement because it’s fun, and they can’t wait to show off their work.

So what happened? As we get older we become aware of our limitations. Or somebody told us we weren’t singers, or artists - maybe a teacher, relative, or bully at school.

Children don’t make preliminary sketches for their finger paintings. But as adults - as professional creators - we discovered it takes work to make something great, and many of us are allergic to work.

Your job isn’t to make a masterpiece. Your job is to express yourself, to release your desire; to take your idea and have fun bringing it to life. And it’s hard. You’re probably not going to get it right the first time. Hemingway said, “The first draft is always shit.” There will be moments - moments that pass - where you will think your creation sucks. There’s not one creative person I know who doesn’t experience that.

It takes work. That’s why they put those little pink erasers on the end of pencils. That’s why they invented the backspace button on your keyboard. Know that it’s a process, move forward and have fun. Have fun as if there’s nobody else on the planet, nobody to compare yourself to. Edit later. Polish later. It’s progress not perfection. It’s getting past those moments when you think you’re the least talented person on the planet. Your business is to have fun making stuff the best you can, and that’s all.

Let’s move on to conquering the next fear.

2. Fear of not knowing what to create.

The result: You don’t create anything.
The solution: You need a creative prompt. A kick in the imagination. You need to actively seek ways to stimulate ideas. Take a class where you’re forced to create, or assign yourself a theme, or read a newspaper to find an interesting story that triggers an idea.

This particular fear is my biggest personal challenge. Great ideas don’t pop into my brain every day. The result is fear. Fear that makes me want to do anything but face the blank page. Like watch golf on TV. Or floss. Or eat half a box of Cheeze-Its.

But I know something about myself - I know I like a challenge. I like to rise to an occasion. When prompted, I get ideas. For example, whenever I take a creative writing class and the teacher gives an assignment, it’s like a match ignites in my brain. I get ideas immediately.

If I said to you, today’s theme is ‘Apple’, chances are, no matter what your craft, you could conjour an idea based on that theme.

Have you heard of Illustration Friday? They take a word and hundreds of people make an illustration based on that word. Every Wednesday at James Gurney’s blog, he has a feature he calls Art by Committee. He posts a snip from an obscure book - a sentence or two - and his readers illustrate the scene.

There are many other creative prompts. There’s no need to wait for inspiration!

In my next post, we’ll explore solutions for the other fears.

Until then, please share your experiences and leave a comment!

“It’s okay lose to opponent! Must not lose to fear!”
- Mr. Miyagi

Are you afraid to create? Do your fears stop you from creating anything at all? You are not alone!

You might be bursting at the seams, full of energy and desire to create something, but your fears - your multitude of fears - prevent you from unleashing your talent. The result? You don’t create anything. It’s like sticking a cork in a bottle; you block yourself and nothing comes out. And then? Distraction. Rationalization. Addiction. A low-grade sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Fun, huh? Not really!

I’d like to spend the next couple of posts examining this issue, because it’s such a universal experience for so many talented people.

Let’s start with this: everybody feels fear. It’s part of the human condition. Even the greatest creators feel fear. In Steven Pressfield’s War of Art, he says that Henry Fonda used to puke before going on stage, even after all his success as an actor. Carly Simon also suffers from stage fright.

The key is - and this has become a cliche but it’s true - to feel the fear and do it anyway.

It goes like this: you’re about to begin a creative project when suddenly fear stops you cold. There are two things you can do in this moment:

The first is you can let it stop you - you can go eat a box of Oreos, watch TV, or call your friends.

The second option is to say, “Hello fear. I hear you, I feel you, I see you, and I’m going to set you over there in the corner for a little while, so that I can start Chapter 1 of my novel.”

I’m not sure I believe in this thing called “the fear of success.” I think we all want to be successful creators. I think it boils down to fear of failure.

Here are what I believe to be the most common fears about creating:

1. Fear that what you create won’t be perfect.
2. Fear of not knowing what to create.
3. Fear that you’re not good enough.
4. Fear caused by overwhelm (of a big project).
5. Fear of looking foolish.

All of these fears will lead to one thing if we’re not careful: no creating.

In my next post, I’m going to address each fear and suggest solutions for conquering them.

Meantime, I leave you with the video below. It’s the final scene from Karate Kid 3. (Don’t laugh, this is good stuff!) Daniel is getting his butt kicked, and he’s scared to death. “I’m afraid!” he screams to Mr. Miyagi. Watch what happens next - and notice how his opponent taunts him with the same kind of ruthless dialogue that can run through our heads when we feel afraid to create. I think you’ll be inspired by what happens.