💭 Sharing vs Meaning

2024.01.04

I was reading through Wayfinding from Life Noticed, which really resonated with me. I was particularly drawn to this quote:

Culturally, I feel we’ve become so fixated on the sharing portion of our creative pursuits that we have stripped away the meaning behind what we make, granting everything and everyone but ourselves control over what we do and how often it’s due.

This is very true for me, and I'm sure many others. I get so caught up in sharing and set up self imposed deadlines, which really takes away from the experience of creating. Even writing here, I decided to do #100DaysToOffload, and before I took some time off for the holidays, I was constantly checking if I was on track with my post count, and sometimes I feel I wrote things just to get another post done. I don't want to do that. From now on I will write as often as I feel motivated to, and if I meet my goal, great, if not, oh well. If I don't do 100 posts in a year, I still wrote way more than I ever would have without deciding to join this challenge. I just want to make things because I enjoy it, and then I will share things not because I need to build a following, but because it's something I did so I'll just put it out there.

This also goes for art. I've struggled with that a lot, and wrote about it a lot. I get caught up in building an Instagram for it, or how I will make money off it, or try to force myself to draw every single day (which I always fail at within no more than a few days). I don't want to have this relationship with art. I want to create art for the sake of making art, while enjoying the process itself. I want to let go of my vision of the final product, or even my opinion of the final product, and soak in the process itself. I've read countless articles and books that tell you to stop caring about the outcome and enjoy the process, and I want to finally do that. I want to make art, any kind of art I feel inspired to make, regardless of what I feel I "should" make or what I think the outcome should be. Not only will this make it so I enjoy making art more, it will likely lead to art I like more. Here are some quotes I've written down from some of my favorite artists regarding this:

You get to the good stuff only if you are willing to go through the bad - Nashant Jain, The Sneaky Artist

You just have to try things and you have to be prepared that they won't all work. - Ali Foxon

It's more important to develop as an artist than grow your following - Mike Lowrey

Post 035/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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