I’m learning daily about what it means to create and to share.
Many of us are terrified of sharing our artistic or creative work. We listen to thoughts that tell us our work isn’t good enough, that no one will like it, that we have nothing new to offer.
And it’s not an exaggeration to say that those thoughts generate feelings of paralysis, extreme self-consciousness and excrutiating embarrassment. Or, as a friend of mine who has started a new business up-cycling furniture and doesn’t feel her work is good enough to sell yet says, the idea of sharing her work makes her squirm.
I know how hard it is to put your work out there.
I have been blogging anonymously for 5 years before only recently telling people about it. I have had a small photographic greetings cards business that some of my friends don’t even know exists. And when I am writing I am constantly questioning why I would want to add to all the online ‘noise’ already out there….
We feel these feelings because we believe that our art is us.
But it is not us, it comes through us.
Every mark we make, every word we speak, every action we take is a unique expression of our individuality. No one else can create or express in the same way as us. The urge to create is a primordial impulse, an innate desire to express who we are.
We are given both the ideas and the internal resources to complete artistic projects by something greater than us, so isn’t it rather arrogant to deny or keep hidden what is simply an expression of Life?
We have this perception about art, creativity. That it’s a big thing, a statement, a measure of our talent.
But it’s not that.
It’s just us.
How we are.
A way of being.
Most of us think we aren’t creative. But we can’t not create however hard we try because whatever comes out of our mouths or from our hands or through our bodies is just us, being as we are in each particular moment.
And if we see that anything we produce isn’t this big separate thing called ‘Art’, but simply an outpouring, an overflowing, of ourselves, our personality in material form, then this can help free us from our limited thinking.
And even the product itself is not what we think it is. It is not only what we can see or touch or smell or feel.
It is the essence of who we are that emerges onto the paper, the canvas, in the workplace or on the stage. The energy of our own unique blueprint presented in words or images or objects.
And people pick up on that. They take what they need from it, are fed by it, nourished by it, disturbed by it even, as a result of their own filters and needs and experiences.
And who are we to know what others need?
We can’t control how others respond to our work.
We can’t know what impact our art will have on another. And it is not our business to know.
Who are we to say that anything is not ‘good enough’?
Is a leaf with holes in it any less perfect? Any less beautiful? Or Useful? Or inspiring?
By letting go of all the assumptions of how we think our work will be received we can get on with the business of simply being ourselves!
Creating for the sheer joy of it!
So even though I will be squirming as I press send on this blog post I will also be revelling in the simple freedom of expressing myself without judgement or fear of what others think.
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