Dear Young Creatives Everywhere,
I’ve heard that ‘no one becomes a writer by choice’ and as much I love my art, I can’t help but agree. Because behind every word of positive feedback or exclamation of encouragement are hours and hours of sitting behind a computer screen or blank notebook thinking to myself “I must be crazy for putting myself through this. No sane person would do this.” And yet, I can’t put the pen down.
So the first thing I want to tell you is that you probably will feel crazy sometimes, but that’s okay. Neil Hilborn said,
“I think the genes for being an artist and mentally ill aren’t just related, they’re the same gene.”
I mulled that over in my head for a few weeks before I had an anxiety attack. Immediately after, I understood what he meant. If art is creating something out of nothing, or very little, then maybe he’s right. Taking into the account the subjective nature of art, you shouldn’t surprise yourself when what seems like nothing to the world feels like everything to you. You might as well feel crazy sometimes when you’re tearing yourself apart, splaying pieces of yourself out on blank canvases or notebooks, but if it makes you feel something, it’s time well spent.
Which brings me to my next point: your art matters. If it matters to you, it matters to the world. It doesn’t matter if nobody else ever sees it – you should never exploit yourself for the benefit of other people. Creative arts are distinctly different to STEM subjects in that your work relies on interpretation to sell.
But know this: other people cannot get inside your head, they don’t always understand the thought process behind your work and so will never be able to give you the recognition that you want or that you need. So stop letting the opinions of others govern your own self-worth and belief in your art. If it makes you feel happy, helps your relieve your anger or anything else, it matters. So keep doing it.
The reason this is so important is because your art comes from you. People like art, but they like the people connected with it too. Musicians are always most popular the day after they die, after all. So it is essential that you believe in your art, that you believe in yourself because if you don’t, nobody else will. Learn to commit and commit wholly to whatever you do. I’ve learned the hard way that people will dig wherever they can for expressing yourself in a way that they can’t.
So don’t give them a chance, never share with anybody work that you don’t believe in 100%. In fact take it a step further- if your heart’s not in it, scrap it. Your talents are too important to be wasted on half-assed art, do justice to what you’re capable of and stop selling yourself short.
And the most important thing to know, and I want you to really listen to this one; your art doesn’t have to come from a good place to be beautiful. I’ve never really discussed this before but straight after my aforementioned anxiety attack, I wrote the portfolio that got me into university.
There was a rawness behind it that just isn’t there when I’m content.
My friends all joke about my fixation with suicide because it’s all I seem to write about, but if you look closer it’s actually all about vulnerability. I’ve been told to create what I know and it turns out quite a lot about being scared and burnt out. I rarely vocalize this out loud which is why I love artistic expression and am sure most of you do. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, if the place it comes from is too treacherous to explore without a pencil/pen/paintbrush in hand.
Even now, I hate being asked to explain my work because I don’t like to go to that dark, dark place, but I’ve come to terms with the idea of its existence. Sometimes I’m almost grateful for it because it leads to a level of rawness and depth I could not other achieve.
So keep creating and try to love what you do and appreciate your talents. All the support and love in the world means nothing if you can’t learn to love and appreciate yourself and your talents.
Make your art count and you might change the world.
Best of Luck.
