Creativity In Chaos
Detail from “ALL YOU EVER WANTED” | 2018 | Watercolor, graphite, acrylic & wax pencil. | SOLD
Creatives crave a fundamentally different relationship and way of interacting with the world than most people. Considering most of our process is based on things not working the way we wanted them and then figuring out how to fix them, we’re keen problem solvers. Naturally this means that we actually tend to thrive a bit more when things go “wrong.” Throughout history you see patterns of some of the best creators and thinkers have always functioned best when confronted with problems and issues that need a solution, that’s just how we work. Our entire process is built on the fact that you have this great idea, but then have to then struggle like hell to problem solve that idea into existence. I’ll even venture to go as far as to say that it’s this quality alone that makes humanity quite possibly some of the most resilient creatures on this planet.
A few weeks into the pandemic I was scrolling aimlessly through Instagram when it hit me that a large number of creatives weren’t only still making, but thriving while the world stopped around them. Many people jokingly criticize creatives for being the definition of organized chaos, but when something of this magnitude hits its within our capacity to really shine because have resilience built into our lives on a daily basis. It’s literally what we do. It’s also fair to say that we thrive in chaos because in some ways that’s just how our minds work. We need to have a lot of different things going on so that we can problem solve, make connections and come up with new ideas. On any given day there are approximately 80,000 different thoughts, directions and distractions that run across my mind - hell some days it feels like I’ve lived a couple different lifetimes in the sheer immensity of it all, but thats just how my mind works best and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Honestly the fact that the past few weeks have brought any shell of a routine I ever had to a screeching halt has actually been a blessing in disguise. Even in normal circumstances (between balancing contract work, teaching and running the studio) my schedule was already never the same two weeks in a row and I kind of like it that way. Now with my schedule cleared into the forseeable future and some new challenges on the horizon, it was the reminder I needed to show me not only how much I can thrive when left to my own devices, but also how much better I operate in general with a lot less structure in my life. It’s also taught me that it’s never really not a bad thing to live your life in a free falling state of gracefully organized chaos, in fact its quite the opposite - its a pretty damn beautiful thing.