“Artists who are able to continually create great works throughout their lives often manage to preserve these childlike qualities.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
I know what you are all thinking, here he goes about pottery again... no, actually the story doesn’t start with pottery or end there really, it starts with painting. Yes, the first form of artistic expression was painting. No, not finger painting! I wasn’t that young when I started art, no I was probably around 8 or 9 years old.
My parents had recently gotten divorced and I was getting bullied by my sister. I remember being upset that day so I painted a picture of how that made me feel. I remember my mom showed my sister this painting and my mom said, "look this is how you are making your brother feel!" and then my sister laughed at it (kids are so cruel to each other). Anyways, I kept painting. I mostly used acrylics. My mom spent most of her time hanging out with artists so I think some of that rubbed off on me.
I didn’t like talking about my feelings so most of my early expressions came out in my paintings. So what’s my point to all this, well I guess I’m trying to start with the origin of our creativity and expression before we are indoctrinated with all the complexity of adult life.
Children are often the purest form of what we truly are as humans but unfortunately we squeeze all that out of them through school, societal structures and norms, and inadvertently when life gets more and more demanding the first thing that often falls off is our expression and creativity.
Losing My Creative Expression
“Focusing solely on results can strip the work of its authenticity and rob the creator of joy.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
The next part of this story is more around the middle of my journey. We are about 5-6 years into my career in gaming now. I’ve ditched art completely as a profession because my mentor told me to pursue business and design since the road, that he himself experienced as a graduated oil painter from Pratt Institute, was extremely difficult.
I’m so thankful for this pivot because doing art professionally was extremely challenging for me. The speed wasn’t within my skillset, I was up against the most talented artists in the industry, the work wasn’t aligned with how I wanted to express myself as an artist since the output was mainly commercial, digital art, and the salary peaked fairly quickly into your career.
Ok so, fast forward a bit, I’m currently a game designer building mobile games, and I remember saying to myself when I started my career, "I’ll do this so I can pay for photography then I’ll just quit." I felt like I deceived myself because I didn’t pursue this at all.
So what happened? Nothing, I actually left game design and started doing product management. This job is even less creative than any of the other ones because it involves really pushing as much business growth out of a product as you can get, most users, most engagement, and most revenue. This shift in career trajectory was great for my salary and net worth but it was also a big loss for my personal expression.
Rediscovering Creativity
“If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Fast forward to year 7 of my career in Product. I joined a young scrappy group of first time founders based in LA that were obsessed with expression. They were trying to build a fashion platform for GenZs through developing avatar technology and partnering with celebrities and brands. This was the first creative first team I’d been on in years. They really encouraged authenticity and expression.
I started using a new app called TikTok and it was incredible. Most other social media had become so boring to me and I barely used it but this new app was incredible. It had content that was so unique and creative. The algorithm knew me better than I knew myself. I started learning things, finding new people I never knew existed before, doing my old hobbies that I missed like running, rock climbing and photography.
Where I Am Today
“All art is a work in progress. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
I’ve successfully unraveled whatever was tangled up inside my brain and started creating again. My wife was a huge inspiration for me to start sharing my content. Her community and growth was such an inspiration to see so I finally started sharing more.
“One of the greatest rewards of making art is our ability to share it. Even if there is no audience to receive it, we build the muscle of making something and putting it out into the world.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Expression is a part of your health. After sharing my art more and designing more I feel more myself than I have in the last 10 years. There’s also some science backed studies that show the antidote to anxiety is creativity. Literally the opposite parts of your brain light up when you start thinking creatively vs anxiously. So, just from a biohacking perspective if you suffer from high stress or anxiety, embrace who you are and express yourself in the way that you feel comfortable.
I also highly recommend reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin because he makes a point for expression with no barriers. He gives you the power to create whatever you want with no judgement.
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”, Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Artists and people who are expressive often suffer from being overly critical of their work. When you just let the work be what it is for that given moment you relieve yourself of judgment. Express yourself and do it as much as you feel you need to. It should come very naturally and without judgment, the mastery will be there for you at the end.
Where Do We Express Things These Days?
I am not using any Meta products because they are currently threatening our democracy as a country by altering and censoring the content. This is not done to protect users but instead quite the opposite.
Here’s my take on this: use the tool that enables what you want to express and what you are comfortable with. For me it’s a website with an email list and using apps like BlueSky that align better with my moral and ethical compass.
A Final Word on Expression
Do your research on the apps and products you decide to use as you may be disgusted by what they accept and who they support. Follow the spark, you don’t have to love everything you try to do, just follow the curiosity and spark that you get either from a cooking class where you burned the meal or from a pottery class you ended up doing for a year, it’s all discovery and expression even if you suck at it.