You know the old saying: don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
You know why “they” say that. If you trip and fall you could break all your eggs and go hungry. Sure, you might not trip, but it is wiser to have contingency plans than to hope your luck holds out. The wisdom here is that luck never holds out. Luck has a way of running out when you least wish it would.
You know the Eggs/Basket thing is a metaphor for planning ahead as well as diversification. Like your friend carries some eggs in a carton for you. Maybe the dog has an egg holding back-pack. Maybe you have bubble wrap for the eggs in a wagon, or maybe you can have a more varied diet than just eggs to begin with.
For the sake of argument or this blog, let’s say a similar need for diversification exists for making art, and frankly, in most of life. “Life” is a thing in itself and “Life” is committed to its on-going-ness. The planet requires diversity to operate the whole chain of life that supports humanity, and yet what does humanity do? Humanity is supposed to be so smart but instead… whoa, wait. I’m talking abut Art here.
If you’ve taken any classes at all in the arts and the possibility of “living off” your art, you surely have heard that you do NOT rely on the Muse any more than you bank on Luck. Whether you "feel like it or not" make something every day. Write a hundred words, draw one image, do something every day in your studio, get into the habit, it is what professionals do. If you are an artist, you make art... If you are a poet you observe and emote...If you are a priest, you pray and ritualize.
etc. etc.
The other day I was ‘biblically’ uninspired and decided to veg out and watch a movie that turned out to be one of the worst Sci-Fi films I had ever seen, and I happen to like old Godzilla movies so wow, this one was not as entertaining as any old Godzilla suit stomping little stage set movies. It had some big name actors, too. It was sort of a mash up of some infectious alien gestating inside crew members on a long space voyage and when it wasn’t exploding out of hapless extras, it turned them into staggering zombies and cripes it was bad. But it got made. I say that whenever I see a movie that amazes me in its badness. It got made. My amateur scripts have better action, lines and meanings than THAT. But "IT" got made. People wrote it, sold it, financed it, cast it, costumed it, built sets, shot it, marketed it and sent it out into the world and on to a streaming platform where I could veg out in my living room frowning and crying out, “Are you kidding me?” It got made, which means someone stuck with it and saw it through.
Some days my “Muse” takes a hike somewhere and I can’t get into any strokes or scrapes or lines or colors. Not sure exactly why – I theorize that it is my biorhythms maybe, a moon phase, or some left over undigested indiscretion, so I try to MITIGATE and REPAIR.
Yes, recognize then mitigate and repair.
I try to think of when I was so excitedly painting 5 pieces at once and liking them all just maybe a month ago. What ignited my creative engine back then? An offhand compliment perhaps, by a stranger that made me happy I’d gone to the grocery store for milk? What happens to turn the juice on or off? If I knew I wouldn’t be struggling and I would be “A professional.” I’d have my 'on' switch on. I’d be like those hardworking matter of fact artists and writers who say, “this is what I do. I’m a problem solver.” Then I thought - Maybe I’m just lazy sometime because – I can be. Now that is something to consider.
Okay, it is way better to have the luxury of sometimes being lazy rather than desperately scheming if I could pull off a bank heist to pay the rent. And I acknowledge that, yet, I am a practical and thoughtful person and so I have to consider “is this the best use of my time?” Floundering, doing nothing, watching terrible films or... or...
Not that I have to be always producing like a machine. I’m not a machine. I’m a (how did I just put it?) a practical and thoughtful person. True. And how long has it taken me to reach this plateau? 76 years. (Am I really even there? Never mind). Do I wish I could have reached this plateau when I was, say, 35? You bet. But I didn’t. Do I wish this for you, that you, in your youth, will come to this realization and be now, a creative force and save the world? Yes!
Whatever.
We need to see where we are and deal with the reality in front of us. How well we deal is the measure of who we are on our individual growth scales. Do not go to Mars with the same mindset that has messed up planet Earth. Please.
Ever heard of Hannah Arendt? Born 1906, died 1975. An immense life and mind and we should not only know her but feel blessed by her contributions. Yep. (sigh)
Have you ever stood in the stacks of a library looking at the shelves of collected works by Augustine or Aquinas (or any of the many thinkers upon whose shoulders we stand) and realize you don’t have enough time in your life even if it was all you did from then on, to read all that? Or even spend afternoons thumbing through the picture books of great artists, just soaking in the visual images, filling your head space with the millions of ways to see anything, color anything, draw anything… and still, you must come to understand, that you ARE… YOU exist. You have your own eyes and brain and experience, and that LIFE is still interested in how YOU see things.
How much I want to say to you, don’t just copy (unless you are making a living at replications of great works, which is fine, as far as it goes – get the bills paid, it is probably honest work, right?) do what you can do, how you draw the interior of a room, the design of a chair, the light on that face, form the handle of a cup or pitcher in clay, sew scraps into a quilt or an apron, whatever it is that you can lose yourself in the moment doing to make something to use and enjoy in the world. Create, repair, up-cycle, invent, work-around, even if it takes a 90 minute time out to watch a terrible flick, get back to your work, your art, your creativity. Write a letter. Carve a spoon. Collage the debris on your desk then paint on it. Move your hands, your thoughts....
Bring a smile to your face, to the face of your friend, lover, child, patron, neighbor, someone. The cat snuggles you and purrs, the dog wags his tail, the stranger waves walking by as you tend a garden patch. You are here, now. Realize that. Just because aunt so-and-so only thinks about her manicure, the entire rest of the Universe is pulling for YOU.
Do not think for one moment that this is not important. Stick with it