Nourishing the Creative Impulse
June 15, 2008
At Soul Shelter we proudly advance a simple idea. It’s not a new idea, but it seems to be increasingly unorthodox in our hyper-materialistic age. The idea is basically this: A happy, harmonious, and fulfilled life needn’t be one that revolves around the dollar — earning it or spending it.
Money, while of undeniable practical importance, has a funny way of making itself boss, and needs to be kept in its place lest it despoil the beauty, purity, or vivacity of an undertaking. So we talk a lot on this blog about the invaluableness of unconventional thinking, the joys of creativity, and the importance of focusing on, working for, and gaining fulfillment from something more than income.
Thus I wanted to use my Monday slot to direct readers to a fascinating, exuberant conversation about creativity, aired on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation a few weeks back. The half-hour episode begins with the following provocative question:
How come so few of us tell stories with words and pictures, when almost all of us did that when we were kids?
The show’s guest is teacher and graphic artist Lynda Barry, who’s got a bounty of ideas to share on the subject.
“Something happens to us as we get a little older,” says Barry early in the show,
Adults would never consider [drawing] on a piece of paper and then just throwing it away afterwards. In fact, unless it’s valuable afterwards, most adults don’t think the experience was worth it. So that’s kind of what the book is about. It’s about what happens. What happens to that creative urge.
The book she’s referring to is her own latest publication, What It Is, which explores adult creativity, or, in Barry’s whimsical words: “the formless thing that gives things form.” See some gorgeous examples of the book’s artwork here.
This Talk of the Nation includes some wonderfully insightful back-and-forth with callers, such as the following:
-Caller: I started drawing at age six … and I know I started doing it primarily because of praise. … But about age sixteen to eighteen all of a sudden everything was money-oriented and it seemed as if it wasn’t involved with money, nobody took you serious [sic]. … Even with my parents … they wouldn’t even admit their son was an artist until finally I started making money at it.
-Barry: It seems like, as adults, unless what we’re doing has value to someone else, we really get the feeling that we shouldn’t be doing it. Unless it’s watching television!
Today’s link to this discussion kicks off a new post-series on a topic relevant to anybody looking to balance fortune and fulfillment: Call it Creativity versus Commerce, or Spirit versus Commodity. My three-part discussion on this theme will unfold over the summer months.
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll give yourself 30 minutes to listen to this inspiring discussion with Lynda Barry.
You might also enjoy:
“Poverty, the Pulitzer, & the Beauty of Letting Go”
“Life Without Principle (or Interest)”
“Happiness is Turning Off The Computer“
Sara :
Date: June 16, 2008 @ 8:47 pm
I do a lot of process art with kids, and I always love that they create these fab pictures, get extremely attached to them as they’re being created, and then completely forget about them once the experience is over. They really couldn’t care less about the picture; they just want to paint. It’s totally inspiring.
The best days are the ones where I get to create my own masterpieces with them! Like the kids, I’ve learned to happily toss the finished product, satisfied with the experience. The hard part is translating this attitude into more areas of life.
by Mark :
Date: June 17, 2008 @ 10:33 am
Thanks for the note, Sara. You’ve put it beautifully: “The hard part is translating this attitude into more areas of life.”
In the pervading values of our time, “worthwhile” always refers to monetary worth, and the quality of a created thing is almost always judged by its commercial viability – but such thinking is, of course, a recipe for cultural insanity and shallowness. As Sven Birkerts remarks in The Gutenberg Elegies, “The dollar is betting, as it always does, against the soul.” (More on Birkerts and his book soon).
And one combats the commodity-mindset whenever one undertakes an activity, or creates a thing, for pure pleasure alone. Surely passion is more important than profit, wonder of more “worth” than marketability. As children know intuitively, the pleasure of a process is itself often the best reward. The so-called result is less important. And we adults stand to gain immeasurable fulfillment by holding onto that childlike clarity.
Please stick around through the summer, as I further explore Creativity Vs. Commerce
(Your blog is terrific, by the way. We’ve proudly added it to our blogroll.)
~Mark