I have a problem, well, I’m not sure it’s a problem, but it scares me at times. I tend to make something, be it a song or a poem I wrote or a painting, or whatever, and I get so proud of myself, and I’m so in love with my first attempts to create, and I’m so excited I want to show the whole world what I’ve done. I feel like a little kid who scribbles some almost circles and lines on a piece of paper and runs to his mom screaming, “Mommy, Mommy! Look! It’s you!” This enthusiasm can last a few days, but usually, when I come back to the work after some time, I realize that it really isn’t all that great, and it doesn’t compare to what “real” artists are producing.
If you are like me, you may even try to limit your excitement because you don’t want to be seen as immature or you are afraid of thinking that you did something amazing when it’s really just scribbling compared to other artists. However, being childlike is essential for creativity. Being childlike is necessary for being authentic and authenticity is essential for originality. Jesus even said we had to be like kids to get into the kingdom of God. Wow, this issue of childlikeness needs to be a priority. This topic is worth much more attention than what I’m going give it in this blog post. I will be talking about it much more in future posts. But let me list a few childlike characteristics off the top of my head.
Children, given the proper environment, are:
Curious
Wholehearted
Not scared of failure
Eager to learn
Present, in the moment
Goofy
And much more…
Children believe that they are amazing, and they can do great things and the things they do are awesome. As creatives, we need to take on this attitude. We have to stop worrying so much about how others will perceive our work and just create things that make us happy.
Currently, I am listening to an audiobook called, Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation (Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) In the introduction, he talks about how they created their first full-length, entirely computer-animated film, “Toy Story”. Despite being novice filmmakers, they fought the temptation to take advice from Disney executives who told them to fill their films with songs. Instead, they put their faith in one simple idea, “if we made something that we wanted to see, others would want to see it too.”
Stop trying to create to please others. Create something you love, with your tastes, with your preferences. Not everyone will like it, some will, but what really matters is that you find life in doing it. Have you ever talked to an artist about his work and he says, “Hmmm it’s okay I guess, it’s not my best work.” When the author isn’t excited about his work, it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Sometimes I think about God being so excited about his creation that he had to create humans so he would have someone to show it too. We too need to be excited about what we are doing, even if we are rookies and haven’t fully developed our skills.
I recently listened to a Makers & Mystics podcast where Stephen Roach interviewed Lauren Midgley, a conceptual fine art photographer. Lauren kept saying over and over that she was still learning, how to use her camera and how to use photoshop and so on. After the podcast, I followed Lauren on Instagram and left a comment on her most recent post thanking her for emphasizing that she still feels like a novice. She replied to my comment, “Learning as we go makes it an exhilaratingly risky experience.” In other words, our art should be an adventure.
I hope that 5 years from now I look back at my current work and say, “Wow I’ve really come a long way.” However, I fear that 10 years from now, looking back at the previous 5 years, I’ll think “My work is good, but it’s monotonous.”
So let’s be childlike, let’s stay curious, let’s take risks and create things we enjoy, and let’s be excited about our small beginnings.
So here I go. This is me showing up, being vulnerable and being childlike. The following is a free verse poem I wrote a few weeks ago. I’m new at poetry but I’m falling more and more in love with this form of expression. I don’t know if this poem is any good. All I know is that I felt so alive when I wrote it.
Free to Fly
By Luke Vandergriff
Spread out my wings, and lift me up. I’m going out for a fly. Where will I go? I don’t know, I don’t care. I just want to fly because I can. I just want to fly because I’m free. I want to try, though I don’t know why. Why can fly out the window, for now, I just want to jump and free fall until the wind decides to sweep me back up in her arms and take me by the hand to far lands I have never seen or dreamed of.
I don’t have to cry but I can and I will. I will pour out my fountains of grief and water the dry and dusty ground. I will release the flood gates of sorrow on the burning valleys to quench the fires that consume my vineyards. And I will laugh! I will float on my back in my giant pool of joy. I will soak up the smiles that shine on my face every morning. I will think and I will wonder. I will let the words pour out and I will let them fade away.