“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” Review
About “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”
“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin is a compilation of short essays on the creative way of being, the manifestation of creativity itself, and how we, as creatives, can live in harmony with creativity’s “timetable”, as well as the importance of making great art for art's sake.
Rubin’s essays read more as a huge collection of short/mini essays written in small pockets of time and struck inspiration on the subject of creativity, rather than all of them leaning towards a singular overarching idea about creativity.
Rubin explores in his compilation of essays different aspects of creativity, as well as our relationship to it.
Although not the most literary body of essays and a bit new agey, Rubin’s metaphor and interpretation of creativity is one that I found interesting as well as useful for anyone that is new to having a relationship with creativity, and an easy read for people who want to be a bit more creative and how to do it. As someone who already identifies with being creative, I find the book useful in how Rubin talks about creative blocks and actualizing art.
Why I picked it up the book and some of my personal takeaways
The main reason why I wanted to pick up this book is mostly because I wanted to read something very frivolous and fun to distract myself from, quite honestly, everything. Although at this moment I am not necessarily going through a creative block, I thought it might have been pretty interesting to read about how to get through creative blocks because I do experience them from time to time and, for me personally, I find it hard to be consistently creative, I find that sometimes I create things I don’t personally like, and I was wondering if maybe this book would hold some pieces of wisdom about how to get through that, as well as how to get through feelings of inadequacy. I found that this book was just what I needed to read and has reignited my desire to just keep pulling through with creative projects, regardless of circumstance.
Here are my takeaways:
Choosing to make art even when it’s difficult
In the book, Rubin talks about how important it is to make art even when it’s difficult. The truth is, we can blame our life circumstances a lot on why we choose not to create what we feel led to create. We blame having job, not having a job, lack of resources, lack of time and energy, or other reasons as to why we might not be in a position to create, but Rubin points out the importance of not being lazy when it comes to doing creative work, he makes the point of just how important it is just to just get started, as well as creating habits around your creative process. He wrote a list of things that are not conducive to creative work. Which I will share with you below:
Although this may have been a difficult thing for me to hear, it was an important one. I think that after reading this simple list that he wrote surrounding what is not beneficial to our habits surrounding the creative process that he is very right. I think that if you’re really committed to making art, allowing the things written above to take over and stifle us in our commitment to creating is ultimately unhelpful. Learning how to work with what you have, just getting started, and moving forward with executing in spite of impatience and procrastination are habits that are important to have if you want your art to be pushed forward into the world. There is no such thing as the perfect conditions for making art, you just do it. If I had waited for the perfect conditions in order to create the art I wanted to, my art would never exist today. Which would be a bummer, honestly, especially since you have no idea who your art is going to impact.
Believing that your art defines you forever, but it doesn’t
I think that Rubin pointing this out is important, a lot of the time, we think or believe that our art (once it is completed and out in the world) is the defining factor of who we are, but it’s not. Our art is only but a snapshot of who we were during a certain time frame in our lives, Rubin explains, he also talks about how our art might evolve and change from other works we have initially started with and how we might be led to create things that are entirely different from other works.
Sometimes we think that once a piece of art we created is completed, it must be perfect. It is not complete until it is perfect, especially if we believe that a particular project will completely represent who we are for futures to come. Sometimes we wait and hold onto the perfect moment for our art to have a right to exist, but really that moment doesn’t exist, you create that moment the second you decide to push your art out into the world. The truth is, no piece of art is perfect or ever will be, nor is it the defining factor of who we are, this perceived pressure can stifle us when we’re trying to complete a project. Allowing ourselves the permission to create without having to be defined by our art and remembering that a creative project is just a chapter in the story and not the whole book is important when we’re at the breaking point of the completion of a project and just letting it go and be, in spite of it maybe being flawed or imperfect.
Showing up for your art and the creative “lightning bolt”
We must show up in spite of the strike of the “creative lightning bolt”, says Rubin. The belief that suddenly struck inspiration hitting is the only way to show up for your art or make great art at all is a bit misleading. We must show up habitually for our creative practice, Rubin explains that sometimes the “lightning bolt” of inspiration may not lead us anywhere but consistently showing up for our creative practice will.
If we always wait for the creative lightning bolt to strike to show up for our creative practice then we’ll never arrive to the aha! moments that come from just doing. We never know what will always become great art simply by showing up for the lightning bolt of inspiration alone, choosing to show up for your art even when there’s no lightning can open you up to create works of art that you otherwise would have never uncovered without just doing for the sake of doing. Maybe a great piece of art can come from just deciding to draw for a few minutes, writing a silly poem on a napkin, or snapping photos for a bit in the absence of a perceived perfect moment or struck inspiration
Choosing to make art that you enjoy versus creating art for others
This topic from Rubin I didn’t take from his book necessarily, though I do think he briefly covers this idea in this YouTube video:
But he talks about in this interview the importance of making art for yourself, and that if you don’t personally enjoy your art, then who will? He explains in the interview how making art for yourself should be the compass of your inner knowing of what others may like as well. He talks about the importance of not making art just for the sake of others liking it, but being open to the idea that if a creative work sparks joy in you then it may spark joy in others. This connection that art creates amongst one another is what makes art beautiful and necessary in the world.
But why should we make art?
Rubin engages a bit with this baffling but interesting question, why make art? And why should we engage in the creative act at all? I would argue that art creates connection in ways that are beyond the physical realm, but in Rubin's opinion, contemplating the purpose of art is unnecessary since the purpose of creating art is to spark joy.
Art lets us know that we are not alone, it’s an avenue in which one can feel seen in a way that is unexplainable like a bit of mystery of magic.
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