Introduction
We often hear the adage that the creative process is a “journey,” a convoluted path to completion ripe with detours, discoveries, and untold challenges. Truly, it cannot be denied that creating art is full of exploration, tangents and the unexpected, happy revelations and shocked realizations. It’s a rollercoaster of emotion and experience to be sure. It can also be a journey we muddle through, peppered with doubt and confusion. We don’t always know our way so clearly. As such though, we learn not only more about our own process and aesthetic, but also about ourselves along the way. In fact, we can darn right surprise ourselves, for better or worse. (Recommended reading: Busted)
In this way then, the journey can be a highly personal affair between the art and the artist, a deeply private venture that’s the artist’s experience alone. Only the artist truly felt the creative process in its full breadth which isn’t often readily apparent in the work itself because so often their mad skills just make it all look so easy. But every artist struggles in some way with every piece they ever create. It’s just the nature of the artistic beast.
But there’s another half to this equation that typically doesn’t get mentioned. In fact, it’s usually disregarded as an inferior aspect of that equation. What is it? It’s the destination. But what’s a journey without a destination? Aimless wandering, that’s what. In art then we absolutely need the period at the end of the sentence. That’s to say, we need to call “done” otherwise we get stuck in an artistic dead end with all this endless meanderings. Why? Because we cannot grow and evolve, we cannot improve or switch gears if we cannot take the learning a piece has to offer by finishing it to move onto the next with new lessons. Really, without the destination, we’re simply stuck in a perpetual journey, spinning our wheels.
So what does all this mean for our arting? Let’s talk about the journey and destination a bit then to perhaps better understand our own, to maybe even grasp a better handle on our own aspirations to keep us going as we fumble forwards.
The Birth
Creativity can be joyous, truly joyous! As you might well know, we find deep satisfaction in our arting as it brings us sanctuary, serenity, meditation, amusement, purpose and meaning, and a host of other positives that enrich our lives. Truly, it can be a big wad of wonderful! But at the same time it can also be a rather painful undertaking on an emotional level, sometimes decidedly so. See, while it has its highs, it definitely has its lows, creating a rollercoaster ride for the psyche. In a sense, creating a new piece is akin to a kind of birth with all the elation and pain that comes with bringing something new into the world through us. And this birth can be so taxing, in fact, that we may need a break from our arting after its completion. Some pieces can just have a more difficult birth than others. Yet we undergo this birthing process again and again as a function of our love and as a means to progress and improve, don’t we? Uffdah. In this way, each piece we create — no matter how long we’ve been at this — will always test our mettle, and often in unexpected ways, ways that can even cause a core shakedown of our entire being. The journey can indeed be a rough road at times.
To be a great artist then, perhaps we need three primary qualities. The first is hope, that special pull that keeps us moving forwards in the dark with the promise of success. Truly, the more hopeful the artist, the more likely they’ll finish their work. It’s simply the carrot at the end of the stick. The second is moxie, the stubborn drive to just gut it out despite it all. To allow the joy and love of our creativity to carry us through the hardships with that obstinate streak leading the way, smashing through the proverbial ice with abandon and boldness. And the third is love, love for our piece, love for our subject, and love for the whole experience of arting. Great art is created only through great love to some degree. Call it inspiration, call it motivation, call it genius, call it compulsion, whatever it is, it’s founded first on love. Because the minute we fall out of love with our piece is the moment the motivation to finish it evaporates, doesn’t it? So wrap up those three qualities and we have the basic ingredients for our bubblin’ creative stew. Because we can’t deny that pulling something out of the ether that didn’t exist before can be an intimidating and arduous endeavor. It takes gumption, hope, and a whole lotta love to bang it out, to keep us going despite all the setbacks and frustrations. Then if that wasn’t enough, once we’re done, we have to contend with the public reaction to our finished work and that’s a whole ‘nuther kettle of fish! (Recommended reading: The Critic In The Creative Space) Arting isn’t for the faint of heart! To be an artist, especially a working artist, is to walk a rocky road. It’s not always such smooth sailing despite what it may seem like on the outside. The journey for every artist can indeed be laborious at times and then we have to fall back onto our mettle to see us through. This is one of the reasons why our destination can be so important because it’s the reward in this circuit, the pat on the back, the sense of “job well done” satisfaction that can help us keep going in our arting. When our inspired vision is finally made real, that’s a powerful effect on our psyche, isn’t it? So if we just keep wandering without this reward then, are we really getting the full benefit of the arting experience?
The Doing And the Done
But whoever said the journey would be easy, eh? What journey ever is, anyway? There’s always some pothole, right? Some hiccup. Some little hardship to flavor the experience. In this way, each finished piece is earned in the truest sense. We’ve worked through it all, the challenges, the mistakes, the short circuits, to arrive at “done” and that’s to be respected and appreciated, especially by ourselves. We should absolutely be proud of ourselves! We did it! We passed the test, met the challenge and came out singing on the other side. We crossed that blessed finish line! That being the case, the destination — the finished piece — is just as important as the journey, isn’t it? Remember, it’s the reward, the endorphin kick, the prize for a job well done despite it all. It’s the final port of call with the welcoming and congratulatory feast! Indeed, we now have something tangible in our hands that we manifested from our imagination and that’s nothing to sneeze at, is it? Nope. It’s to be celebrated! Marveled over and lauded! So kudos to you!
That being the case, the destination is just as important as the journey in an unending synergistic cycle of adventure and reward, both meant to be cherished for the unique gifts they bestow. And at the higher echelons of achievement, valued as one holistic adventure, a union that offers a complete artistic experience. Because here we have the journey of discovery, curiosity, and creative adventure and then here we have the destination of satisfaction, reflection, and enlightenment. Both feed each other to ferry us through our growth and inspirations. So savor the journey but don’t discount finishing what you start — seek the gifts of both and we may find a new reward system that feeds our motivations more thoroughly, perhaps even kicking us out of our creative doldrums. Never underestimate the power of a satisfying reward at the end of a long journey!
The UnDoing And The Undone
Because sure it’s easy to simply start a new project again and again until we have a stack of unfinished pieces languishing in a pile. That’s such an easy trap. Or it’s another easy trap to creatively languish with a piece, picking away at it endlessly with no “done.” But those two scenarios are only ever half the story, only part of the equation, aren’t they? Here we have all journey, but no reward, right? In this way, the journey can become a kind of addiction in itself as we feed our excitement circuit with simply a brand new project over and over again, or we psychologically sequester ourselves in the familiarity of a piece we keep picking at, reluctant to push through to completely for any number of reasons. Because it takes harder work and even more gumption to arrive at our destination, doesn’t it? Follow through and discipline? That takes a more determined investment to make happen and to muscle through finishing steps we find tedious or maddening. But what’s a working artist without follow through and discipline? Not working for very long! We’ve got to finish what we start.
Or perhaps it’s the fear of perfectionism that prevents our arrival? If we never finish something, we never have to face the very real intimidation of perfection, do we? We never have to address what’s perfect and what’s not about our work? Simply put, we never have to face our artistic inadequacies. Could it be avoidance then? Maybe. The fear of perfectionism is a powerful thing indeed, one that can even prevent an artist from starting something outright from the start. It’s not to be trifled with, that’s for sure. In this light then, the need to arrive at our destination could offer a keen insight on a bit of baggage holding us back. Could it be the unknown gift we need to evolve and grow? Could be. Our fear of arriving may be harboring more introspective secrets than we know, secrets that even hold the key for the next level of our advancement maybe. It would be worth finding out, wouldn’t it?
Or maybe we don’t like where our journey took us and so we don’t even like where we arrived. We’ve all had that piece that went sideways in a way we definitely didn’t intend and none of it turned out the way we like. We’ve all been there. Hooray for the Dremel and the primer can for a redo! It can’t be ignored that the journey can be wholly unpredictable and the more we listen to our piece for guidance, the more uncharted territory we’ll often be asked to navigate. Funny how that works. This can be unsettling and nerve-wracking, especially if it takes us well beyond our creative comfort zones and familiar habits. But if we spin it, it can also become curious and exciting, even inspiring, can’t it? Challenge accepted! Because this is part of the journey, too. In many ways, this could be the whole purpose of the journey! This pathway of self-discovery, of evolution and growth, personally and artistically, could be the whole gist of it, one we’re avoiding if we don’t finish what we start. Hey, no one promised it would be easy or comfortable, and the hard truth is that growth is often uncomfortable by asking us to bust past our confines, bust out of our own comfy box. If we wish to finish what we start, we first have to be willing to be uncomfortable at times.
Or maybe we’re not finishing because we are seeking perfection — yes — but doing it so manically, we’ve gotten lost in the journey chasing it like a Don Quixote after his windmills. Many of us have been there. I sure have. Indeed, we can get lost along the way, stray off the path, so immersed in our drive to realize our vision in its most authentic form we lose sight of our charted course. Ultimately, we’ll go in endless circles, spinning our wheels, trying again and again to hit our mark but always coming up short somehow. Spinning wheels simply never offers a way out, does it? It can’t. But as I learned with my piece, In Dreams, this isn’t necessarily a lack of skill or innate talent. It’s not the end of our abilities. Nope. It’s the beginning. Because more times than not, it’s because we’re on the cusp of a breakthrough that’s just waiting to bust out, but only given we finish what we start, that we commit to “done” to arrive at our destination. Each piece has new lessons for us but those lessons are only fully given upon completion. This is why the more pieces we finish, even if they aren’t “perfect,” the faster we improve overall. This is a critical phenomenon to always remember if we wish to truly advance in our work. Because yes…volume matters — a lot. The more you finish, the more you simply learn and learn faster.
The Power Of The “Journation”
All this is the power of the synergistic relationship between the journey and the destination, the “journation”: They’re two very necessary sides of the same coin. They’re so entwined, in fact, we can think of them as two essential components of the same lesson, the two plus two that equals four. Because the fact of the matter remains: We simply won’t get the full benefit of the creative experience if we don’t muscle through our piece and complete it. It’s in the doing and the “done” together where the magic truly happens!
In this light then, the symbiosis born of their synergy is one of the great gifts and purposes of creativity. It offers us wide open windows into our improvement as well as peeks into our personal aspects that may be holding us back. Fear? Intimidation? Confusion? Motivation problems? These are powerful components that can stop our process so the more we can discover to uproot them, the better, and it’s this journation symbiosis that’s the most direct way to do that.
Add it all up then and journation is the key, the best habit to form, if we wish to play the long game of success. Go on your journey in hope, moxie, and love then, riding out the choppy waters and enjoying the smooth sailing all the same, with gratitude and wonder. But stay the course. Keep moving forwards, even failing forwards to arrive at your destination — any destination — to call “done.” Then savor the warm welcome awaiting you for such a job well done, enjoy that reward for that long journey you took. Then lather, rinse, repeat, over and over again as you create a growing body of work that shows marked improvement and rapid growth. Journation is simply the secret to advancement, so undertake it with joy, curiosity, and a whole lotta gumption.
Conclusion
Never underestimate the power of arting, the potency of the creative act to change us for the better. In so many wonderful ways our journey and our destination can drive so much good stuff in our lives, both personal and professional, so don’t hold back. Unfurl your sails and sail towards that glorious horizon unafraid and full of go-getter optimism! You’ll find that so much good stuff is awaiting you in your next port!
The journation, it's your pathway to improvement, growth, discovery, and fulfillment that will always work for you if you let it. Full steam ahead then towards that promising horizon to finally pull into port with your full colors flying! We can’t wait to see the fruits of your arting adventures! Yoicks and away!
“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.”
— Mark Rothko
