14 Lessons I’ve Learned Since I Started Making Art

I never thought that I’d ever be writing about art, especially my own art. When I was a kid, I had no desire to read books, or look at paintings, let alone write books or create paintings. I spent most of my childhood, not believing that I was creative.
I was not a quiet child. The term introvert hadn’t made its way into popular culture yet, but if it had, I wouldn’t have noticed, because I would’ve been too busy talking.
Life is funny though, and when we open ourselves up to new experiences, we can often find ourselves going down a path that we had never planned for or even thought possible.
Eight years ago I had never picked up a paintbrush outside of a middle school art class. I wouldn’t have known what to do with it if I had. But when I turned 30, I decided to try as many new things as possible. I’m glad I did. It changed my life.
Over the last seven years, I’ve kept trying new things, sometimes they failed and sometimes they were small successes that encouraged me to keep trying. Ultimately, I realized that even the failures were successes because I learned something each time an idea crashed and burned. I would stand back and look at the wreckage and think, “Well, I won’t do it like that again.”
As an adult, I’ve been drawn to and sought out quotes, speeches, and any thoughts that could give me advice about how to live in this world successfully. Writers, artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs have been my mentors. They’re the ones who have been out there trying new things, and their words always seemed like they were reporting back on how to be successful and what to avoid.
After a few years of making blackout poetry, I found it humorous when I realized that I was doing the same thing with my art: creating hidden messages of hope and sharing my experiences and thoughts on life with strangers on the internet.
My new Make Blackout Poetry book is part tutorial on how to make blackout poetry and part training ground with pages for you to create your own blackout poetry.
With this release of this new book, I wanted to share with you 14 lessons that I’ve learned since I’ve started making blackout poetry. You’ve probably heard some of these ideas before, but we often need to hear an idea multiple times for it to stick, and these are all tried and true from my perspective.
1. Boredom is Good
Despite what people may say boredom is actually a good thing. I was often told when I was a kid that “only boring people are bored.” That’s probably true to some extent, but boredom is like a blank canvas. If we have nothing to do and plenty of time to do it, it’s amazing what you might come up with to fill your time.
In an age where it seems like we’re always busy, boredom is a window of opportunity to try something different and have a new experience.
2. Adversity is Necessary
I find that problems cause growth. It’s adversity that makes us stronger. It’s the heat and friction of life that molds us into the kind of people that we end up being. It’s our responsibility to learn how to navigate those waters and learn the lessons that adversity wants to teach us.
No one likes going through it, but I often wonder if anything significant was ever created without some sort of adversity.
3. Creativity is a Muscle
I never thought that I was creative. Growing up, I thought creatives were the kids who got an A in art class or starred in the school play. I was quite the opposite. I played basketball in High School and plagiarized my school papers by copying the encyclopedia. You better believe that I was excited when my parents bought a brand new set when I was in 9th grade. That also might’ve been the last set of encyclopedias ever sold, on earth.
But when I was 21, I had the desire to express myself through writing, so I started a blog and began writing entries in my cubicle at work when I was bored. I wasn’t good at it, at first, but like doing anything, I found that the more that I wrote, the better I became at writing.
4. Consistency is a Key to Success
When I first started Make Blackout Poetry, I decided to challenge myself to post a blackout poem every day to Instagram for a year. I wanted to create discipline in my life, and this idea seemed as good as any to accomplish it.
I also learned that there were unexpected benefits to doing this. Naturally, because I was creating something every day I got better at it, but when you do something consistently, people also begin to notice, and you gain traction, that can ultimately lead to success if you just don’t quit.
5. Passion is Contagious
Whether you’re passionate about making street art, helping Syrian refugees, making collages out of old history books, or running a cooking YouTube channel, people love being around passion. It doesn’t matter what the medium is.
One of my favorite artists and writers said, “The market for something to believe in is infinite.”
Even the biggest cynic wants something to believe in and when you become passionate about living your life, whatever that may look like, it can help others become passionate about living theirs.
6. Karma is Real
Whether you believe in Karma, or that “you reap what you sow,” or you get what you deserve, It’s all the same thing. I don’t know if it’s energy, good vibes, or that people will treat you the way that you treat them, all I know is that it’s real.
If I’m nice to someone, they’re typically nice to me. If I give someone an opportunity, I tend to get opportunities for myself. If I give, I always receive more. It may sound cliche, but, it’s a bizarre cosmic law of the universe that you get back what you put out in the world. So always give the good stuff.
7. Love is the Best Business and Life Strategy
A follow up to the last point; we’re all put into positions and circumstances in our lives where we don’t know what the hell we should do.
Someone is trying to screw you out of money.
Your boyfriend is acting shady.
The barista at Starbucks was rude to you this morning.
Someone gave you the finger in traffic.
And the list goes on.
All of these situations can cause a knee-jerk reaction in us to get defensive and attack, but every time I’ve done that in my life it always backfired on me.
When making blackout poetry, I like to personify love, because I like to think about what love would do if it were a living, breathing human and had to deal with some of these situations. I think that’s what they were trying to do with the “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets back in the 90s.
So every time I find myself in a position where I have the decision to react or respond I try to dig deep and think about how love would handle the situation.
Easier said than done, but it’s never failed me.
8. Success is Subjective
I’ve learned that you should never measure your success by popularity, money, fame, but measure it by the joy, happiness, and fulfillment that it gives you. Everything else is just smoke in mirrors.
We live in a culture where we regularly see the highlight reels of each other’s lives through social media. Life is not a highlight reel though. Sometimes things go well. Sometimes they don’t, but comparing our daily lives to other’s best moments is pretty futile, and honestly makes you feel like you’re lacking.
Another person’s accomplishments should never be your measure of success. Everyone is on their own path. We need to define our own success. Maybe just painting a picture is a success for you, because it was for me when I first started making blackout poetry.
So never let someone or something set the bar for what success should look like to you. Only you should do that.
9. Find Your People
Kurt Vonnegut once posed a question, with an immediate answer, “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
I don’t think that idea is unique to just young people, but everyone.
When I look back on my life thus far, I realize that I’ve always been drawn to community. I played sports for years, was heavily involved in youth group in high school, played in poker leagues as an adult, and ultimately found myself in the art community. I never set out to do any of those things, but can see that the common thread was always community.
I’ve realized that I started the Make Blackout Poetry Instagram account to create a community for people who felt lonely and needed a purpose, myself included.
10. Assign Purpose to Your Life
Like most people, I’ve often wondered why I exist and what my purpose in this life is.
Are we a part of some unknown cosmic plan, or do we achieve fulfillment by assigning purpose to our lives? Like everyone else that’s ever lived on this earth, I have no idea. But I do know that when I live with purpose, I lead a happier and more fulfilled life.
The first time I made a blackout poem with a message that impacted me after creating it, I wanted to share it with the world, because maybe there was someone out there that could relate.
After struggling throughout my adult life with depression and anxiety, I wondered if I could not only rewire my brain but positively influence others that are struggling as well.
I realized that making blackout poetry gave me a purpose, cosmic or not, to create something that encouraged others to find meaning through creating things. Also, sometimes, helping other people helps you more, than the people you are helping. Kind of like Karma. It’s funny how that works.
11. Practice Gratitude
It’s easy to get caught up in what’s wrong with the world, and even what’s wrong with your life. I’ve hit these walls in my life, but I’ve found a reliable way to help getting through it.
I literally look around my apartment and start listing things off that I’m grateful for in my life.
I’m grateful that I have an apartment with heat, electricity, and running water. I’m grateful for my bed; I’m grateful for my dog, I’m grateful for my computer that allows me to work, I’m grateful for a job that allows me to have all of the other things that I just listed that I’m grateful to have.
You get the point. I encourage you to try it the next time you’re feeling down about the world or your life. It works.
12. Change Your Perception
I don’t necessarily believe that everything happens for a reason, but we get to choose how we react or respond to what happens to us. Whether it was out of our control or a bad decision on our part — Good, Bad or Ugly — This is our life, and what we do with our experience is entirely up to us.
13. You Can Manifest Your Dreams
Our minds are powerful, our words are substantial, and I believe that every small action we make genuinely causes a ripple in this world. With enough effort, we can turn ripples into waves. If you have a dream that you’d like to achieve, it will not be easy, but if you’re passionate about it, consistent in your efforts, and have a heart full of love — I honestly believe that you can make your dream a reality.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ― Paulo Coelho
14. Try Your Best
One of my favorite books that I’ve read recently is The Four Agreements. If you’re not familiar with it, the book presents a code of conduct for living that will help us lead happier and more fulfilling lives.
The last agreement literally made me laugh out loud when I was reading it. It said “Try Your Best.” It almost seemed like the author was phoning it in on the last chapter because his publisher thought that four agreements sounded better than three agreements and they needed to add another 25 pages to the book. But as I read on, I saw the truth in what he was saying.
We’re all trying to figure out life and how to live it the best we possibly can, so whether you’re taking advice from The Four Agreements or listening to a guy who makes blackout poetry tell you his life lessons from destroying books, don’t be hard on yourself.
Life is a process, and none of us are ever going to “arrive,” which makes the journey that much more exciting.
Life is short so live with purpose, love each other because we’re all that we have, create things that bring you joy and fulfillment, and try your best because that’s all that any of us can do.
John Carroll delivered this speech at the release of Make Blackout Poetry: Turn These Pages Into Poems on September 4th, 2018 in Atlanta, GA.
