Am I A Creator?
An honest reflection on my time at the canvas
So, it’s apparent that I’ve been away for a little while…
But I haven’t been doing nothing.
In fact, I’ve been doing the opposite. I’ve been creating like an animal.
I’ve found a winning formula to keep dropping YouTube videos every five days for months now, starting two new series’, finishing one and working in the shadows on a new podcast and a show for, well, I’ll explain another day.
I’ve been to three different countries working on my photography skills and developing a love for being on my own.
I’ve been working to survive and I’ve been working to live a little. I’ve been solving problems and creating them.
One thing I always seem to stop and ask myself is this: am I a creator?
Creativity: the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.
Yes, I know I have a YouTube channel with over 100 subscribers and almost 10k channel views, but does that make me creative, or am I just bored?
Am I just working really hard, or am I actually making things happen?
With Medium, am I a writer, a blogger? Or, just a student with some spare time and Grammarly?
My perception of creativity and ‘art’ has changed a lot over the years, where I now have a deep appreciation for simplicity and minimalism. For solving a problem or for making things better.
Growing up, art to me was almost exclusively painting or using bright colours, and creativity was always modelling something with paper maché or playdough.
Until recently, something wasn’t considered ‘art’ to me if it didn’t have a splash of colour and represent something tangible, like the portrait of a person or the unique take of a tree in a field.
Now, art is completely abstract and can only be determined accurately by, well, the creator.
A piece of art can objectively be deemed ‘popular’ depending on how many people see the beauty in it, but this doesn’t necessarily make something good or bad.
The internet is the perfect microcosm here as you can observe that the top trending pieces of content are rarely the most satisfying. I mean, the most-liked picture on Instagram right now is, literally, an egg. No joke.
My idea of creativity has changed too, as I’m starting to view everyone as a creator in some light.
Being a ‘good’ creator can be measured a little more objectively as an expression of how accurately your art conveys the message you wish to send, if any, but this too is quite subjective.
Creativity to me, at least when it comes to problem-solving, is the ability to change something but still have it be the same. Making something behave differently without actually being different.
Creativity to me comes from changing your perspective and looking at something differently, in a way which allows you to innovate and emulate from the conventional way of thinking.
Art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
Alas, going back to my predicament. Am I a creator? Not exactly, but I’m striving to be one.
Up until recently, I’ve been limiting my creativity based on what I deemed my peers would think was acceptable. Not anymore.
For once, I’m taking creativity into my own hands. I’m going to be making things based on my perspective and within my creative scope, not the restricted scope I made for myself based on other people’s opinions.
I’m going to fully explore my creative capabilities until I create something that I truly deem to be artistic. Creative. Innovative.
There are things that I’ve always wanted to do and now, I’m going to be doing them.
No more holding back and trying to make other people happy.
No more limiting myself in the fear that I’d make a fool of myself.
No more.
Now, we move. Here’s to creating something new.
While I got a little carried away in the making of this, the purpose of this story was to say that I’m starting a new 30-day challenge. One that builds on the success of my last attempt while also addressing my shortfalls.
Every day at 9 p.m GMT, I’m going to sit down and create.
I’m going to go into this each day with a blank canvas and let my mind take me away. With minimal editing and no second-guessing, here’s the start of my journey.
Check out my latest YouTube video if you haven’t already and support a brother on Patreon if you want early access to some of my stories and YouTube Videos.
Hit follow if you found this interesting. Also thanks to anyone who’s made it this far, I hope this post was of use to someone. You’re the best!
