Creativity Running Amok

In an article from Flavorpill - 15 famous authors on why they write,  Don DeLillo said "It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture, but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.”  This struck me hard as I believe this to be true for any artistic medium.  There is something in us artistic types that needs to do what we do.  It is not a choice.  It is innate. Creativity runs amok in our blood and the only way to tame it is to get it on paper, canvas, music notation, strung on beading wire, wrapped around a crocket hook........ etc.  

Without our craft we are simply blobs unable to function properly in our everyday lives.  It is our dissatisfaction with the mundane, the conformity, the everybody must be and do what some media or social device tells us is the cool thing to be doing at this moment.  This may work, and obviously does, for so many people.  But for others, not so much.   


I can't tell you how many times people ask me, as a jewelry designer, if I make 'such and such' a thing.  You know, the latest trendy trinket that Everybody is wearing.  I say No.  Because to be honest, when I've done that, I've been so miserable because I felt I 'sold out' and compromised my creative process.  And because my spirit wasn't into the thing, they never sold well.  Lesson learned quickly and I'll never do it again.  


Now, I'm not saying this to dis anyone.  We all have to make a living and if one enjoys and is completely content and satisfied with what they are doing then more power to them.  I respect that whole heartedly.  I believe in and have become intimate friends with what runs amok in me.  I can see no other way.  I can find no other relationship that quells that stirring.  


Being an individual in this world is vital to my survival as a human be-ing.  To tap into the 'amok' is the most freeing thing I've ever done.


Thanks for visiting my blog
Blessings
Martie