What They Don’t Tell You in Art School (or they do, but you don’t listen)

A chance encounter on Facebook this morning led me to this video, which is some thoughts from Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) on creativity (also with some really cool kinetic text!).  He’s talking specifically about writing stories, but it doesn’t matter, it relates to any creative work.  I was so moved by this, as he articulates his point SO WELL and what he says is so totally true.  I used to hear all the time in school that you have to make bad work, which is hard for any student to hear. Nobody wants to make bad work. But it’s inevitable, and as Ira so eloquently states, it’s also OK.  The point is you have to keep going, and work through that phase before you can really find your work.  And make lots of work. And some of it (if not all, or most) is going to suck.  I went through this phase for YEARS, and I mean more than a decade. It wasn’t until after I finished grad school that I came to doing the work that I do now, that I’m known for. It might surprise some to know that I was a messy abstract oil painter for most of my artistic career, from undergrad right through grad school. And I was wholly committed to it; I really believed I was a Painter (complete with a capital ‘P’).  But the truth is, my work wasn’t really that good.  I could handle paint very well, so technically it was ‘good’, but I always had a hard time articulating what I wanted to say with paint.  I started drawing in my current style in grad school, but always thought of it as secondary to the more ‘serious’ work of paint on canvas. It wasn’t until I gave myself permission to let that go and focus on what was really exciting to me (drawing) that I found my true artistic voice.  This is not to say, of course, that I don’t still go through some awkward phases and get frustrated (see my post here about sucking). But again, the moral of this story is that you have to just keep working, try everything, make mistakes, make bad work, and most importantly (and hardest), TRUST that you will get there.  Art making is not for the faint of heart; it’s hard work, and there will be ups and downs. So anyway, enough of my rambling. Just watch the video.  Ira says it best.