On Being Creative

Just ran across this short clip on being creative from an interview with cartoonist, musician and the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, James Kochalka, and it both makes sense and inspires this person who has such a long creative journey behind her with more yet to come.

And here's a book that might be worth a read: David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World recommended by my fave, Austin Kleon in this post. I'm drawn to the title because I've always been a generalist, which is often negatively thought of as jack of all trades, master of none. I truly have been proud of all the things I've tried and can sort of to very well do, but sometimes regret the things I did not stick at long enough to truly master (like playing the piano). I realize that my broad scope of skills has stood me in good stead in getting paid jobs when I was still in the work force but a lack of what some might call focus may have kept me from advancing into higher paying ones. At any rate, here is a quotation from the book that Austin pulled out that describes me well:

“[I] realized that I was not the type of person who wanted to spend my entire life learning one or two things new to the world, but rather the type who wanted constantly to learn things new to me and share them.”

And a couple for all of us to ponder and believe in our creative ventures:

“In [Dan] Gilbert’s terms, we are works in progress claiming to be finished…. The precise person you are now is fleeting, just like all the other people you’ve been.”

“One sentence of advice: Don’t feel behind.”

“Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you. Everyone progresses at a different rate, so don’t let anyone else make you feel behind. You probably don’t even know where exactly you’re going, so feeling behind doesn’t help.”