Why human creativity matters now more than ever before

‘Truce’ ©Kris Cahill 2023, gouache and mixed media on paper, Find it here

Your very human creativity matters now more than ever before.

Nothing outside of you can replace your unique and creative human spirit.

Especially when you care for it, feed it, and give it room to play, your creative spirit will reward you time and time again with a deepening knowing, trust, and certainty. One of the things I’ve learned from being an artist is that I can trust that I’ll find my way to the next steps or an answer in my creative process, because even in the darkest of times I’ve done so before. I know that if I show up, I’ll get there eventually.

Trusting this process is the key. Sometimes I have to show up a lot, trusting that it will come despite all evidence to the contrary. I have to ignore those nasty little fears that tell me I’ve lost my way. Simply allowing myself to create without being ruled by the demand to ‘produce something of value’, helps me find my way out of what feels like a dead end creatively.

I’ve learned that all of this is part of the process of creating, and going beyond what I’ve done before. New paths sometimes look a bit bleak or dark before one steps onto them. An important part of creating is destroying, it’s essential to create the space for the new.

As an artist and creative who’s made money for many years selling my original work, I’ve found I’ve had to deprogram out the notion that every time I show up to make art I have to spend my time wisely and produce something good. Time is money, blah blah. Except. We need time, as creatives, to experiment, play, and invent. To not make sense, to make ugly art and mistakes and a huge mess. To ‘waste’ expensive art supplies, and feel invalidated in the midst of it all, can sometimes be part of the next creative breakthrough.

I don’t know any artists of any kind who simply show up daily and everything is perfect. Our deepest selves are being called on in our creations - we are not machines producing one perfect work after another. Some art works take years to show up, others suddenly appear out of the blue, nearly complete. The trick is to be present enough, to have been playing and feeding one’s creativity and caring for all of it, to allow the space needed for that new creation to appear.

It’s messy, but that is what it is, sometimes emotionally messy, sometimes in other ways. Messy is not wrong, it’s the healing here. Being human is not a perfectly neat experience, and we do ourselves a disservice when we expect our creativity to be perfect in some way.

Creativity comes with the spirit - you were creative enough to figure out a way to get here, after all. Being creative is one of the top reasons why I wanted to be here in this lifetime. The opportunities to create and grow are greater than ever, even in late stage capitalism with all of its demands to put a price tag on everything, meanwhile devaluing the contribution of human beings. Your spirit cannot be bought and sold, not for any price.