DON'T pretend your best work has vanished

The blog Permission to Suck suggested that the way to creative freedom is to pretend that all your work has vanished. All of it. Here's what the blog said:

Just for a moment act as though all the creative works you’ve ever done are gone and untraceable.  They cease to be.  There is no memory of your body of work except for what you own; friends, family, colleagues, students, peers – all have no recollection of your work or your reputation.  There is no longer a creative history to foster your pride.

Assuming your passion is not make-believe and your ability to produce remains, now what?  Your beautifully clever, well crafted, richly toned works are disposable.  a.k.a – You’re free.

It’s important that we know our best work is yet to be produced.  Our best is what is in us now, not what we – or others – admire about the past.  The current creative paradox or those conflicts that remain unresolved are in front of us and are what needs examining

I understand that the attempt here is to free oneself from others' expectations. But if you write (or photograph or paint) ONLY for yourself, you lose touch with that which is external to the self. In other words, you risk becoming a kee-kee bird, which flies in ever decreasing spirals until it flies up its own ass and cries out "kee, kee, kee-RIST it's dark in here!"  

One line of thought, very hard to accept (which doesn't invalidate it), is that the ONLY way we have an identity is through the collective responses of our community to us. Without a community, we vanish, goes this argument. My own belief is that you should shoot / draw/ write for yourself FIRST, but understand that until the work is out there in the world it has no effective existence. ("Effective" means brings things about or causes things.) 

I do a lot of photo restoration .... it pays the bills, and it REALLY registers with customers. In essence, and to their way of seeing, I am literally bringing loved ones back to life. Check the slideshow here: What Photo Restoration Means. That is what defines the work as effective: the belief of others that it has validity and worth. But validity and worth of the herd don't equal the validity and worth provided by sophisticated viewers / readers.

Basically, many writers and photographers are really insecure about their stuff, and they DO try to hard to please others. It doesn't follow from that that they should pretend no one out there exists .... what if everyone out there pretended YOU don't exist?  

This entire problem is made more complicated by the lack of control we as artists face when we send our goods (read, a portion of ourselves) out there for others to judge. Scary! It's why I no longer review the work of beginners, because I know they don't want critique, they want reassurance ... which in conscience I may or may not be able to give them.  

The difficulty here is that when it leaves the nest, it's not your bird any longer. The minute you publish a work of art, it no longer belongs to you (except in a legal sense, and good luck enforcing THAT these days). It is an independent object, just as a toenail clipping is when it leaves your foot. Whether it shines or it stinks, it's no longer yours to command. It's out there in the universe, and the universe will judge it by word or action.


As artists we tend to put so much of ourselves that it is a tremendous strain to let the stuff go. But we have to, or we're kee-kee birds.

So, I say to you: DON'T pretend all your stuff has vanished. NOW go do the art you believe in. Much harder, but ultimately much more likely to be rewarding. And when you really believe, really, really believe your stuff is great, send it out into the void and accept the consequences. If it's great enough, it will light a fire somewhere!