Uncover Creativity
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
My mind frequently comes back to this quote which is often misattributed to Michelangelo (here's a fun history of its evolution). I believe it speaks to the intimidating process of creating something new. We have a tendency to stop before we have a chance to start. However, if we believe the object already exists and we’re simply archaeologists uncovering the greatness that someone else left, that can be much more achievable.
I’ve fallen in love with this process of uncovering. As a kid I was convinced I was going to be a paleontologist because there was something so fascinating about separating the dirt and rock from the fossils hidden inside. I didn’t become a paleontologist but I’ve found that same feeling of careful discovery in every creative thing I’ve done. Knowing I’m just there to surface the art within has been a liberating mindset.
Starting is 90% of the battle
Looking directly at the destination can be blinding. It can be difficult to see the path that will take a picture from two circles to a photo realistic owl. That paralysis can prevent the journey before it even begins.
I counter this by embracing every step along the way. Each decision is a victory and each line drawn is an accomplishment. We’re all capable of walking toward the sun without looking directly at it, moving toward a creative destination can be very similar. By breaking down the insurmountable challenge of drawing an owl all at once to much smaller and surmountable problems we give the owl a chance to slowly emerge from the blank space of the paper.
Starting something from scratch can be even more difficult when we’re surrounded every day with the whole world’s finished products. On the internet we’re surrounded by people at different points in their creative journeys. They may know a few more shortcuts, they might also be throwing out 99% of their work and just publishing best pieces. The social networks and algorithms further filter this content so we’re left only with finished owls. We rarely see the journeys they all took to get to those results.
Austin’s Butterflies
Austin was a first grader in Idaho who was tasked (like most first graders) with drawing a butterfly. Austin’s first draft was what you expect a first grader to draw, we have millions of this butterfly drawing attached to refrigerators and cubicles across America. What was different about Austin’s creative environment was it encouraged his peers to give him feedback and suggest changes to make his butterfly better.
The final drawing is far beyond what we expect first graders to be able to achieve and speaks to the power of iteration and critical feedback. We tend to stop or slow down after our first iteration. We may eventually get better but our timeframe of each draft is extended across many years of attempts rather than a single week of repetition. We give up before we can even see the speed at which we’re able to make progress.
We can all be a bit more like Austin, seeking and accepting critical feedback and adjusting with each new attempt. Rather than comparing our first draft to our final destination we can walk a more creative path one step at a time knowing that every step is bringing us a bit closer.