Tuesday, September 28, 2021
The secret to creating amazing work? You have to hate it first
www.fastcompany.com: The first time I heard that a feeling of gloom might be a normal part of creative work, I was incredibly depressed about what I was currently producing. It was a project focused on irrigation tools for small-plot farmers in Myanmar, and a week before the final presentation I was having a full-blown crisis of confidence. Compared to the needs of the farmers we were working for, our solution for redesigning, and thereby reducing, the cost of a water pump seemed inconsequential.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I do not like dealing in absolutes, generally speaking, and I do not like perpetrating the idea of despair or pain as a qualifier for good art. However, I must admit that if I have ever been immensely proud of a particular work of art, I have toiled and despaired over it. For me, this is very much a trust the process situation. Usually what happens is I will get stuck on a particular element of a painting, unable to make it look the way I want it. At this point, I really just need the will and the stamina to stick it out and keep doing what I'm doing. I know I have the chops to pull off what I want, I just am unable to see it in the moment. It's also a little bit of a pushing myself situation. I like drawing things that I know how to draw, it's comforting. But I also need to push myself to draw things I've never done before, otherwise I'll never get better.
What hit me strongest in the article was when it mentioned the points in the design progress at which the struggle can most present itself, the formation of the initial idea and the point at which a creative team collectively form a final idea; the points in the process that I have the most trouble with. It is comforting to know that is not an experience that I alone have. And it makes sense; these are often difficult decisions or complex conversations to do them well. Learning those practices to break myself out of the cycle, and just recognizing that this happens, this is normal. Another couple lines interested me with their phrasing, the ones that talked about your design process becoming predictable. I enjoy greatly part of getting myself to work properly is manipulating my own head to be in the right place to work or think, it just seems so absurd. It feels like I have a lot of trial and error ahead of me to get to a place where I can work comfortably within that.
At first I read this article thinking I would completely disagree with it. The concept of having to at first hate your job is something I do not stand by. I believe in order to survive theatre, an incredibly demanding job, you have to LOVE it. I think what this article is trying to communicate is that it is okay to have moments where you don’t enjoy your job. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and for that matter it cannot. This concept is something in general I live by. You cannot always be happy. You need to see what is bad to know what is good. However, I often forget this in theatre. If I have a bad moment, I instantly doubt myself and think I am not good enough. So, this article was incredibly invalidating, and an important reminder for me to hear. What resonated with me the most was the line “That discomfort serves you”. Failure is valuable. It is a learning experience. This is something I am trying to remind myself everyday.
I generally hate the idea of having to struggle for art; I think it convinces creatives that their wellbeing matters less than what they’re making. However, this article is definitely more about hating the product, not the process. The sentence “She sees only the flaws and none of it’s merits” especially resonated with me. I have this moment on all of my projects, where suddenly I am disappointed and frustrated with my work. I agree that this is an essential part of the process in order to improve. Once I have found my passion for the project again, I have often also found the piece that was before missing. I love the term “productive struggling,” as this article calls it. I think it really encapsulates the feeling of growth as you suffer through the most difficult part of the process. I hope in the future I can use this mindset to contextualize my struggles as I create.
At some point in the process of making every piece of art I have ever created I have hated it. Every drawing, every piece of writing, and even every show I have been a part of. I don’t think it is a negative thing I think it pushes us to do better. You are allowed to hate your passion sometimes. It is human. If you loved what you did every second that you were doing it you would never grow as an artist. Struggle enforces change which is what this article is getting at. As theatre artists, we have to love what we do. This job is hard. Creating theatre is time-consuming, physically demanding, mentally draining, and you have to be willing to make personal sacrifices. And it is okay to take a moment, hate it, and give yourself time to breathe. You will come back as a better artist and you will appreciate theatre more overall.
I immediately related to this article from the second I read the headline. I completely understand this feeling. I always hate my own work at the beginning, and sometimes it stays that way. For the most part however, if I put in the time that I feel is necessary, by the end of the project I am probably happy with it. For a while, I did have a hard time getting over that initial hate of my work. It was hard to keep working on it without just scrapping the whole thing and starting over. Whether it was in Basic Design, Drawing, Drafting, or any other course really, I often just wanted to crumple up my paper and start over. Through these classes, and Basic Design in particular, I learned really evaluate my work and decide whether or not it was time to start over, or if I should give it a little more time to develop. I frequently found that if I just stuck with the project, I, and my professors ended up enjoying the work.
I was initially drawn to this article because I am constantly hitting roadblocks and unable to come up with ideas I like, especially in design. However, I was honestly dissatisfied, although it is likely because I didn’t receive an ‘answer.’ I think part of going to school is to learn and receive opinions from our teachers. I think this article is what school is, creating an idea and having those boundaries pushed by someone who knows more. I do agree that when you struggle with an idea, especially in design and see its flaws, it makes it better, because you are able to see all the areas that need adjusting to improve it, and make those. In art, I don’t think that is always the case, as occasionally you change your mood, and then that changes the initial point of the piece. I think because theatre is both design and art, there is thus a fine balance between the two.
Post a Comment