Canvas: The Context of Art (Ch. 6)

“It’s easier to believe that creative people are simply different rather than to believe they are the same but choose to live differently.”

This quote stopped me in my tracks. Here I am, writing about trying to be artistic, that we are in fact called to a life of creativity, and yet I still believe that “creative people” are somehow different than myself. Fighting with a perfectionistic, type A personality cannot possibly be the way create people live. They are imaginative and boundless, dreamers who live outside of boundaries and expectations and have no problems with the chaos of the creative process. But that is not necessarily true. Sometimes, they are people just like me who choose to live differently.

I asked my friend about this concept the other day. She is one of the most brilliant creators I know, through a plethora of mediums, and her work inspires me every day. I told her about my struggle with the creative process, with the mess of imagining and failing, and she told me she has the same struggles. For her, art is a choice. It is a process of learning to let go, to let herself flow outside of boundaries, even if it is uncomfortable. Her canvas is a posture of grace, because she cannot create without it.

Her words challenged me, because McManus was right. It is easier to believe that others are different, that I just do not have the creative “stuff” in me, than to acknowledge that they have chosen to live differently.