Why do we create and release art? This question has been on my mind so much this past year. At my most confused moments, the whole process can feel vain and embarrassing. During moments of clarity, I remember that those feelings are side effects of cognitive distortions, they don’t tell the whole story. The act of creating and releasing is natural to living creatures; it is a fundamental part of what it means to be alive.
I will be addressing this essay to myself. While I do think this can apply to other artists, I do not want to assume that it will resonate with everyone or tell others how it is best for them to create.
My essential priority when making art is to create what is true to me. No part of my individuality is a mistake that I must correct to be more like someone else. I believe that God (The Great Creator) created me (and everyone else) in his divine image. My ambition is to express myself and make art from that unique place. Knowing myself is the way to have a gauge on this. If I know what it is like to truly be myself, I can judge my art, not from a metric of ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but from identifying whether it is ‘me’ or ‘not me.’ This identification will never come from comparing my work to someone else's. It instead comes from identifying if my work resonates with me. In other words, does what I create feel like some part of the experience of what it feels like to be me?
If the goal of creating and releasing is attention or validation, no amount of that attention or validation will ever be enough. Sure, it is okay to want my music to be heard or the projects I participate in to be seen, but that is only a secondary purpose. It is a great gift if what I make resonates with someone else, but not because it validates me. That validation must come from within. The validation that makes me whole is from knowing that I have been true to myself and the divine image that God created me in.
The process of releasing art may then seem unnecessary...No, no, no. Keeping what I create to myself can be just as dangerous as releasing it merely to be externally validated. Releasing art should be an act of freedom. When something is released, it is no longer mine. There is great freedom in not owning it anymore. This is often why I post on social media; not so that it can be judged, but because it is no longer in my hands. The viewer takes in art through their own unique processes; All informed by their beliefs, experiences, and tastes. To be free from the art I have created is a great gift. It allows new inspiration to flow in, and that which I have created to enter someone else's life.
If we look at the process in the way that I have described above, we can imagine the art cycle much like other life cycles on earth, such as the water cycle.
