I write from my typewriter every Friday on Substack, sharing 3 recommendations of art that you should be paying attention to
Newsletter Editor for IMI
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Creativity is a luxury.
Tuesday 4th February 2025
I never lack for creative ideas.
My commonplace book is full of them. Video ideas, art I would like to make, blog posts/essays to write.
The problem is, in our work-centric society, creativity is a luxury.
It’s sad to say that. But it is true.
I remember reflecting on this with the owner of a coffee shop a couple of years ago.
We were talking about Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and her practice of the morning pages.
The lady said to me, that she felt it was a shame that creativity, for her, is indeed a luxury. Something she’s only able to do if she still has the energy after a long day of working in a bustling coffee shop serving up flat whites and pastries.
I find myself at a similar crossroads-like moment now. I’m staring down the barrell of re-entering the world of coffee-shop-based employment as a means to, well, exist. To live. To pay the bills.
I can longer wrestle against the tides of the ultimate creative struggle—and have to give in, and accept that I must spend my days working for someone else so that I can afford a place to live and to be able to feed and clothe my family.
It’s a bleak realisation, but not an uncommon one. And perhaps not even a bleak one, afterall. It’s about your outlook.
Austin Kleon had some nice words to say about just this in Steal Like an Artist;
I really resonate with those words. And as much as I wish I could just flitter away my days creating, painting, writing, filming—I just cannot seem to balance the scales and weigh that dream alongside paying the bills and doing a Tesco shop every week.
Amie Mcnee wrote this great piece on Substack about not wanting to work.
I, too, do not want to work.
But I also see the benefits it can have on your life and even on your art.
Afterall, everyone must find their own way. And that will look differently for each of us, particularly based on where we live in the world.
There are seasons for next-to-no-money, and there are season for work in abundance.
My current season? Contemplating re-entering the slighlty daunting world of employment for the benefits of financial security, at the potential sake of my complete happiness, and time committed to art.
But, thankfully, more time doesn’t neccessarily = better art.
Yesterday took just minutes for Paul McCartney to write apparently, and that was a pretty good song.
“According to NME, the melody for the 1965 song came to Paul McCartney in a dream and took less than a minute to write. “I have no idea how I wrote that. I just woke up one morning, and it was in my head. I didn’t believe it for about two weeks,” explained McCartney.” (listverse)
It’s funny, I was about to finish this and hit post, when the following video appeared on my YouTube homepage:
I love the honesty behind that video, and the simplicity of working a ‘regular’ job.
And the way it serves as an act of rebellion against the Instagram-filtered ‘reality’ that we’re currently oversatured by--constant comparison and an unrealistic, unattainable lifestyle of glorified self-employment.
Artists especially like to aspire to a life of exploration and play. But the reality of 95% of the population (I entirely guessed at those numbers) is to work in a job that we sometimes hate and wrestle with finding contentment in that.
Or dare I suggest we aim to find contentment or fulfillment in something else entirely...? And just get on with it?
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What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.