CREATE MORE THAN YOU CONSUME

"CREATE MORE THAN YOU CONSUME"

This sentence has become a bit of a mantra for myself over the last year or so.

It has helped me beyond measure to stay focused on one of the things thats most important to me: Living a creative life pursuing art and design. I wanted to write a bit about it in the hopes that it helps a few of you too.

It feels like our lives are becoming increasingly busier and faster year on year and if you lose sight of that, it's easy to be swept along in the rush. It can feel like you’re constantly moving from one month to the next without creating any new work or developing yourself as an artist.

Art and Design isn’t fast. Rushed work is rarely good work and I’ve written before about the importance of making lots of work to truly understand how long it takes to make great art. You need to dedicate the necessary time and the best artists often spend as much time as they can on honing their craft.

“That’s easier said than done though!” and ”Where do you find the time?!” - are often what I hear when chatting to artists in the gallery, and I completely understand, especially if making art isn’t yet a full-time career.

We all have work, families and daily chores that need our time and energy and creativity isn’t just a tap that can be turned on at a moment's notice whenever we discover a free hour or two we can dedicate to being creative. Furthermore, what little time we do have outside of life’s usual responsibilities is easily eaten up by a modern world absolutely chock full of distracting media, advertisers and addictive technology vying for our attention 24/7.

But the harsh truth is that it needs to be a tap we turn on when we can. If you want to make more artwork and develop as an artist you need to find the time and energy whenever those rare moments of free time arise. It’s at these moments the “Create more than you Consume” mantra has helped me. It promotes action.

In the past, I’ve frequently found myself using those moments to hunt for some creative spark, looking to other artists and designers, in books and online, hoping inspiration will strike from the blue. But time quickly flies and I’ve done little more than scroll the internet and jot down a few ideas.

I call it “procrasti-working”. I’ve told myself I’m working on being creative but really I’ve done little more than consume others art. This isn’t work. It’s just passive and doesn’t result in anything new at the end of it.

I decided a long while back, I didn’t want to drift through life just consuming anything and everything around me. I wanted to create and contribute my own work and surround myself with a life I have created myself.

Lying on a beach and letting the water wash over you isn’t swimming, eventually, you have to dive in and actually get in the water.

“Create more than you Consume” gets me out of this passive loop quickly. I can hunt for inspiration, visit a new gallery, or research a new technique but I must spend more than half the time I have available on actually making something. And the more time the better. It doesn’t remove the action of consuming media and art completely just puts it back in its place, second to creating your own.

It doesn’t always have to be the greatest work I’ve ever made, but it has to come from my own hand. Pencil on paper, paint on canvas, words on the page or work on an existing art piece. Just something.

And the real joy is that inspiration for something new or some other happy accident usually follows that first step. You need to get over the initial inertia using the momentum of just starting. Before you know it, you’re in the creative flow and exciting work soon follows.

But even if it doesn’t, you’ve made something new! You get to pat yourself on the back for adding to the world rather than just taking from it. Do this often and before long you will see the progress. A week or month of making art here and there can lead to the foundation of a whole new body of work or a fully completed piece. It all adds up and the compounding effect of just making more artwork daily or weekly quickly leads to you becoming a more skilled artist.

The hardest part is starting.

Giving myself a mental nudge now and again when I repeat, “Create more than you Consume” gives me the small push to start whenever I need it.

The time will pass anyway. You might as well spend it creating something new if you have the opportunity to do so.

Arthur

If you found this helpful here are some questions for you to ask yourself and think about. Feel free to drop some answers in the comments, we love to share ideas with our community!

Questions

Would you find this idea useful in your own work?

What’s most important when finding the time to create artwork?

Do you have a mantra of your own that has helped you in your creative career?