The Unveiling: Change As The Creator's Constant

Hello,

Awake and creative.

Look around you for a moment.

What do you see?

This space,

Tables,

Chairs,

Pouches,

Carpet.

The very air you're breathing.

Everything is in a constant state of flux.

Nowhere is this more profoundly felt than in the life of an artist,

A creator,

A maker of new worlds.

I'm here today to talk about something inherently uncomfortable.

Something that often makes us want to dig in our heels,

To resist it with every fiber of our being,

Change.

Yet change is also the very wellspring of our work.

The invisible hand that guides our brushstrokes,

Sculpts our forms,

And inspires our narrative.

I want to begin with a powerful image,

A profound truth from the writer Bruce Covill.

He wrote,

Change will come,

Whether we wish it to or not.

To fight it is like fighting the sunrise.

Better to say,

Ah,

Welcome old friend,

Here you are again.

Fighting the sunrise,

What a brilliant,

Futile image.

And as creators,

We often find ourselves doing just that.

We can cling to what is known,

What is comfortable,

What has worked before.

But today we're going to explore how we can shift our perspective,

How we can move from fighting the sunrise to a greeting of welcome old friend,

Embracing change as an essential invigorating partner in our creative journey.

Let's unpack Covill's quote.

Change will come whether we wish it to or not.

This isn't a threat,

It's a truth,

Undeniably.

Think about the very nature of creation itself.

The very blank canvas is an invitation to change.

Every time we begin a new piece,

We are initiating change.

We are transforming nothing into something.

If we resist that initial change,

It would never create.

It's the evolution of skill,

Our own skill,

Our understanding of our craft.

These are constantly changing.

We learn,

We grow,

We experiment.

To resist this personal evolution is to stunt our artistic development.

And the shifting landscape of art.

Styles evolve.

Mediums emerge.

Audiences change.

The art world itself is a dynamic,

Ever-morphing entity.

Trying to create in a vacuum,

Ignoring these shifts,

Is to become irrelevant.

Covill's fighting the sunrise metaphor is so poignant.

Can you imagine standing on the horizon,

Fists clenched,

Demanding the sun to not rise?

It's absurd.

Yet how often do we as artists find ourselves doing something similar?

Cling to a signature style as if people expect it of you?

We fear new technology because we're comfortable with traditional tools.

We can be resistant to feedback because they just don't understand my vision.

Or get trapped in the good old days.

Things were so much better when.

.

.

These are all forms of fighting the sunrise.

Their attempts to halt the inevitable.

To maintain a static comfort zone in a universe built on constant motion.

And what happens when we fight it?

We exhaust ourselves.

We become rigid.

We stifle the very flow that creativity demands.

Which suggests a creator's paradox.

We must find growth in discomfort.

The discomfort of change is often the fertile ground of our greatest breakthroughs.

Think about it.

When we're forced out of our routine.

When our assumptions are challenged.

That's when new neural pathways fire.

That's when innovation sparks.

This suggests the necessity of creative destruction.

It's a constant edit,

Revise,

Rewrite.

No artist gets it right on the first try.

The process of editing,

Revising,

And often completely discarding,

Is a beautiful act of creative destruction.

We dismantle what is to build something stronger,

More refined.

This is change.

And failure.

Even every failed experiment.

Those pieces that just didn't quite work.

Are invaluable lessons.

These failures tell us what doesn't work.

Which guides us towards what does.

Failure isn't the opposite of success.

Failure is a stepping stone on the path to it.

Can you remember the first time you tried a new technique?

The initial awkwardness?

The frustration?

And then the thrill when something clicked.

When a new possibility opened up.

That is growth through discomfort.

This is where the welcome old friend comes in.

Instead of seeing this change as an enemy,

We begin to recognize its familiar face.

Its role in pushing us forward.

It's the uncomfortable nudge that says,

There's more to learn.

More to explore.

We all know Picasso's blue period in cubism.

Now it seems a dynamic example of beauty.

Of revolution in art.

It was then a radical shift.

Met with intense resistance.

But ultimately,

This change revolutionized art.

In music,

Bob Dylan turning to the electric.

Or even more current,

Taylor Swift.

From country to pop.

A great resistance is put up.

But in the end,

An embrace of this beautiful revolutionary change.

So how do we shift from fighting to welcoming?

It can happen on grand scales.

Or it can happen in the moment.

How do we cultivate this growth minded approach to change in our everyday creative lives?

It's not about suddenly loving every disruption.

But about developing practices that make us more resilient and open.

This means curiosity.

And play.

Try something new each week.

Dedicate a time that you'll grab something different.

Use a non-dominant hand.

Try a different genre.

And ask what if?

This is a creator's superpower.

What if I change the color palette?

What if this character makes a different choice?

What if I collaborate with someone outside of my field?

But alongside that experimentation,

Equally impactful can be embracing constraints.

Perhaps accept that commission with parameters.

Or deadline.

These can be powerful catalysts.

Constraints force us to be inventive.

To find new solutions.

To not see them as hindrances,

But creative challenges.

And oh my goodness above all,

Practice self-compassion.

Remember,

This is a gift to push yourself to limits.

To work outside of comfort zones.

Be forgiving as the frustration and overwhelm enters.

Know that they're not there to paralyze you.

But to empower you.

We stand at a unique juncture in human history.

Where the pace of change feels faster than ever before.

Change,

In this respect,

May mean going back to a core of basics.

Yet using them in an entirely new way.

For artists and creators,

This fast-paced change isn't just an external reality.

It's an intrinsic part of our very purpose.

The journey of creation is not a linear path to a fixed destination.

It's a spiral.

A dance of unfolding and becoming.

Punctuated by moments of revelation and disruption.

Remember Bruce Colville's wisdom.

Change will come,

Whether we wish it to or not.

To fight it is like fighting the sunrise.

It's better to say,

Ah,

Welcome old friend.

Here you are again.

So today I ask you to join me in committing to that welcoming old friend.

Let's invite change into our studios.

Into our minds.

Into our very creative souls.

Let's see it not as an obstacle,

But as the very engine of our evolution.

Because when we embrace change,

We don't just survive,

We thrive.

We don't just create,

We innovate.

We don't just make art,

We become art itself.

A living,

Breathing testament to the power of transformation.

Awake and creative.

Go create something new today.

Thank you.