You should always bring out the creative impulses inside you. Now, these creative impulses can be of two types. One, you want to throw out all the garbage that you have accumulated over the years and two, you want to express something into this world that wants to be expressed through you. And doing both the things is important. No matter what kind of creative urge you have you must express both of them. If you don’t express the first kind it will make you and keep you psychologically sick. And if you don’t express the second kind then it will destroy your soul, your very identity. It becomes easy to imagine the regrets that you will have when you imagine yourself lying on your deathbed. If you are not totally unfortunate, you will know which bed is your deathbed.
So, imagine you are lying on your deathbed and now you feel the urge to create something (a piece of art). But now, your hands don’t move. Your legs don’t move and neither does your mouth. You know, it’s because you are dying. Now, you are going to feel great regret on your deathbed. And that is not a good place to be. I feel the heavy remorse just by imagining this situation. And, the worst thing is that you gave up on your own soul because of some Italian asshole who made a few albums a thousand years ago which are still selling and because of them your creative works are not able to sell even a single piece. Its harsh and its stupid but that’s the reality we live in.
But then, will it be any good to not give up on your soul? Like, does your creative work even has any significance at all? Now if you are making creative products because you are driven by the market and because you have heard that Picasso made millions just by painting and you want to do the same then get the fuck out of here. This is not the article you should be reading. I am not saying that markets are bad. I am just saying that’s not what we are discussing here. Markets run on the concept of supply and demand and also on the concept of limitation of resources and it has nothing to do with the inner depths of your soul and the relation of that soul with your creative urges. Markets are good. We need to generate money but creative products are a really bad way to go about it. Better make raw materials for railway lines and generate that sweet money, or just grow some food and sell it. It’s hard to sell Shakespeare to a starving population.
Now, you may ask, if I am starving but I still have the urge to create…should I create? Yes. Absolutely. But feed yourself first, of course, get that energy and then grab the canvas (or instrument) and create. It may be that none of your creations sell in the market. It may be that nobody gives a shit about your creations and maybe you create garbage. But, if the urge to create comes from deep inside you (if it is not associated with any other goal and you want to create just for the sake of creating and you don’t give a shit what happens after you have created) then go ahead and create. That is going to be absolutely significant.
I have a little thought experiment here. Maybe its not really an experiment, it can also be a way of life for some people and it can reveal the significance that each and every creative piece of work has (if it has come from the bottom of your being). Here it is: Consider that your sudden creative urges to be sentient objects that want to get a permission to exist on this planet. And only you can give them that permission because they exist inside you. They are yours but if they are urging you to create them, then they are telling you that they want to come out and exist. And…and this is the important part. They want to exist only as long as you do. After your death, they will perish too because they will lose the permission to exist on the planet because the soul which they belong to is no longer there. And they will happily stop existing in this world because they always want to be with the soul to which they belong. They got not business being in a world which no longer harbors their mother soul. You can call yourself a mother soul if you have really got those strong creative urges.
So, practically you can create, let’s say, pieces of art and you can hang them around your room/your corner of the room/your laptop/your phone anywhere. Just make them exist in this world. And after you die someone else will take your room/laptop/phone whatever and they will take all your creative work down and throw it in the trash, burn it, sell it yada yada. It does not matter. Those works of art have already departed with you. They are thankful that you made them exist in this world and now they have gone with you to your next journey and they will nag you to exist again in another realm.
So, does that not make you feel a deep significance for your own creative works? I maybe a moron and I got no business talking about philosophy but many thinkers in the past have compared the urge to create with pregnancy. Like, I don’t remember names but I will let you know when I do remember them. So, if those great thinkers have compared it to pregnancy, then I believe that my ‘thought experiment’ might be damn close to reality. And even if it is not, can we not just consider this to be true because it radically increases the significance of our creative works to ourselves?
So, my brothers and sisters, don’t look at the market, don’t look at the revenue. Make your creative works exist because they love you and want to be here with you as long as you exist.
Ciao!
Ayush Raj 