One9Design

Okay. So I just finished watching Chase Jarvis at the Art Director’s Club of Denver. The talk was titled Consequences of Creativity. It’s a decent talk. Some folks are raving about it but I am not. And yes I will tell you why. First off I am a big fan of Chase Jarvis. He is one of the most talented photographers on the web. I really enjoy his work and he proves every day that it’s about the vision of the photographer and not about the gear (see his gallery of iphone photos). In fact this blog would not exist if I hadn’t read his great post on Shaking the Tree.

To sum up what Chase said:
1 – Anyone can publish now that the internet is in more and more places
2 – If you are at all creative do the stuff that brings you life and cool things will happen. You will gain and audience.
3 – You need to find a way to sustain yourself (make a living) while you create the cool stuff.

Chase sums this up with the mantra “create-share-sustain.”

With that said here’s my issues with Chase’s talk.

The first point is not news. Blogs and self publishing have been around for a while. The advent of tools like GarageBand and iTunes means you can cut an album in your basement and sell it all over the world without meeting a single record executive. Similarly you can write and produce your own short film and distribute it online. iMovie and a Podcast. It has been called the democratization of film. This was all the rage a few years ago when I was in grad school. The challenge (as I have found here) is maintaining the discipline to keep publishing and keep working. Arguably if it truly is your passion you should be able to keep publishing fairly easily. (And yes I am checking my passion.) Admittedly the democratization of publishing may have just reached a tipping point because of twitter. I will give Chase that much on this one.

The second point is one that many people instinctively know but have not really internalized. It’s one of those things you always hope is true but rarely see it come to fruition. “If you do what you love, good things will happen.” People believe that we are supposed to suffer through our “9 to 5” jobs and do what we love on the side.

(On the third point) It seems as if we are supposed to somehow feel guilty when our passions line up with our working lives. I disagree. I have spent far too long making good money doing things I cannot stand in environments that drain my spirit. Life is too short to live like this. Granted, I lived in LA and ran into tons of servers with headshots and I wish them the best of luck, but George Clooney and Glenn Close don’t wait tables (at least not anymore). My point is that what Chase refers to as “sustain” should really be a temporary state, until you have enough momentum. You should be able to survive through simply creating and sharing.

A great friend of ours did just this (create-share-sustain) until she had enough momentum to quit her day job and do wedding photography full time (create-share). My wife does what she loves almost every day and is the most fulfilled I have ever seen her. AND it helps pay the bills. Just because somebody will pay good money for something does not make it any less creative, artsy, or cool. It just makes it an occupation instead of a hobby. Being a starving artist is not a function of being an artist.

If people are loving the things that give you life and fuel your spirit, why not monetize it and make a living at it? Why do I have to do other things that subtract from my soul, if the core of my being is being fed and people will compensate me for it? What this says is that society does not value my best contributions. The person I am destined to become is not valued or appreciated. Admittedly it will take time to build that momentum and develop an audience but it’s worth it.

If you need more motivation check out this piece from Doug Menuez about how to have longevity as a pro photography. I think this applies to any creative vocation.