The Art of Creativity

"Conceptualizing your creativity with high levels of transparency is one of the most challenging obstacles as an artist."

- Jalen Tarvin

If I were to say the word 'artist', you would probably think I am referring to a musician, or a painter. What if I told you that you are an artist in every day of your life? God is an artist, hence why some people refer to God as "Our Creator". God crafted the world using a craft that we still are unable to understand which is why we prescribe to different religions and such. As products of God, we are also artist and creators. 

Every day, we possess the ability to create and craft our lives however we want. The same way Kanye West crafted the sonic masterpiece known as "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". The same way Jean Michel-Basquiat crafted the illustrious masterpiece "Irony of Negro Policemen". We too, can create masterpieces.

The most powerful tool we possess is our brain, it controls everything we do. The brain is our pen, our tool of creation. It allows us to dictate our creations in totality. Whatever we think is what will happen. Similarly to the typical artist, we suffer from outside inhibitors marginalizing and deconstructing our means of creation. These inhibitors come in many different forms, such as family, friends, and co-workers. How many times in your life have you been told you cannot do something? 

This is where the marginalizing occurs. External questioning of your creativity often results in internal questioning where you begin to question yourself as a creative. Creative restriction occurs and you reach a slump that can be hard to get out of. Over time, we gather so much information from past experiences that we struggle to decipher what is useful for creation and what must be thrown out and put into the spam folder. This causes an issue of transparency, which becomes one of the biggest obstacles we face as artist and creators.

Knowing when and where to be transparent becomes the focal point of our creations, usually hindering us through the fear of being judged or undervalued. One example of this is being an African American in Corporate America. As a Black person in Corporate America, it is very common to run into the brick wall of fitting in and not acting too Black. This is challenging due to the fact that you sprouted as a creator in an environment that cherished your creativity rooted in Black Culture. 

At this point, the job becomes a power struggle, and your creativity suffers accordingly. This is why many people become unhappy at their jobs, because as born creators we often end up in positions that do not cater to our creative mindset resulting in the stagnation of our creative process and restricting creative transparency.

Finding a solution to this can be quite tough because you have to decide whether to assimilate or leave the situation altogether. The best solution will be what you believe will transcend you as a creator. A technique that I often find useful in my creative process is using those uncomfortable and unhappy situations as platforms for new creations. For example, sitting at a desk for 8 hours might not be ideal for your creative process. A short term solution would be to create small challenges and goals throughout the day to continue feeding your willpower during those 8 hours. 

The long term solution would be to invest in the job you really want by investing in your own business or gaining the necessary experience at your current job to transition to a position that caters more to your creative process. An important concept during this time period is to always conceal your creative intentions to mitigate external inhibitors that will distract you from reaching true self-satisfaction.

Another example where transparency is relevant to creativity is in relationships. The idea of two completely different artist working together to hone a compatible craft becomes a terror for most because it forces the idea of creative compromise and selfless actions for the sake of progression. Other times, the two artist are just incompatible despite being attracted to each other's art. How many times have you been on a date and knew within the first five minutes that the person was not for you? 

It happens more than we want, and as artist we must be accepting of the incompatibility with other artist. We often restrict our transparency as creatives to convince ourselves that we can create the compatibility we want with other artist. However, the result is often unwarranted and leaves us with baggage which we never learn to eliminate from our creative process.

In forming new relationships with other artist, we must take the time to learn their creative process before we impose our own. Learning to compromise your needs will be necessary because every artist is selfish. As creators, we produce a vision before we seek to create it and this translates into our relationships. 

Along with that, we should learn to accept the incompatibility with other artist and find anew. Prior to this, we must be comfortable in our own creative process before we begin to intertwine it with other artist, a timely process but a necessary process to create and develop those artistic relationships.

Managing transparency in regards to your creative process becomes one of the biggest challenges in your life. Over time, you will develop a natural ability to know when to conceal and unleash your creativity. The best way to do this is by examining past relationships with other artist and reflecting on the past creations that succeeded and the creations that failed. At my current job which is in Corporate America, I had to learn (and I am still learning) how to master and match my creative process with those around me. 

This also involves unlearning techniques that were once successful in past creative processes. Similar to technology, we must take old creations and ascend them through innovation. Every day you are given the opportunity to transcend your craft and create new masterpieces. When it is all said and done, what will you create that will be remembered when you are dead and gone from this beautiful canvas called Earth?

Bless up,

- young king

be sure to leave a comment. I would love to hear your perspective.