I’ve been working on a brand to inspire creativity lately.
It’s interesting that there isn’t really one for artistic endeavors the way there are hundreds for athletic ones like Nike or Adidas, Reebok or Under Armor.
And yet, it wasn’t that long ago when considering yourself an athlete outside of being in the Olympics or getting paid to play was strange.
When people thought you were weird for working out or going on runs (the Taoists even called it “Riding the Wind”).
These days, exercise is an expected part of staying healthy. But unless you’re a paid creative professional, exercising your making muscles is still kind of taboo. There are still places where people look at you funny for spending a weekend just doodling. Or playing an instrument to cheer yourself up. Or just trying to put something out there for the simple fact that this thing doesn’t exist and should.
Today you have brands telling you that “everyone’s an athlete”, but I can feel a cringe coming on just imagining the words “everyone’s an artist” on a billboard.
It’s a shame. People can learn a lot about themselves and their world by thinking through making. Letting their minds wander on paper, or canvas, or in clay.
Anything, if approached with the right mindset can be an outlet for creative expression.
Simply remember why we’re doing it, and intend to make it a practice.
In the interest of getting people to take time and create, I’ll go first. Here are some bad pseudo-haikus on things we do that can be metaphors for life.
Life is Like…
Instagram and Tik Tok
It's a Metaphor
Social Media
You’ll keep getting more of whatever’s happening
If you like and subscribe.
Donuts
Sometimes it's pretty filling
Sometimes totally empty inside.
A gourmet meal
You may not know what you’re eating
but you know people worked really hard to put it in front of you.
A sports match
It’s everything to the fans
Nothing to those who never play.
Advertising
You only have so much time
To make a lasting impression
A theatrical production
Best enjoyed if taken totally seriously while it’s happening
And then not at all seriously once it’s over
A day
If you aren't careful
you could completely waste it
A day II
You only get so many and yet
they're so easy to lose
—
Hope this post isn’t too weird for everyone. Reading Zhuangzi lately, and it’s inspired me to play around with what I’m trying to say.
For those looking to better understand how to apply the concept of Kung Fu to their lives, there’s Deng Ming-Dao’s book, Scholar Warrior, a great primer on the warrior ethos of premodern Asia (China, specifically). We have this idea of what a warrior “should be”, and we often make the distinction between jocks and nerds. The truth is that the ancients didn’t see it that way. They understood that to be a truly useful person, you had to work on perfecting both. Check it out!
Maybe the best way to get people to be creative is to model it as you're doing!
I wonder whether you're not privileging the mainstream. Athletics ads are more prominent in public because sports fans tend to be more active and go outside more (and maybe some subset has above- average disposable income). By contrast artsy things tend to be popular in much more niche circles. I'd be willing to bet that I could still find circles where athletics is looked down on, too.
Though I think anime is a growing example of something that is both artsy and popular. Also, Netflix has a new anime out, Blue Period, which is explicitly about someone suddenly changing their life plans to become an artist on a moment's inspiration.