Being Creative
The best you can do is make art you care about–and lots of it!
You never know when inspiration is going to hit - sometimes my best ideas are after my 2am shift when I probably should head to bed. Or a couple of months before the biggest art fair in the world when you've been preparing all year - so I thought. The work I had in mind to present at this year's Art Gaysel has completely changed - and it happened so quick! Within a weekend, I had made 63 drawings and instantly decided this was my new direction. I mean, the point of no return happened after the second drawing but I couldn't let my previous work know that.
What's moving me and has given me so much momentum is being out of school. Not being jaded by constant criticism and making work instantly from my mind, and my mind alone, has been the most freeing experience as an artist. Even though I graduated almost two years ago, it's often said that most graduates stop making work soon after school – my committee repeatedly warned me of this. For me, however, without fail, I am wholeheartedly rejuvenated with every piece of artwork I create. Every time. Every single time. Going days or weeks without making something or being creative in some way, makes me feel ill; I turn into a vile being whose extremely crude, spiteful and joyless. My thoughts become disastrous. I hate not being like myself because I've spent too much time figuring myself out.
Ironically though, to fill the critic in me, I've been throwing myself into finding all kinds of gay and queer artists on Twitter and Instagram and commenting on their work. Just adding my two cents anywhere I notice something worth pointing out - maybe I like an artist's color palette or their use of linework or composition. I find solace in these moments of stumbling across an artists' work and taking time to comment. But not just filler, which is too common across all social media. I'm trying to engage with these artists and establish some sort of bond - isn't that what social media is about? Being social? Anyways, stay creative, ya’ll.
All my love.
-DePaul
