h/t to Anne Smith who posted this video on Linkedin of Ethan Hawke talking about giving yourself permission to be creative.
For me the big impactful statement he makes is that everyone thinks arts and creativity don’t matter until they encounter a moment of great sorrow or joy and need to get their bearings. Suddenly, they wonder if their experience is unique in the world or if others have gone through the same thing.
So you have to ask yourself: Do you think human creativity matters? Well, hmm. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry. Right? They have a life to live, and they’re not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems or anybody’s poems, until their father dies, they go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart, they don’t love you anymore, and all of a sudden, you’re desperate for making sense out of this life, and, “Has anybody ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?”
Or the inverse — something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much, you can’t even see straight. You know, you’re dizzy. “Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me?” And that’s when art’s not a luxury, it’s actually sustenance. We need it.
One of the big challenges for those of us that operate in the artistic and creative space is to convince people that creative experiences aren’t just for those moments of overwhelming joy or sorrow, but can be part of your everyday expressive life. Especially, as Hawke says, if you are willing to appear a little foolish.
