hustler for 50 cents you could
Commission a fully rendered pencil
drawing of your name in block letters
for 50 cents more you could have in
color for three dollars you could have
your own drawing of a custom lowrider
with a bikini clad woman on it it was a
racket
I was stocked in candy every week I was
never without a cavity at my dental
appointments even at ten years old I had
a knack for making images but I also
felt creatively stifled with my newfound
role doling out made-to-order artworks
what I really wanted to do was a full
layout with my own comics and my own
design I wanted to find my creative
voice my name is Musa Wilkinson and I’m
not a designer I’m not a social
scientist and I’m not in corporate
training I’m a professor of art and I’m
a working professional artist now my job
here today is to share with you about
what I know about creativity from my own
career as a working artist for 15 years
throughout my own life
my own experience in countless hours
spent in the studio
I’d like to convince you to build a
richer more stimulating existence by
nourishing your own creative impulse I
don’t actually consider myself a fairly
creative person it’s taken work and
strategy but whatever your hobby your
interests beer-brewing
wood craft – knitting it’s through the
act and perspective of a maker that I’m
going to share nine clear steps with you
in building and sustaining a more
creative life devour everything
broaden your interest space immerse
yourself in them being passionate about
something usually starts as an idle
interest hone in then invest in your
curiosities Amy Silman a living
contemporary painter she says that art
schools are some of the only places you
can encourage students to indulge in
their idiosyncratic Chrissa teas we’re
taught that we must master singular
interests we even singular eyes it when
we always said young people what is your
passion some of the most consistently
creative people I know or Dilek
and not masters there polymaths sewing
crafting their own furniture making
their own jewelry cutting their own hair
getting to a variety of raging ranging
interests find out everything that you
can and humble yourself by asking every
question that you can everyone in life
you encounter has something valuable to
teach you and if given the opportunity
they will talk your ear off about their
own interests all we have to do is
listen I think that a lot of folks
oftentimes believe that the only way to
produce is through a rigorous craft I
don’t think that this is true yes being
a creator implies that there will be
copious amounts of time creating however
the artisan designers had evolved they
step out of their Studios they step out
of their workspaces they seek out
intellectual spiritual and inspirational
encounters they search and are curious
about all the things that life has to
offer they surround themselves with
other creative people they take classes
in Japanese and in pickling stop
avoiding failure originality to me
doesn’t actually exist the divine theory
of genius is a myth talent is simply
reinforced and cultivated giving the
appearance of the effortless virtuosity
is the product of practice the story I
tell often is a Frank Lloyd Wright
designing his masterpiece Fallingwater
the house straddles a waterfall in
southwest Pennsylvania it was designed
for a guy named Edgar Kaufmann and his
family as reported by Wright’s
apprentices Kaufmann senior was in
Milwaukee about nine months after their
initial meeting he called right up early
one Sunday morning and said I’m gonna
visit you before lunch I’m really
excited to see what you’ve got
planned out for me Wright had told
Kaufmann in an earlier communication
that he’d been working on plants but he
actually hadn’t drawn anything at all
after breakfast that morning amid very
nervous apprentices Wright calmly drew
the plans in the two hours that it took
Kaufman had drive to his office now I
tell this story because it illustrates
something that we hold ourselves up to a
standard is virtually unattainable
genius we expect that we should be great
masterful at our projects without rigor
the story doesn’t reveal the 67 years of
preparation that he did before that 2
hours every morning conversation every
book every experience and every drawing
that he tossed aside if we let go of
certainty an expression and growth stems
from that unfamiliarity unfamiliarity
make time in space in the 15 years I’ve
been a working artist I’ve made my
studio out of a garage a bedroom a
kitchen table an old car factory a 5,000
square foot storefront I’ve worked over
a manhole cover in a basement to my
current work working space an old
Catholic orphanage set up a defined
space for your practice and carve out
and marry a determined timeslot stick to
it think of this space as holy not a
room to store games and collect mail
simplify this place and make it serve
one function think about the kinds of
spaces you’ve been most productive and
in the past and try to reflect that keep
negative influences out think of it as a
laboratory a place for inquiry a place
for experimentation consider tending to
the needs of a space in order to scout
your day many artists I know clean and
organized allow for boredom during this
time and unplug from technology there’s
even an app that allows users to ignore
every technological invent every
technological distraction there’s an
exercise that I’ve started to implement
my classes where I ask students to draw
a contour of a shoe without ever looking
at their drawing and at a snail’s pace
you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is
for them they always cheat they always
look so I asked him to roam the halls
for about 10 minutes paying close
attention only the sound that their feet
make after their return they focus much
more on the process than the product
rituals and creative spaces allow for an
in-depth investigation of how the work
came to be and toss us any conceptions
that it came easily out the window
designated spaces will allow you to fix
a working process another way of looking
at a process is simply as a ritual
when you become our mindful of the
rituals in your life making coffee
waiting your garden typing an email
you’ll fall in love with the creative
ritual and work these rituals and work
then become habit be vulnerable divorce
yourself from ego and allow yourself
uncomfortable conversations critique is
simply a negotiation of possibilities
Renea Brown says that being vulnerable
is an act of courage often the real meat
of a conversation happens when you
aren’t tied up at being cool if you
allow for a malleable and flexible
interpretation of yourself you can only
grow listening is key creating something
is intrinsically uncomfortable it
exposes your deepest insecurities and
that what you do will oftentimes never
live up to your ideal standards Ira
Glass makes a great point in saying that
most young artists stop making work
because their skill sets don’t catch up
to their tastes until much later
vulnerability is also tied neatly into
the act of experimentation another
exercise I often have my students use
when they’re stuck I ask that they come
up with a hundred solutions to one
problem the first ten are always very
conventional the last ninety always
pushed their boundaries this exhaustive
process although very difficult yields
results whenever a new opportunity
arises in my own career it might help me
realize my own work in a brand new way I
try to take it I haven’t regretted it
since each time however I have doubts
and I’m petrified just like anybody else
see Community Art is intrinsically
social it is based wholly on connection
any artists will tell you that
creativity does not exist in a vacuum
in fact psychologists widely agree that
in isolation we wither on the vine I
think of the act of making as twofold
intrinsically political and existing as
a conversation without an audience
art does not exist there’s a saying in
the art world that something is only
worth what someone is willing to pay for
it
I feel that art can only be worth the
distance traveled to each person it
travels so it’s important to cast a
broad net for me every community is
valuable when I felt isolated I’ve
started websites to promote the work of
other artists when I felt creatively
blocked I’ve started collaborative
drawing exchanges when I felt like no
one cared about my work I opened up my
studio and had a party when I feel the
need to support the arts I go to a
concert a poetry reading a play no
community is too small and I think a
book club can change your life throw a
wrench in it even in the visual arts we
call what we do research we find a
problem to be solved we investigate it
through visual means and then we share
those findings with the public however
every creative process no matter how
facile it becomes can grow stale we all
know these as blocks some artists seek
to push past these stale phases with
just labor but the problem there is that
the work never really evolves or changes
when life throws you a curveball or the
work just gets boring it’s up to you to
add dimension by corrupting your process
in my career I try to do three things
with each new body of work I try to make
each piece better than the last I try to
synthesize my interest to keep it
interesting and I corrupt my process
ever so slightly from the body of work
that I did prior this renews interests
for me and provides me a new limitation
to confront after climbing to great
heights in the art world with his photo
realist airbrush portraits Chuck Close
was struck down with a spinal occlusion
catastrophic Lee he found himself a
quadriplegic and unable to hold a
paintbrush
after years of intense rehabilitation
outfitting his house in life to
accommodate a wheelchair redesigning a
hydraulic system move his paintings up
down and all the way around on his
studio wall he began his painting
process again with occupational therapy
he devised a way to strap a paint
to his arm and using limited circular
movements he could put pain to canvas
again he no longer had the dexterity to
airbrush and so he refashioned his tight
photorealist style into a blocky square
by square approach creating paintings
the toy with abstraction color theory
other than being a story about one
artist resiliency and perseverance
it’s also a story about life creating a
roadblock
although afflicted with new challenges
his limitation forced him to renegotiate
the rules that he set up for himself
he’s still a committed painter widely
collected and respected to this day burl
one of my mentors drilled into me the
importance of the pursuit of honesty it
took me a long time to trust that my
version of honesty would be informed by
everything that I engaged with that my
authenticity would be unique but also an
amalgamation I realized that artists act
as filters distilling richness from
their own experiences I feel most
creative when I’m saturated with the
images of other artists I ask that my
students create image banks full of
their influences in and outside of art
from filmmaking to Hair Braiding
favorite media outlets to pets
I asked what they surround themselves
with in their homes I asked them to
critically analyze what type of music
they listen to this exercise forces them
to condense their voice from their
simple pleasures we talked a lot about
voice in my field this can be anything
from a unique aesthetic to a technique
or a conceptual concentration but people
fail to realize is that it generally
comes from stealing more often than not
the joke about Picasso was as if you
were doing anything interesting in the
studio don’t invite him over because
it’s going to take it and make it even
better Georges Braque figured that out
the hard way when Picasso started using
his color palette and created fractured
compositions of still lifes in collage I
find that my young artists find an
authentic voice when they adopt the
voices of another
taking on a style or working process
Stephen Colbert when interviewed about
his character role on the Colbert show
said that he felt much more truthful
speaking as a satirical character than
in his own voice ideation is everything
try to tackle problems with no solutions
like can I design a correct contraption
to let my dog fly creativity and
innovation are not the same things
innovation involves surprise and a need
from your audience and creativity is
oftentimes centered around novelty in
psychology there’s a practice that
involves framing then reframing if we
look at problems through one perspective
nothing will evolve if you change the
question to become much more open you’ll
refresh your perspective what to colors
make green well blue and yellow but
reframing the question to have an
infinite number of possibilities will
allow for a less rigid investigation of
the problem for example how many
different ways can I make a color appear
green well a painter will tell you if
you if you use Mars black and lemon
yellow you can make a beautiful green or
you can place a colorless a chromatic
gray against a green you’ll perceive
that gray as green ideation is just a
fancy term for brainstorming most
artists carry sketchbooks
but we don’t always draw on them they
can serve as idea collections for
everything from names of artists poems
inspirational quotes great podcasts to
your grocery lists I often don’t draw in
when I brainstorm but instead I create
an idea tree that branches out to my
influences art history and all of the
associated implications I make a link to
all the things that I find relevant in
my life from passing interests to lists
of subjects I write artist statements
about what do I want to accomplish in my
work personally I delight my indulgences
and I don’t really believe in guilty
pleasures but I do analyze everything
even the terrible films that I watch
there’s a phrase commonly used today
called overthinking I am mistrustful of
this word it implies that strong
consideration is somehow
harmful I find that in my studio there
needs to be a balance between allowing
oneself to search deeply but retaining
the flexibility to call Rome a road
block serendipitous making is about
pleasure it can seem decadent but it’s
also about work in closing I encourage
you to share my fourth-grade self can
tell you that the Hustle is real and
oftentimes it Sun fulfilling but I think
that is a maker there’s a responsibility
to put it out there I think that it’s
sinful to take creative actions and not
allow others insight into our shared
experiences I wouldn’t have a career if
I didn’t have deadlines for me
accountability is a strong motivation
when you’ll have to confront the
embarrassment of not fulfilling an
obligation the end game and becoming
more creative is twofold
creating connective experiences and
leading you to a purpose that is beyond
the banality of the everyday a creative
practice rinses away the monotony the
monotony of boredom and adds richness to
everything that you do when people make
disparaging remarks about the purpose of
the arts I like to remind them the art
doesn’t save lives it simply teaches us how to live it thank you