I have danced around this topic for a long time. I am of the firm belief that art changes the world and creative business owners are the stewards of that change. Whether someone’s home, a wedding, a visual design, fashion, food, the work of creative business owners is transformative and influences how we all think and act in the world. As artists, your principal role is to create something that does not yet exist and, by extension, teach your client (the world?) to see with fresh eyes.
So then what is your responsibility as an artist? Last week’s post was on diversity and talking only to the right client. And, sure, that is part of the conversation. However, this week I want to go further and say what is your responsibility to move into an ever purer version of your creativity? To own the evolution and presence of your projects as equally temporal? In short, how do you get your clients to think while at the same time serve their fantasies for what the project will bring them?
I am perpetually fascinated by the mind of an artist and how they become compelled to create as they do. I also enjoy those that envision their work as having a larger meaning in a micro context. Check out David Chang’s Netflix Series, Ugly Delicious,as an example of what I am talking about. Of course, there is a window into what drives David to invent the food he does and why, but equally important is the cultural underpinnings he is poking holes into. In the Fried Rice episode, the discussion of Chinese food as dirty, unrefined and substandard relative to other ethnic cuisine is awesome. Just the scene talking about MSG as the group eats chips and snack foods loaded with MSG is worth the time to watch.
Of course, David Chang is, well, David Chang. He has earned permission to make cultural statements with his food after years of doing the unexpected starting with his very first Momofuku in 2004. What about the local florist? The newly minted interior designer out on her own just last year? The lifelong design employee? The old guard architect? The very artists next door who know how we (whoever wemay be) live and, perhaps, ought to live. What about them? And if you are this creative business, what about you?
I can be hyperbolic and say that if you are not willing to make a statement with your work, you will not be relevant for much longer. I can also say that I believe this to be fully true. It does not matter. What matters is if you, the creative business owner, sees the value of being iconic, willing to act with purpose and intention without specific regard to consequence. The essence of art is it might not work and also that you may not (probably will not) be able to figure out whether it will work or not BEFORE you create it. Once you create it, we can all be confident in its manifestation; that is called being a professional. However, the edge of creation is always fraught with risk and is what you truly get paid for. This edge of uncertainty, the risk of failure, or, worse, sameness should be what drives you as an artist AND as a businessperson.
So my position is this: you as an artist and creative business professional are responsible for the moment, whatever that might be for you. This moment lives in the context of your client’s desires, your vision of the world, your culture and the perspective you bring, and most of all, the transformative element. Your responsibility is to make us think, to challenge notions of what is as ever being real beyond perception. Your responsibility is also to do it every day with the singular purpose that your voice as an artist matters like ripples in a pond. Some ripples are bigger than others and that is ok, collectively though they become the waves that shape us.
Doing great work is not enough then. You must do great work with intention for those that care. The intention is ephemeral and is also sacrosanct. To find your intention, ask yourself, “To what end? Why does your work matter to YOU?” If you, your art and your creative business both embody and are responsible for your intention, the work will move us. Where it will move us is uncertain and mostly irrelevant, simply moving is enough. I remain hopeful that when we can dwell more in art’s uncertainty we will live more comfortably in a brighter possibility. Let this be your responsibility and embrace just how much the effort is the reward.
