Creative Evolution

By Kerri Williams

Photo: Pixabay

Creative Evolution

by Kerri Williams

Creatives first grow, then they evolve. But how do you know when growing turns into evolution? Let’s take a look.

You can spend days, months or years growing into your creative self. During that time, you’ll question your creative self confidence and you’ll probably question your worth as a creative. Evolution puts your self confidence in check.

You know you have the ability to create whatever it is you want, and if you don’t quite get it, you find ways. You learn. You’re not afraid to make mistakes, and you’re happy to learn from those mistakes. You’ve reached the point of believing in your art, as well as believing in yourself.

During the growth phase, you might have spent hours, days or months waiting for inspiration. You knew it would come, but instead of going in search of it, you waited for it to come to you. Within the phase of evolution, this procrastination is a thing of the past.

You’ve learned the importance of time and the time needed to feed your creative self. You grab that time, no matter if it lives in seconds, minutes or hours and do whatever you can to move forward with your creative venture. You stop waiting for inspiration because you know it’s fleeting, and you realize the wait is a waste of the journey.

Challenges were frightening and there were times when you ran in the face of them during the growing time. Evolution is the time your creativity challenges you to challenge your creative self. You lose your fear of experimentation.

You finally stop worrying about the rules you learned when you began this venture. You may look for ways to purposely break the rules just to see what happens. You attempt work that you once shied away from. You tempt your creative fate knowing you’ll succeed in what you do. You’re simply no longer afraid to step outside of your comfort zone.

In the beginning, you feared doing it all wrong. You feared people would laugh at you. Once evolved that creative fear disappears. Instead of hiding your work from others, you show it off, not because it’s done, not for some weird sake of vanity, but because you want the feedback.

You want to know what works and what doesn’t. You don’t back away from criticism but accept it as a source of learning. You stop defending your work and curiously listen to the opinions of others. You’ve learned the difference of knowing a technical error and a matter of style. You understand the subjective nature of the creative beast.

Growth has a tendency to make life chaotic. With evolution, life suddenly has balance. It’s not perfect and you still don’t have all the time you want to draw out your creative genius, but at this point, you’ve learned how to nurture your creative child.

Instead of cursing, your inner parent for not allowing this child to play and defending your means of play, you gently remind the child that the time is available, that patience and understanding are the key to creative play.

You’ve learned what’s important in your creative life and what you can live without to pursue that life. You know you have the time to let your creative child travel this journey and while you may have to stop on occasion, you know the journey will continue. You don’t let life get in the way, you work around it for your creative passion.

Both phases, growth and evolution, have meaning. One serves as the building block for your creative life, the other stands as your home. You may redecorate, rearrange the furniture, paint a wall or two, but evolution is the mainstay of your creative homestead.

Welcome home!

Peace on your journey – Kerri

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