Creatives live in two worlds
However, striking a balance between the two is the challenge
As creatives, we navigate two realms — one enveloped in our craft and visionary realms, the other, grounded in the tangible realities of everyday life.
In order to maintain sanity, these two worlds must coexist with each other. Totally different, yet connected — creatives have a very conflicted relationship with themselves and the world around them.
Striking a balance is never easy because you must switch between two personas. If you would like to study good examples of this phenomenon, look at the history of these artistes and creatives.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Madonna.
Maya Angelou.
Joni Mitchell.
Michael Jackson.
Vincent van Gogh.
Steve Jobs.
Robert Schumann.
They all share two things in common, highly creative (genius) but also led a mad, tortured or bizarre life. Think of it as a creative being (hypothetically) bipolar. In fact, some experts including a leading business media brand, FastCompany, have put forth a compelling argument associating creativity with madness.
We live in our heads, and catch-up with the mundane
Let me explain. The imaginative world is where your talents, skills manifest and where you can exercise your creative power and potential. Here, you use your imagination to create beautiful and compelling creations. You tend to conjure up new ways of crafting, communicating or designing, and in a sense, it’s truly remarkable, because it’s like ‘playing God’ for a few hours as you work on your creations.
On the other hand, you have the real world which too exists. For example, you must go to school, work, or the visit a hospital if something happens, you must eat, and you must perform the daily chores and tasks that all humans must perform.
This world is completely different, yet realistic and true to who you are and what you do on a daily basis as a human. So, when a creative is working, they switch to their creative self and then back to who they are — to their human self — to face the real world.
Wild right?
To comprehend this, one must appreciate the dual role a creator plays in life. Because creativity needs some sort of imagination, right? And to imagine you must transport (mentally teleport) yourself to another world. A world that is different. It could manifest in ‘designerly thinking (Figure 1)’ (Johansson-Sköldberg et al. 2013) which is, ‘that which entails theoretical reflection and interpretation of practical design work’. Or could be Design Thinking (Figure 2) — According to Brown (2008, p.86), ‘Design Thinking “in title case” is a system that utilizes the designer’s sensibility and methods to align people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and can be converted into consumer value and market opportunity’. It’s is a creative using their intuitive lens to problem solve through empathy.
Other times, creativity can be analytical. Playful. Or strategic and lead to the creation of an innovation. Sometimes it’s subjective. Sometimes reflective. Sometimes it’s about crafting something aesthetically pleasing devoid of function (art). Sometimes it could be crafting something deeply emotional (a play/piece of music). Or a combination of any of these. But the point is, that in the ‘crafting’ it is part of your soul and it is coming from a very deep deep place.
Switching on to the other world, this is the mundane world to a creative. This is things that must be done because the world says so or it is just the necessary inconveniences that happen in life and must be attended to. Now, creatives who strike a good balance between the imagine and real world are emotionally intelligent. Because it is really difficult for one to switch (and maintain) on to either realm without losing your sanity — for lack of a better word.
And I think there is an opportunity to investigate this paradox — that creatives have the power to switch their mind to inform on their craft which in turn feeds off their creative spirit, their curiosity about life and imagination, but also the need to switch back to a ‘human being’ who has various needs which also need to be attended to.
Now, striking that balance for most creatives is what is difficult because you must have the strength and foresight to see that the two personas that you are ought to coexist in harmony.
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Although I wrote this article on September 14, 2023, I hadn’t published it. Uncertain whether I was expressing personal thoughts or a collective perspective, @inspiredtowrite Instagram post inspired me (both theoretically and figuratively) to publish. This short article affirms McNee’s narrative that indeed, there is a conflicted duality amongst most creatives & artists at large.
References
McNee, A. [@inspiredtowrite]. (2023, October 29). “The magic, impossible, duality of artistry”. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy_qR05LpRj/?img_index=1
Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86, 84–92. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5248069_Design_Thinking
Johansson‐Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., Çetinkaya, M. (2013, June). Design Thinking: Past, Present and Possible Future. Creativity and Innovation Management 22(2). DOI:10.1111/caim.12023
