creativity

Artistic Integrity Is Expensive

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces artistic integrity, creative professional, creativity, intellectual property, sell out, selling out 8

If you have never been called a “sell-out” then a couple things may have happened 1. people aren’t really being honest to your face or, 2. you aren’t making that much money. There is a rare faction of creatives that manage to drive head first into the world of profitability without having to confirm to the demands of buyers, agents, clients and the like. So many more of us have to make a pivotal decision. Every creative professional must choose between making the work that feeds your soul versus what feeds your belly.

It is a simple thing to decide for many, they have no problem exploiting every opportunity on the way to the top, it may not even occur as a choice but a matter of survival. Capturing big clients or doing work that is more commercially accessible can lead to quick and early gains that define a type of success that many artists aspire to have. When you grow up in an environment where there are little resources creativity may be your saving grace. Be it the street artist that gets spotted by a gallery owner or someone who stumbles upon grandma’s secret recipe book, we all have a skill, product, or method that makes us valuable on the market.

Transitioning from a place devoid of resource to being thrust in to a place with an abundance of them can be a wild ride many will not refuse. But nothing is free and these large financial gains come with prices of their own. Maybe it is the chef that is made in to a celebrity, going from spending time cooking their favorite foods to book signings and TV appearances all because a need to sell more and more product, no longer a chef but instead becoming a “personality”. Our inspiration to create may not end with us creating to make our livelihood, the more people we bring on to help us along the way, the more conditions are placed on our time and work. Especially if there is momentum, the bandwagon can grow quickly and for the individual it becomes harder and harder to steer the ship.

Another breed of artist though is the one that declines the fame and fortune to pursuit a creative life on their own terms. This individual is idealist, steadfast in their resolve to make the work they want to make even if it means they have to struggle along the way. What can seem noble and driven by principle can also be a product of the ego. Our ideals are and extension of ourselves and if we are unwilling to compromise them it may mean we will have a lot of difficulty. Integrity and stubbornness go hand in hand. This artist takes pride in the struggle.

Let it not be viewed as all struggle though, there is a privilege that goes along with the life of the artist with integrity. It is someone that can stand to endure the pain of hard times that come with unchanging views about their work or it is someone who already has enough financial backing to sustain themselves until things take off. This path comes with freedom to create when and where a person wants. Resources, albeit limited, are used wholly at the discretion of the artist. The only person whose opinion matters is the person that has created the work. Not a gallerist, or a distributor, or executive, just the creator themselves.

We have to ask ourselves what we are creating for at the end of the day. If our work is simply a means to an end, a job, then to pursuit more and higher paying work is a great goal. If however the goal is to express freely, then all obstacles to free expression should be removed.

Our recipe, product, skill, or method is ours to use in which ever way we choose but each path, comes with its own benefits and sacrifices. Would you prefer to give up some control to see your efforts carried further? Or would you rather not compromise your vision to create what realizes your vision? Of course neither direction is concrete, and you can choose to follow whichever your desire at any moment in time. But it is necessary to observe that there is no easy answer.

While sticking to your guns can cost you money it may pay you back invaluably in the long run with your reputation. They say money can’t buy everything, but you can’t artistic integrity doesn’t always pay the bills.

Equal Access To Creativity?

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces albert einstein, creativity, equal access to creativity, kevin doe, macgyver 1

Do you remember MacGyver? It was a TV show in the late 80’s with a secret agent who basically could build just about anything with duct tape, a swiss army knife and a few random objects that might be lying around. Watching an old re-run of this show will easily get you thinking about how you can put the miscellaneous items in your house to better use. But MacGyver’s creativity seems to occur in response to not having the specific tool to do what was needed, forcing him to craft something on the spot. It begs the question of whether necessity is the only mother of innovation. And if so, at what point does immediate access to resources begin to dampen creativity?

This doesn’t end with Macgyver. We see it all over the world with innovations happening in Sierra Leone with Kevin Doe’s radio, and in the Iraq war with improvised exploding devices, and perhaps even in your back yard with some kids building a fort or a tree house out of scraps of materials. One constant in each case is that all of these people are building something that, they could have gone out and purchased if they had the money to do so. The marvel of their creativity isn’t as much the final product that they created, but how non-apparent the solution they came up with was. In some cases it implies a profound sense of technical ability, and in others it make be a high level of resourcefulness, but the definition of creativity is to be able to make something out of nothing. We prize creativity because its ability to allow us to overcome the voids in our resource pool and make things in spite of this lacking.

Does this mean that those with great resource are not creative? Absolutely not, innovation comes in all forms throughout human history and persist today all over the world. At core, the spark of the innovations is no different but with great resource often comes the ability to scale or tackle much larger problems. Kevin Doe built a radio from scrap parts with very little formal training in the middle of Africa. The question that has been asked is What could that same mind accomplish with a higher quality education, and material resources? MacGyver is a resourceful guy in the television show but his character is a formally educated scientist and trained bomb technician so the fact that he is able to make incredible things out of common objects could be as a much a contribution of his education as it is creativity. Kevin Doe had little resource, MacGyver had plenty but both were incredibly creative.

Einstein is famously quoted as having said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” but Einstein also struggled with school early on and found alternative ways of educating himself outside of the traditional school system. His innovations were a product of his imagination, and that led his experiments, but experimentation is an educational method as well. Albert Einstein was very well educated, but in a non institutional way, and seemingly because there were little limitations on his learning environment, there very little boundaries on his creative capacity.

If we see examples of creativity in both places, where people have a lot to work with, and also very little then it seems that the primary conditions for creativity to thrive are and abundance of time, and a particular need. The time is needed for education, or cultivation of some kind either formal, explorative, or experimental. The need is just a motivator and as scientists might call it, a stimuli. Motivation is key, because it propels your will to persevere and be patient. This motivation exists in all of us as a part of our natural desire to maintain homeostasis and fulfill our basic human needs. Time however is not something that everyone has equal access to.

There are those of us that have the leisure time to pursue education in several fields because out food and shelter needs are being met, but there are many of us that do not. As a result, is it possible that creativity itself is stifled when we do not have adequate time to cultivate our imaginations. If we follow Eintstein’s logic then we should be providing ample time to imagine and develop these questions, because they will be mature into needs that should have to be filled.

Assuming that creativity is the driving force behind most of our human functions both economically, and culturally we should seek to avail proper conditions for creativity to thrive for as many of us as we can support. If not, we are limit our overall ability to grow as a result of shared innovations, and perspectives. The best thing about creativity as a resource is that it is 100% green and totally renewable.

Creativity for all.

american-map-bookshelf-united-states-of-books-1-thumb-660x680-1976

Is America The Most Creative Country?

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces art, creativity, film industry, gdp, hope, optimism 0

As we come off the heels of 4th of July we are deluged by celebratory images of revolutionary soldiers, star-spangled banners, and 18th century quotes. Beneath all of this jargon and propaganda is the belief that The United States Of American is the best nation on earth. With our GDP in declined, poor education ranking, drastic disparity in wealth equality, and sluggish social innovations we have to ask if the USA isn’t resting on its laurels.

Though the Unites States isn’t atop of all the positive statistical rankings we once were, it is not to say that we don’t have a few things going for us. The world’s largest and most profitable companies are still American, (though what it means to be an ‘American’ country is quesitonable). Our university system is still top ranked, (albeit exclusive and increasingly more populated with international students). We also have a booming entrepreneurial sector at the moment.

But we aren’t the MOST entrepreneurial nation, the Atlantic reports, that both Israel, and, Sweden, and Brazil rank higher than us in number of new starts ups be recent index. We certainly don’t produce the most art, and are not the manufacturing center of the world any longer either, nor are we producer of the most feature films (Second behind India). Where we win is that we are the most boastful about our successes. America is great at creating positive images of itself and projecting them into the world.

In some strange way we have built the most successful propaganda engine in the world. We market and uplift the ideals of liberty and freedom whether or not we are the most devoted to their practice. Even with our economy in decline and jobs in short supply we are still seen as the promised land by many immigrants. In so far as the American brand, we are brilliant purveyors of our lifestyle and concepts and culture.

In so many instances we have proven expert at appropriating the best of which ever culture we allow within our borders and turning a profit from it. We are not the best at soccer but our David Beckham , became the highest paid soccer player in the world when he moved to the US. What we are best at is creating fanfare. America knows how to throw a great party. Even if the party is not the best party by comparative measure. We will have generated such a narrative about what happened that everyone will wish they are there.

The challenge that America has faced and will continue to face is living up to its own hype. That hype being includes the Constitution, and Declaration Of Independence. These documents signify America’s promise to be the type of innovative nation that makes such bold statements that we put down in our founding documents. The task will always be to realize those statements in a way that we can all stand behind.

The United States may not be definitively be the most creative nation in the world, but it not without hope to be so. Deep within the propaganda and bravado is not only a promise but a dream. Our flags, and quotes, and imagery speaks not only to the identity we wish to convince the outside world we embody but it is one we must constantly convince ourselves we are capable of becoming. If nothing else, the US has set an ambitious benchmark in front of itself; to be the Best Damn Nation on earth, and though it may not be true, the United States is one nation just hopefully, optimistic, and even foolish enough to believe it, and it is that believe that may be the redeeming quality that one day allows it to be so.

Intent: Art, Design, Creativity, and Motive

C2O Editor Publisher's Note art, creativity, design, inspiration 0

Many have pondered the eternal question, What is art? There have been some definitive answers but still, there is not a widely accepted definition. So much of what is created is made with so different medium that it becomes much more than paint or music. So too, have things been reflected, copied, collected, curated, and remixed to the point that it is nearly impossible to tell what is truly art.

I am more interested in the question of Why is art? What is it in us that guides our creativity, where do the inclinations originate? It might seem that we are guided by a divine navigation that tells us which way to go. Yet and still, it could be argued that we are reacting to deep emotional and psychological movements that arise in our work. Even further, we have those that have take creativity to the professional level and must conjure up things on a client demand basis.

The question begs of course, Is this art?, but also we ask how is it conceived when is not of our own inspiration. In the world of commerce that we live in it has become common place for artists not only to sell their literal productions but also their concepts and abilities as well. When paired with consumer products this art is known to us as advertisements, but is it not also art?

There is then the perspective of craft against art, and furthermore, design. To me, the separating factory happens to be intent, but I am not sure. So this month we will investigate this through discussion with artists, curators, art dealers, designers, agents, and craftspeople. We will discover these answers collectively and begin to clarify these notions and where they are held in our community.

Prepare for inspiration citizens,

-Maceo Paisley-

Jet, a short Film by Jordan Chesney

C2O Editor Citizens, Featured, Film creativity, independent film, jet, jordan chesney, kickstarter, los angeles, script, they roared, they roared films, tori chesney 0

As an independent artist it is rare that you will have everything you need to complete your project. You have to make things happen with all the resources at your disposal, help from friends, and loads of creativity. Jordan Chesney, is film maker that has a full understanding of this and has recently re-release a body of work that he was fortune enough to reshoot with a bit more of those resources. Citizens Of Culture sits down with Jordan and his wife, Tori, to discuss the film, the future, and how important it is to have a strong community of artists helping each other

The film is about a fellow named Jet, he’s got a problem. We don’t know what the problem is but he believes the solution is in the barrel of his revolver. Jet point the revolver to his head, and just before he pulls the trigger he sees a little girl. That’s where things get interesting. Enjoi….

It’s apparent that the guy has issues, but I wonder exactly why he is going to try and kill himself in the first place. I asked Jordan about the problem Jet has and why he would want to commit suicide, he let’s me know, ” I needed away to equip him. The film is about deception.” You must ask yourself, “Was this a guy who had a sudden moment of courage to do the right thing?” or ” Or is he just meddling in the affairs of a family and kills two innocent men?” The answer never presents itself which leaves the suspense created in the film lingering in your mind after.

It poses questions about nature as well, knowing that he has nothing to live for, it might seem that his attempt to save the girl is partly fueled by a desired to turn things around for himself as well. The feeling that someone needs you to save them can be incredibly validating but it is unclear if the girl is even in danger. Jordan is clever that way. He, along with Tori run They Roared Films their independent production company. Tori is a screenwriter and fell for Jordan’s drive and passion just after high school, they have been together ever since. The two are looking to fund and film more short films and eventually a feature. In order to do this they need support, but they aren’t afraid to give it also.

Jordan is a regular Kickstarter contributor and the Chesney’s have a revolving door when it comes to guests as Tori describes,”We were one of the firsts to move to L.A. from our area so we are always letting people stay with us while they get settled in LA.” Jordan knows what it means to have to scrape up resources to get a project completed. This is the second version of Jet. The first version was shot un scripted and with no budget, as time passed Jordan was able to gather some funds to reshoot. The Jet: Screenplay is the result, but if you would like to check out the first version here it is below. The difference in the films are about the nuances.

“Help people who need help instead of trying to get in with people who have money,” is Jordan’s advise for getting of on the right foot in LA. Tori explains how the city might have a bad reputation, ” We’ve been in LA for 5 years, and people have the wrong idea. People are more friendly in LA than we’ve experienced in Charlotte, we trade work and share resources. This is exactly what we wanted, to be a part of a community that was creative and cared about us.” It seems they were able to find that here and increasingly we hear this about Los Angeles. Perhaps a city is just what you make it, the energy you feel in a town can have a lot to do with the energy that you bring to it. Jordan and Tori Chesney have brought a great energy and are keeping us fulfilled with great work. They roar indeed.

TheyRoardedFilms.com

jordan@theyroared.com
tori@theyroared.com