Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

The Creative Slog

The Creative Slog

Come on down with me into this creative slog.

This demoralizing and routine place.

This place where nothing much changes.

Where there is never an end to the movie Groundhog Day.

Boy, it would sure be nice to have some company down here.

Please?

Creative output is a slog that is often slower and more grueling than we would like and at times can feel discouraging. The best artists, or the smart ones at least, tend to involve other people “because,” as Diana Glyer told me, “the life of an artist, any kind of creator, is fraught with discouragement. You need people to correct your path.”

This Is The Best Creative Patron

This Is The Best Creative Patron

What is the best creative patron out there for an artist or writer?

A full-time job.

No joke.

If you can get over the nagging desire that you must work on your craft full-time, the best support you can give yourself is a second career.

  • Go to work.
  • Be creative with your art in your spare time.
  • Build up your side project.
  • When your art is making what your full-time job is – then jump.

Some may even enjoy the comfort of always doing both.

In fact, if you don’t hate your day job, why can’t you simply be happy being both an artist and a business analyst – or whatever it is you do?

If you work at it, you might end up being good at more than one thing.

What do you do when you find yourself in a position that is less than ideal? Do you quit your job and try to strike out on your own? Not at all. You look around for the closest patron, even if that means your day job. “Follow your curiosities and get a paycheck,” Kabir told me. “Don’t focus so much on the job, but on the ideals and the goals.” Any job can be a means to making your art, if you have the right perspective. Employers become patrons when we begin to see them not as obstacles to the work we want to do but as a way of funding it.
Sterling Terrell