I wrote some time ago about what I thought about living a creative life. I concluded that living creatively didn’t mean selling your art or passions to others but just having a crack at different things and trying new things. There were times in my life where I felt like I couldn’t start something new because it would take years to get better at those things. I could only dream of starting but never actually get around to doing it. I never figured it out that if I just started and had a go it would put me on the trajectory of getting better. I don’t know why, but I always feared being bad. I think from a young age I always hated standing out for doing something badly, maybe my schooling was to be blame for that in some way or another.
I always preferred to not be doing what I was meant to do and find some way of doing my own thing. I hated tests and I hated things that exposed my utter dislike of a subject. I always liked flexible things that could be debated and that had fluidity. I never knew at that young age, and how could I?, that I should stop worrying about all of those rigid guidelines and just focus on myself.
For those of you who are new subscribers, and there have been a few recently which I am grateful to, here is the piece that I wrote a while back on what it meant to me to live creatively.
☼ A Creative Life ☼
Quite often when I think about creative living, I think about the people I know in my life that make a living off of being creatives. You know, photographers, artists, writers etc. and how they pay their way in life by creating. In some way I guess I am dreaming of the same outcome for my life. To make money from the stuff I do in my spare time. I have …
Make stuff
The proof is in the pudding. I think a lot of people right now are feeling like they put their art out there but it doesn’t really make them an artist. A lot of photographers for instance posting on Instagram must feel dejected, as do I, when they think they made a cool image and it gets four or five likes. This happens to me consistently and I’ve given up on Instagram and how it makes me feel. Why are we measuring ourselves off of the online world? I’m not exactly sure myself but there is little to no point for me to post there regularly. All of my previous paid photographic work has come from me going out there and selling myself, not from Instagram.
My advice is to just make stuff. No matter what it is that you like making. Go out there and make it. There’s a Jack Johnson quote out there, something about creating more than you consume and that should be a mantra to live by. Even if your art is bad, which mine is at times too, put it out there.
I have been making a bunch of zines lately that combine my love for photography with the design process. I am lucky to travel frequently and so have lots of pictures from places that I like and think are cool. This has brought me to designing a bunch of zines. There are already two zines out in the world and I am currently working on issue 2.5.
Making art is incredibly liberating , especially when you realise that you are making it because you love it, rather than for an algorithm. My weird and wacky style really came out in my first zine where I combined some half arsed poetry alongside wonky drawings and illustrations. To be honest, I was proud to put that zine out into the world. It was the first thing I had ever produced off my own bat and self funded. I sold a few copies of this zine and was amazed at first how mind blowing it was to think that others wanted to see my angle on the world.
Both of these zines were made in places where I spent a fair amount of time. I think that making things in places where you might be visiting temporarily is a great way to invest and learn in that places. The first zines I made was from my time in Peniche, Portugal and the second on the east coast of Canada in Nova Scotia. The third edition or 2.5 as i’ll call it, bridges the gap between east and west coast. It’ll feature analogue only shots from my journey across to California.
A sneak peak at my next upcoming zine, Sojourn.
This video is from last year when my partner and I converted a van. I wrote about it in my first living creatively post. My advice is to just make more stuff and eventually you’ll get better at it and it won’t feel so hard. We built a vn conversion in the depth of winter which brought ostensible challenges but somehow miraculously it worked out.
Take care and thanks for being here
Go create
Steve.
So cool. Love the way you worded the idea of creativity. Where could I get your first zine?
This really resonated with me, Steve! I can relate to everything you shared—thank you for putting it out there. I’d love to get my hands on your zines if you have any extras of the earlier issues, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Sojourn.
Also, I’d love to chat with you about the process of creating a zine. Publishing one has been a big goal of mine, but I’m not sure where to start in a way that’s affordable. Let’s connect when you have some time!