Did you ever wonder why you do what you do? You work and work and work and when you are finished your creation gets very little response. You pour your heart and soul into something and people barely seem to notice? It can be aggravating or even discouraging. You might even consider giving up… Don’t do it!
I’ve been in that place, but consider what is happening when we create. With every creation our skills sharpen. Every piece we do makes us a little more polished and brings us a little more growth. Aside from that every piece might be the one that connects with one heart or one mind. As a result every creation has the potential to do some real good in the world. Also every piece allows you to get something that’s inside you out to the world. There is tremendous potential in everything we create, so keep creating and keep putting your work out there. There’s a lot more to this life of creating than we can sometimes see. So keep at it, especially those pieces that you feel are inspired by the Spirit. You simply never know what good will come of anything you create. There’s a verse in the Bible that says “We walk by faith and not by sight.” I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say we also need to create by faith.
While it probably should not be our primary consideration in creation, odds are there will be a pice of work that will be the tipping point of your career. The piece that gets you noticed by people, the piece that connects and draws your audience. First off, if you don’t keep creating, you may not find it, but secondly, when it does happen, that audience will probably wonder what else have you done. All of the sudden, these people will become aware of a vast body of work you created. This may happen, or it may not, but it won’t happen if you don’t keep creating and putting it out there.
Please remember, we creatives have a gift that is meant to be given away. Oh we may sell the original, and hopefully a million copies, but everything we create that goes on display is a blessing to everyone who gets to see it. To all those people, it’s a gift, a free blessing. Art that is withheld never accomplishes that. It may still be of benefit to ourselves, and there are tremendous blessings in self-expression, but the really gift happens when we put our work out for the world to see. So keep creating and putting yourself out there. You never know what good your work will do.
AMOKArts 