What does it mean to Create?

A slightly different post but I wanted to talk about a recent reflection.

Back in May I was the speaker at the monthly CreativeMornings event for the Las Palmas chapter. The theme for the month was 'create' so I had to put together a presentation around that theme. I went through some interesting thought processes as I put it together.

In the talk I gave a potted history of my creative journey, from doing my degree in Textile Design, followed by the creative wilderness years of working in corporate sales roles to then creating my own creative opportunities - twice, first in photography and then (more successfully) as a live illustrator and visual storyteller.

I contrasted my experience with how many content creators are creating these days.

These days there is so much emphasis on the end goal - more followers, monetization, more views etc. and not necessarily on the process itself. And that worries me.

When I took a sabbatical in 2009 I decided to try writing a blog whilst I travelled around Argentina. I just figured people might like to keep track of me as I got lost in the wilds of Patagonia. I didn't have a goal, I just started writing... on a little iPod touch - uploading posts whenever I got a wifi connection. Two months and 43 posts later I realised that I'd opened Pandora's box and that doing creative stuff was going to be fundamental to my wellbeing going forward.

I learned similar lessons when I set out my stall to do event and sport photography. Creating things makes me happy. It didn't work out in the end but lessons learned then served me well when I made my first steps in the world of graphic recording.

And that came about almost accidentally... an illustration I'd done while experimenting on a drawing app picked up traction on social media and led me to a whole sketchnoting community on Twitter (when it was friendly) and ultimately got me started as a graphic recorder. I didn't wake up one day saying 'this is what I'm going to do'... just a few creative steps showed me the way almost unconsciously.

For me the word 'create' means to be present in the process. Whatever the end result is, it is a by-product of that process... and it usually turns out much better if we trust the process rather than fixate on the end result. I think many of us have forgotten that as social media has turned us into content factories shouting louder and louder into the void!!


📸 Photo credit: Victor Santana at Canary Islanders Shots