The rhythm of art
A theme that’s been coming up a lot in conversations I’m listening to and in my own thoughts, is how to be ever-present on social media as an artist in business - doing and sharing all the things - when it doesn’t always honour my own ways of being and working.
Social media demands that you’re always on, always taking action and always externalising. However, when I looked into my own creative cycle I found there are definitely times when what I naturally need in order to do my best work, is at odds with that. I broke down my creative cycle into 4 key phases:
Inspiration phase - High energy, high productivity, high confidence
Commitment phase - Overcoming doubt and resistance, building and refining, energy and output inconsistent
Celebration phase - Pride, happiness and joy, high energy
Letting go phase - Releasing attachment to how it was received, moving on, resting
And when I looked deeper into these phases, I felt that some phases are naturally either more ‘external’ or ‘internal’. And this is perhaps where I feel the disconnect with social media the most.
Inspiration phase
During the inspiration phase, with confidence, energy and productivity at an all time high, you’ve got a lot to share and a lot to say. It’s a boom time and you’re on cloud nine. You could probably find 20 things to post about on social media every minute! And because confidence is high (sometimes in retrospect undeservedly so 🤪) you’re happy to share what you’re working on. After all you’re pretty sure people will love it! So this phase and social media are a match made in heaven.
Commitment phase
Over to the commitment phase. Time to dig deep. Perhaps some doubts have crept in. Maybe the 3rd of 4th painting isn’t going as smoothly as the first few. It could be you got nothing back from your fervent posting in the inspiration phase but crickets. At this stage you’re critiquing paintings and making decisions on what to take forward and what to leave behind. And really the only person whose opinion matters here and the only voice you should listen to - is yours. Too many cooks spoil the broth and all that jazz. And so it makes sense that to some degree, this should be more of an internal conversation. But noooo - we can’t shut ourselves away for 3 months and still expect our social media audience (whatever size it may be) to still be kicking around when we’re ready. And so this phase is a little at odds with social media. Don’t get me wrong, those days the inner critic voice looms large, a confidence boosting supportive comment can be just what you need. But sometimes the feedback is really just noise and could potentially derail you from a creative breakthrough, keep you playing small and safe and and mean you miss out on the joy of creating what you want.
Celebration phase
Assuming you’re still on track, now you get to celebrate your work. You’ve overcome any resistance along the way and have proudly produced a piece or body of work. You’re shining and you want to spread the word and share the love with everyone. Another naturally external phase. You love social media again and everything is right with the world (until the algorithm buries your launch posts for reasons not known to man - grrr).
Letting go phase
Whatever! Now’s the time to let go. There’s nothing more you can do. Your work is done - people will love it or hate it (and either are waaay better than indifference!) It’s time to rest. Oh wait, what in hell do you post about while you’re resting? Rest phases are so important. They are when you’re most open to whispers of fresh ideas - and good ones! When I was a young I smoked like a train (such an odd thing to do looking back!). But whenever I got stuck on a problem at work, the boss and I would pop out for a smoke. Of course we’d have a brilliant idea in our down time, and go back and triumphantly share it with the team. Who didn’t smoke, didn’t get an extra break and now also don’t get to bask in the glory of solving the problem. Anyway, I digress - resting is good and smoking is bad. But again, to me this period of rest and reflection is at odds with social media and is more of an ‘internal phase’. I mean who wants to see me deep in reflective thought, in my robe and slippers, sipping chai tea? Stop it.
In nature, things have a rhythm. They wax and wane, ebb and flow. But social media is always on. 100 miles an hour. All day, every day. It’s video, reels, posts, comments, likes, shares - action, action, action. And inaction is punished swiftly and punitively.
So what can do you do about it. Sweet FA. And isn’t that lovely. There’s zero action you need to take to resolve this. But I guess the purpose in writing this, for me, was to recognise it, understand it and then act consciously rather than unconsciously moving forward - letting my own natural rhythm define when and how I post instead of a platform. Maybe….(see they are effing clever these platforms).