The Creative Act: A Way of Being

by Rick Rubin

A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. Refining our sensitivity to tune in to the more subtle notes. Looking for what draws us in and what pushes us away. Noticing what feeling tones arise and where they lead.

but because the idea’s time has come.

The best artists tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae to draw in the energy resonating at a particular moment.

How do we pick up on a signal that can neither be heard nor be defined? The answer is not to look for it. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. A space so free of the normal overpacked condition of our minds that it functions as a vacuum. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.

Through detached noticing, awareness allows an observed flower to reveal more of itself without our intervention. This is true of all things.

actively allow to happen.

We can expand our awareness and narrow it, experience it with our eyes open or closed. We can quiet our inside so we can perceive more on the outside, or quiet the outside so we can notice more of what’s happening inside. We can zoom in on something so closely it loses the features that make it what it appears to be, or zoom so far out it seems like something entirely new.

Without the spiritual component, the artist works with a crucial disadvantage. The spiritual world provides a sense of wonder and a degree of open-mindedness not always found within the confines of science.

Faith allows you to trust the direction without needing to understand it.

Material for our work surrounds us at every turn. It’s woven into conversation, nature, chance encounters, and existing works of art.

When something out of the ordinary happens, ask yourself why. What’s the message? What could be the greater meaning?

A practice is the embodiment of an approach to a concept.

The purpose is to evolve the way we see the world when we’re not engaged in these acts.

even the thoughts we reflect on.

The objective is not to learn to mimic greatness, but to calibrate our internal meter for greatness.

Interference may also come from the voices within. The ones in your head that murmur you’re not talented enough, your idea isn’t good enough, art isn’t a worthwhile investment of your time, the result won’t be well-received, you’re a failure if the creation isn’t successful. It’s helpful to turn those voices down so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic clock ring, reminding you it’s time. Your time to participate.

The making of art is not a competitive act. Our work is representative of the self.

If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things.

We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease.