An Email from July 2023: Creative Loneliness

In the spirit of deepening knowledge through the ​process of review​, I want to re-share an essay from this newsletter last summer, on July 10, 2023. At the time, I was deep into an exploration of the creative act through reading Rick Rubin's book.

There are moments in life where you can step out of time and touch awareness. This essay was the product of one of those moments for me. I hope it encourages you today. To collaborate. To relate. To seek out creative partners in unexpected places.

***

So many artists are lonely. It’s a self-inflicted exile.

Composers struggle alone. Painters grapple at the canvas but end up grappling themselves. We feel like we have seized control, but control has seized us.

The story we make up about creative life is that it is cheapened when we have help. The critics will say that you’re not good enough to do it on your own.

But critics don’t know anything. Critics see only a fairy tale.

Martha Graham, Twila Tharp, Ernest Hemingway, Claude Monet, Da Vinci–even the idols of genius had regular collaborators, carousers, dinner guests, and walking parters.

“I felt that I was an extension of Martha and that she was an extension of me,” sculptor Isamu Noguchi said of his creative partnership with choreographer Martha Graham, which lasted through over twenty works.

Are there some who go it alone and succeed? Sure. But why would we make that our rule? Our only validated route to creative production?

Creativity does not thrive in isolation. Creativity thrives from connection. Creativity is connection.

“The more we pay attention,” music producer Rick Rubin wrote in ​The Creative Act​, “the more we begin to realize that all the work we ever do is a collaboration.”

When we start looking, we see patterns of collaboration woven throughout the creative world. It’s waiting for you to join the fun.

***

Make the first move. Ask to jam. Introduce yourself. Everyone else is as lonely as you.

Fight that loneliness with creative collaboration.

This essay was originally sent to my newsletter, The Creative Process. Every week, I send out an email with one example or timeless piece of advice to help creators make their best work and thrive. Sign up here, and get access to my full Creator Toolbox, with 20+ tools that I use to run my creative business.