Exploring Art 27: Giving up the anxiety

4 min read

Deviation Actions

JessicaMDouglas's avatar
Published:
695 Views
I'm speaking about creator's anxiety. It's that thing where you make something new... and you start worrying. Does someone else want to steal this? Will they copy my ideas? Oh no, a friend did something similar, will they be mad at me? How many people will say 'this looks like so and so's work'. How many take down notices will I have to file?

Ever since I started working with Sarah, we keep bumping into that creative anxiety moment. The simple fact is, we are so very synergized with one another that our art often overlaps like no tomorrow. Sometimes it's hard to tell who came up with what idea, and who did what first. Sometimes we literally sketch the exact same thing at the exact same time.

I know Sarah has her anxieties over things like that, fear of offending people when she has an idea at the same time and wants to roll with it. It's not the same thing as art theft, these are just... acts of mutual creation? Like the flow when suddenly everyone is drawing lionfish mermaids at the same time. You don't know how or why, but it's out there in the universe and everyone is drawing it.

I watched her trip over herself to try and be as open about her ideas as possible with me, carefully trying to make sure if it was something that she's thought of as well, that I know she thought of it too just so that I wouldn't be offended if she did something similar. I had to have a long, cold, serious heart to heart with myself. The fact is, with how close we are, we will be drawing the same thing. Multiple times in fact. And sculpting similar themes, and sketching and crafting, etc. Am I okay with this? Do I feel nervous with her? Should we be super clear about who's come up with what when half the time we came up with things at the exact same time?

The answer I reached was simple when I thought about who I was talking about. It's Sarah. I don't really care if we draw the exact same image for the rest of our lives. In fact, there's a certain joy in sharing the creative process with each other, and helping one another through the pitfalls. My art is stressing me less and less with each time I sit and talk over it with her, because I know I'm safe with her *even if we draw the exact same thing*. Kind of a weird concept to grasp. 

We know that someone is going to end up doing the same things we do. Making the wigs, sculpting the things we sculpt, painting the things we do, etc. The competition will grow as people work out our techniques. And I'm not going to fret so much about the 'what ifs' of the future. For some reason just knowing that I have a friend who's got my back in thick and thin, makes me feel okay with sharing my art and exploring new things.

I hit a dark point in my life where I would actually go "I'm not sure I want to paint this, because someone WILL steal it and do I want to have to deal with the crap that goes along with getting your art ripped off?" So I stopped drawing half the things I wanted to. I suffered for it, I felt unhappy, unfulfilled and at a loss as to what to do with myself. But when I talk to Sarah, she just... she just wants to create. That's how I feel. I just want to create.

Art theft will come and go, and we'll handle it when it does. But it's no longer worth taking up as much of my life and worries as it has in the past.

It's all about creation now.
© 2013 - 2024 JessicaMDouglas
Comments10
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
MadMother88's avatar
I have this trouble. Every time I show someone some drawings I've done, I'm  hoping they don't compare it to a movie or anything, because I've had the ideas far before you  have even heard of those...