It’s Okay to Be Creative on the Down Low

If you’ve read my last Diary Entry, ‘Not All Art Students Grow Up to Be Artists,’ then you know my stance on the difference between an artist and a creative. If you haven’t read it yet, go read it here and then come back. The act of being creative is very open-ended and still, a lot of folks wouldn’t consider themselves creative at all.

My mom is a traveling minister and has recently become obsessed with collecting seashells wherever she goes. She’s started putting together big ol’ jars of shells and sand to display around her home.

Oversized mason jar filled with sea shells and sand at the bottom. The jar is sitting on a granite countertop in a kitchen.

My big brother is currently a bartender. He’s also been a drummer somethin’ serious our whole lives, truly the one I compare any other percussionist to. And if that isn’t enough talent to brag about he’s also a highly skilled graffiti artist.

Adult Black man sitting and playing a drumset. He has corn rows and is wearing a red baseball cap and red & shirt.

My little sister is starting nursing school in January and also recently spent a week tapping into her interior design bag while single-handedly revamping my niece’s bedroom from scratch.

A childs bedroom with a white loft bed, pink and textured curtains, large pink dollhouse, and numerous rainbow decals stuck to the walls.

My best friend Steven runs a very successful online consignment shop with his husband. He’s also a very dedicated gardener, knowing everything about soil and produce and agricultural what have you. The way he and his husband have hacked their two-bedroom home into a living space, online boutique, and a greenhouse is wild.

Greenery and the beginning of grapes growing.

The leafy green beginning of tomato plants in a greenhouse.

The budding stage of a tomato pant growing and the beginning of the tomatoes showing up.

My best friend Taylor works at a daycare and has dreams of becoming a doctor. She is also the friend who sends me cute baked goods recipes she’s either made or wants to make.

Bread rolls baked to look like swirly bodied bunnies.

Two bakes cakes, each carved into the number 25. White frosting, strawberies, and little red flags that say "Yum" stuck to the cakes.

My best friend Romann’ is an aviation mechanic and loves his job. While I already find THAT creative, he is also a great photographer, does improv on the side, and has spent the past couple of years teaching himself how to draw.

The inner mechanical workings of a commercial plane.

Those are just a few of my favorite people and a few of their creative hobbies. I am intentionally using the word “hobbies” here because almost all of them truly enjoy their current day job or the ones they’re working toward. Their creative hobbies aren’t the dream. They’re the hobby and only the hobby. Creating doesn’t need to be your full-time job or dream full-time job for you to be a creative.

Contrary to what my online presence might imply, I’m not a full-time creative.

A very large clear plastic bin overflowing with medication bottles in various sizes, shapes, and colors.

Being disabled dominates a large majority of my life. Whether that be from remembering to take my unreasonable number of medications; monitoring my blood sugar levels and gritting my teeth to endure my multi-daily insulin shots; managing my chronic fatigue; and being out of commission due to my chronic back pain, arthritis, and daily body aches… My body is always in some state of disarray, leaving me with no choice but to hot glue it all back together.

Managing my disabilities and taking care of my physical and mental health is my full-time job. Living as long as I can, comfortably, is the dream.

Being a creative and making things is FOR SURE a passion that I prioritize between health responsibilities. That’s a must to keep myself going.

Approaching my life and creative journey this way has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders.

When it comes to being an artist there is a lot of pressure to dedicate every waking moment to putting forth this tangible and complete thing that shows off your technical ability. You have to know exactly what you’re doing and what you’re talking about. This can take the fun out of making things because during the process you’re preoccupied with how it will turn out and how folks will perceive it.

Making art can be daunting, but being creative is much more approachable.

Anyone can be creative.

Because to be creative is to make something, which everyone does every day.

I created myself a bowl of cereal today. The way I poured the milk over my honeycombs was ingenious. The ratio of cereal to milk was truly something to marvel at.

Anyone can call themselves a creative if they would like to. And everyone is at least an undercover creative, whether they recognize it or not.

If you want to make being creative a permanent part of your identity, you first gotta realize that it already is.

Think about all the small non-obvious ways you create in your everyday life. Once you recognize those it’ll become easier to take more creative risks.

Go ahead and buy that cheap painting kit and follow that tutorial you saw on TikTok.

Buy those ingredients and make turkey-shaped sugar cookies.

Pull up the notes app on your phone and start typing out your dream from last night, adding extra dialogue here and there.

Most importantly, don’t be over-critical of whatever it is once it’s “done.” It’s not about it being done, it’s about you doing it at all. You’re not making art. You’re simply being creative. And there is no right or wrong way to be creative.

A great man with even greater hair once said, “There are no mistakes…” Then my bald-headed self rudely interrupted and finished, “Only creative experiments!”