Artists and Creatives

I was recently interviewed on a business podcast. The first question the co-hosts asked me (and I'm paraphrasing because I haven't heard the recording yet) was “Your clients are all creatives. What does the business world need to learn about creativity? Is everyone creative?” 

I felt the need to quickly correct them. “My clients are all artists. Only someof them identify as creatives.”

You see, being a creative and being an artist, are not the same thing. They often go hand in hand. But not always. 

Think about it for a moment. How do you define “a creative”? How do you define “an artist”? 

Ever since this interview. I've been seeking to put my own clear definitions in place, so I could speak about this with more specificity. These are working drafts, but here's what I've landed on so far.

A creative is someone who brings things into existence.

An artist is someone who renders the human experience.

Perhaps this is why in the world of business, we sometimes see unbelievably creative solutions that completely miss the mark when speaking to our humanity. Perhaps this is why so many theatre artists find it excruciating when they are told “Create your own work.” 

Creativity and artistry are not the same thing. 

Why does this matter right now? Well, in a world besieged by a slew of new problems that are crying out for innovative and humane solutions, we need both. We need people who are able to innovate and make something that didn't exist before. The creatives. And we need people to help us understand how the human experience is reflected through these innovations. The artists. 

For the last 12 months or so. I've been toying with a mantra: “Bring art into artless spaces.” In other words, bring humanity into spaces that are inhumane. Bring empathy into spaces that are apathetic. Bring the fullness of the human experience into spaces that would prefer that people check their lives at the door.

Artists, let us infiltrate the world with our art. It might take forms we could never have predicted. It might look like an entirely different kind of art than what we expected. Render the human experience. We need it. In the immortal words of the year 2020. “We need it now, more than ever.”