Artistic values reflect how you want to run your practice, what is significant to you when you work, and what is non-negotiable for a sustainable art practice in the long run.
When I started my creative journey, I heard a lot about goals, business plans, to-do lists, and productivity. However, I don’t recall anyone mentioning the importance of artistic values and the positive impact they could have on a creative practice or an artist.
In 2004, I established my art practice, focusing solely on doing rather than being present for my projects and allowing creativity to flow naturally. If I had established artistic values to guide me during times when I felt lost, it might have prevented me from getting caught up in toxic productivity, which always caused prolonged periods of burnout for me. After years of intense productivity without breaks or reflection, I finally understood that my approach wouldn’t help me sustain a healthy, long-term art practice.
By allowing myself time to understand my own creative process and how my body and soul engage with creativity, I gained the space to look inward and determine the kind of creative practice I wanted and the feelings I wanted to evoke while creating. From that understanding, I devised a set of artistic values to guide me through projects and help me make decisions I would feel good about.
I believe artistic values are important, as they reflect our beliefs, which helps build long-term, sustainable art practice.
Maintaining a list of artistic values can help you focus on your work and prevent getting pulled in different directions or stressing about showcasing your artwork before it’s ready. Artistic values will give you a framework to bring projects to life.
Many of my artistic values are similar to life or core values.
Here are some of my artistic values:
– Re-use materials and products already in circulation.
– Allow intuition to guide me, even when I feel scared and in doubt.
– Slow productivity takes central stage over toxic productivity.
– Take a minimalistic approach to projects.
– Prioritise quality over quantity.
– Focus on long-term sustainability regarding environmental and financial impact.
– If tired and irritated, walk away and rest.
If you don’t want to go deeper into this prompt right now, at least consider adding it to your creativity toolkit and come back when you feel ready.
PS. I’m #MadeByDyslexia – expect big thinking & small typos.