A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest on the quite new video podcast of a dear friend (because how else am I ever going to get on a podcast?)

It is out now on YouTube and other podcast platforms- To watch/listen- link below!

The trouble with being a guest on a podcast is that you can’t really go back and edit what you said, for clarity or to elaborate.   I admit I probably gave Rod my host quite a task in cutting down my ramblings into a reasonably coherent shape.    But it was a well-appreciated opportunity for a guy like me who works so often alone to share thoughts about what I do with someone else (because I should probably be writing more frequent blog posts, probably).  We all need a chance to voice what’s on our minds and to be heard.  I think everyone should be on a podcast once.  Logistically, this is currently impractical-  some of y’all may need to start your own first.   But I highly recommend it.

I wanted to follow-up this podcast appearance with a blog post to elaborate and better explain some of the things I was talking about.  Now that I’ve just watched it again, I see, with Rod’s great editing work, it pretty much all stands on its own.  One thing I could explain further is the struggle I and other artists can have with our relationship to overly inflated self-importance.  I touched on this in the interview in talking about having not wanted to admit that I am an artist, finally feeling compelled to do so by my innate inability to stop thinking creatively/expressively, and then also not wanting to give too much credit to the creative process and its offerings either (“I’m not saying they’re all good ideas!”).  I see the landscape of ego here having two peaks- One is where the person sees the greatest prospects in simply their identity as a potential creator- this peak is just a monument to themselves.  “I want to be seen and appreciated as an artist, and I will have a role in being revered by my society.”  The other peak is a false humility- where only the work matters.  “I am nothing but a slave to muse. Nothing is more important than the work, this great prophetic undertaking from whence enlightenment shall arise!”

Okay, that’s overstated.  (But overstating my hypotheticals is my true artistic gift, so there.). But you hopefully see the point.  The artists are an important and necessary part of any society, but what I’m talking about are ways in which that importance can be over-emphasized. My goal is to stay in the valley between those two points.  In other words, I don’t want to choose a career as an artist for its own sake, for fame or because it sounds fulfilling or easy.  I also can’t say that it’s crucial to society that I endeavour to execute every creative idea that pops in my head.  Nothing I do will “save the world”.  Some art can completely change the way we look at our life.  Some art is just a painting of a golden retriever.  What struck me during our conversation is the sometimes overwhelming burden of choice that artists face concerning where to focus their creative efforts- which idea is worth pursuing, especially when the ideas come fast and furious.  I shoot photos, I paint, I write, I create in a lot of different ways, as do we all.  And each endeavour is spurred by its own impulse and inspiration.  I didn’t choose an identity first and then follow up with conceiving projects to fulfill that identity.  Sometimes I have ideas for things that are well outside my wheelhouse, and if I want to undertake them as unqualified as I am, a lot of study and research comes first.   I actually don’t really understand artists who choose to commit to a career like being a singer/songwriter without having a current material to record or perform in mind.  Like, how can I want to be in a band and then say, “okay- now I need to think of some songs!”  But then, the challenge I face is the opposite- “okay- I have the idea for a song, but I’m not a musical artist- now what do I do?”  I know I have a lot of my own biases and issues to work through, but if I seem scatterbrained, now you know that this is where I’m coming from.  I’m just trying to figure out how to be myself as an admitted artist.

(the photo above I took on our walk at Watershed Park in Delta, BC)