Love Letter #12 - Exploring the Prism of Self
Inspiration for creatives with references from Rick Rubin
This week we will be discussing what it means to express ourselves creatively as multi-faceted beings, and the beauty of bringing the (seemingly) random ideas to life. My intention with this love letter is to encourage your expression beyond titles and what we believe defines us, in faith that through authentic expression, we will begin to see ourselves in a spectrum of new light.
I’ve been spending a great deal of time lately in discussion with friends and mentors within the creative field, discussing our takes on the industry as it stands, and imagining together what it could look like in the future. I’m always encouraged in the most heartfelt way to have these discussions, as more often than not, I realize that there is a community of people out there who also share similar sentiments, and wish to see an evolution in their respective craft and for artists across the board.
The last book I finished reading was “The Creative Act: A way of Being” by Rick Rubin. My last few love letters have referenced this book, and I’d like to start by saying that if you are a creative, or simply are seeking new perspectives on life, I would highly recommend this reading for you. I read the book within 48 hours cover to cover (it’s a smooth read*), annotated and with quotes pulled from nearly every chapter, and was left with a strong desire to reflect and actively integrate the lessons after I was done.
I love inspirational books like this because the magic of it lies within the suggestions to simply look at things from a different vantage point. I believe many of the answers we seek in life are within us — we simply need encouragement from someone who’s lived it before or looks at the circumstances differently, to discover our solution hidden in plain sight. That is the power of creative community.
“When we spend time with other artistic people, we absorb and exchange a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world…Each person in this relationship begins seeing with a different imaginative eye.”
-Rick Rubin
Whether a person is pursuing art as a career or not, we are all crafting the life we wish to see for ourselves; forever in a constant state of imagining and creating. I believe through sharing with one another and exploring our ideas out loud, we remove the illusion of isolation and scarcity within our lives, and create space for authentic expression to come to life.
In the chapter “The Prism of Self”, Rubin opens by saying to truly define ourselves may be an impossible task. Our environment, experiences, and physical state are forever changing, creating a new way of being in each moment — and influencing the outcome of our work each time as a result.
“In a prism, a single beam of light enters and is broken into an array of colors. The self, too, is a prism. Neutral events enter, and are transformed into a spectrum of feelings, thought, and sensations. All this information is processed distinctly by each aspect of self, refracting life’s light in it’s own way, emitting different shades of art. For this reason, not every work can reflect all of our selves.
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The more we accept our prism like nature, the more free we become to create in different colors and the more we trust the inconsistent instincts we hold while making art.”
I love the way Rubin puts it as the “inconsistent instincts we hold”. Often, when trying to define ourselves as artists, we put a great deal of attention on our “brand identity”. We inherently begin to reject what feels alien to our curated concept of self and block truthful creative expression for the sake of making ourselves palatable or easily consumed by our target audience. I think the real beauty lies in the fact that not every work that we do will reflect the entirety of our being, or resonate with our audience. I love that the seemingly “random” idea we wish to pursue, can actually hold a key to an expanded creative community, a deepening of long standing relationships, and most importantly, can affirm ourselves on a spiritual level through the act of honest creative expression.
The body of work that we will have created throughout our lifetime will be a reflection of the many iterations of who we were at different moments. It will contain the cinematic highs and lows, the quick changes and pivots that we love to see when witnessing a beautiful story unfolding. That robust and dynamic story is born through the present moment—in our pursuit of random creations, career changes, and the life altering pivots that speak to what we understand here and now.
I hope that as you go into this week, you are inspired to pursue the dreams that have been calling you; that you feel encouraged to pursue a new project, work with a new medium, or experiment with a new way of expressing yourself. I hope that you remember some of the best moments in life consist of unrefined new beginnings, and those can be the most inspirational stories to bear witness to. I hope that as you begin to share these aspirations, you are met with a community of creative souls who also align with your vision for future possibilities. Your truths, and the way you choose to express them have the power to expand our minds, and provide us with a new sense of imagination. More than anything I hope you don’t hold back — you deserve to be free.
Until next time.
All my love,
Gabe Jenkins