Last week, Alessandro Michele got fired because his designs didn’t bring as much money to Gucci as Mr. Pinault expected. The year he was appointed creative director, Gucci only earned 3.9 billion dollars. Michele tripled those numbers in only seven years. And still, that wasn’t enough. They wanted more - more collections, more social media interactions, more money. Michele’s collections became repetitive, it was too much and maybe it’s a good thing that he’s free now. Otherwise, he’d be stuck in the grind of endless work that’s supposed to be creative but simply cannot be. Creativity is hard. To stay creative one needs to stop every once in a while. To free their brain from frantic thoughts, do something with their hands, stay away from people, screens, even books. And that seems impossible these days.
I’m an introvert. I also have trouble saying no to people. So, when I quit my job over a year ago and started working remotely and a bit less than before, it seemed like I was in the right place to start being creative again. I worked my way through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, traveled so much more, started journaling again, and my writing got better. But then, more and more work crept in again. I accepted a few non-fashion-related writing jobs, and some translating gigs, too. And suddenly I’m in the same place I was a year ago. There are zero ideas in my head and I’m having trouble keeping this newsletter going every week. And it’s not just that, I’m having trouble coming up with ideas for lunch or dressing in the morning. All of those drain me.
So, naturally, I started Googling. How to stay creative? How to come up with fresh ideas? How did Martin Margiela come up with all those innovative designs? What answers did I find, you ask? “Generate way more ideas than you think you actually need.” “Give yourself a break.” “Make a healthy snack.” The internet disappoints me repeatedly.
But, wait. There’s a story. About Agnes Martin. I remember her work vividly from a few years ago when I found myself alone in a room filled with her paintings inside the San Francisco MOMA. According to the story I found, Agnes Martin believed you can max out your creativity and never be able to work again. In 1967, believing she was done being creative forever, she told people she’ll never paint again and fled New York. She went to New Mexico where she lived for seven years without a TV, phone, or even pets. All alone. When she returned to painting in 1974 she was a changed artist with a new aesthetic that birthed the style filled with pastel pink, yellow and blue lines that I saw in San Francisco. She needed solitude to regain her creativity and reemerge with something new to show to the world.
Now, I can’t go away for seven years. I don’t want to. But this story did open new ways of thinking for me. It reminded me of Ann Patchett who went through the police academy just so she could write a book about a police officer. It also reminded me of Rene Redzepi who takes his team on research trips to remote parts of the world just to forage and discover the flavors of nature. It reminded me of a 70-year-old hiker I met on the Velebit mountain who goes alone to the woods and stays and sleeps there until he’s ready to go back among humans. And it showed me one crucial thing. All those people take breaks from work to stay creative. Long breaks. Well, not seven years long, but long enough to reset their brain. It also made me ask myself how they do it. Aren’t they scared of losing jobs and clients after going back to work? Aren’t they worried about spending too much of their savings? Don’t they feel the obligation to see their families more often?
It also made me wonder if I should leave everything and become a full-time baker. How do bakers stay creative? Creativity is so hard. It’s a luxury. But what are we without it? I’m still figuring this out. My friend Valerija Cerovec who is an artist and a writer with a book coming out soon was a guest on a podcast about creativity called Artists In Residence this week. She said that creativity for her is just finding joy in work without knowing what the end goal might be. So I’m going to use that approach with today’s newsletter. I’m not sure how joyful I felt writing it though, but I for sure have no idea what I wished to say nor what are the conclusions of today’s entry.
So tell me, what do you think today’s newsletter is actually about? Please share your insights in the comments.
Sounds like the people you mentioned stopped wanting to be creative, or to put it better, they stopped chasing it. And once they did, it came back because it likes freedom more than narrow minds. (:
Ah and I forgot: I’m not expecting to receive your newsletter on a weekly basis but on a “I have something to write” basis