It is very popular these days to heighten the level of productivity of your art – work. There is some good reason for it.
but it is also vital to examine the difference between creativity and productivity. Otherwise, your efforts to heighten your ‘productivity’ may irritate and, as a result, delude your ‘creativity’. And without creativity, there is nothing to produce (why, in the title, creativity comes first).
Due to the growing market for self-created products * and artistic offers, there has never been as much information and research on this topic as there is today. Combined with all the technological data you can use to analyze likes, ranks, popular topics, etc. etc. etc. etc. …. there seem to be endless parameters applicable for creating (ha!) your own IG account, a YouTube channel, a shop or professional website, and ultimately: a career as an artist.
With all these information tools (ah, that’s my new term for these outlets, great), we have so much info, not only about techniques, history, and materials but also about marketing, sales, brand building, strategies, and : productivity.
It is almost too much, isn’t it? Depending on what fascinates you, you can get lost in this digital world of availability.
Did you ever lose track of time at the art supplies department? Yes? Now imagine: suddenly, a hitherto hidden door opens … and a room full of undiscovered materials appears. Artists you have always loved and admired invite you to join them for a lesson, and you can buy everything from everyone, from postcards or teapots to originals. You can visit museums you never thought you could physically enter, and countless teachers and counselors appear and want to support you to become your best. There is advice all over the place: ‘Do this’ and ‘Do that’ and ‘How to’ … Honestly, I feel overwhelmed just by writing about it. I can see this place right before me, and it is spectacular. Yes. But you can easily get lost in it.
How to become a successful artist
has probably been the most crucial topic in the art community for quite some time now, at least when you open Pandora’s box, aka your laptop or computer.
Oh, I just Googled it. There are approximately 689,000,000 results. That may prove a point.
Lately, productivity has been popping up a lot in that context. Seemingly, one indisputable thing you have to do is increase your productivity. There are many (excellent!) suggestions on HOW TO do it, and it makes sense – in case you know for sure you want to produce more. Or create? Hm, wait a moment.
At this point, the themes of creativity and productivity are already mixed with marketing. And that is part of the problem. When productivity is linked to a certain kind of success related to sales, tangible numbers, and how much money you can make with your artistic outlet, it is no longer connected to the origin of creativity itself. It does not serve the artistic expression but demands from it. Read that last sentence again.
Creativity and productivity have values, and they are both beneficial in itself. They are not the same (and happen in very different areas of our brain) but can work together harmonically. Knowing the differences will ease each field, including advice on them.
An attempt to differentiate:
A. someone can be highly productive but not very creative. This person puts out a ton of work, and it sells.
general example: The baker who services you with regular pastries. A daily repetition of supply and quality, based on the same recipes and ingredients (very different from someone like Reynold Poernomo and his artistic creations like Down the Rabbit Hole. I couldn’t help mentioning him. Hi, Reynold.).
fine art example: As a recipient, you may feel that you have heard or seen that before from this artist. A repetition of supply and quality based on the same motives, themes, and techniques over a long period of time. (I am not talking about artists who immerse themselves in a subject for more profound understanding). This person can be highly productive and sell very well. **
B. someone who is highly creative but may not produce a lot.
general example: You can create a beautiful or however touching environment without producing something (tangible). André Le Nôtre was a French Landscape garden architect who designed, among other things, the Gardens of Versailles. He never wrote any treatises on his work and expressed himself purely through the gardens. Highly creative, not producing. Think of visionaries and inventors.
fine art example: There may not be many publications or other tangible pieces of art available despite a high level of creativity. That does not mean these artists are not successful, right? I mean, you could call Leonardo da Vinci quite successful, right? (I would feel silly putting a link in da Vinci’s name, so I don’t.) And yet, less than 20 paintings are assumed to have been completed by his own hands. The world’s most famous painting? The Mona Lisa. The world’s most expensive painting (status Jan 2025)? Salvator Mundi. Both Leonardo da Vinci.
In his case, the spectacular auction price reached for Salvator Mundi is partly also due to the fact that there are NOT many paintings of da Vinci. As transmitted, he often used to work years on a painting, with a tendency to delay finishing. The fine arts weren’t even his main field of interest, either.
No strategy can guarantee success in itself. When anything is, I would bet on authenticity. At least in the long run, and for yourself to feel successful.
Figure out what you want and what fits you.
Maybe you need silence and solitude when you are in pure creative mode, with no timeframes. It’s just you and your colors, a piece of paper, just floating around.
When you are producing, let’s say, when putting primer on some canvas, preparing Gesso boards, or printing something for an exhibition – maybe you like music, an audiobook, and a more structured procedure.
Notice that these kinds of production aspects can be outsourced. Your creative flow? Not.
Set aside all the ‘you have to’ and ‘you must’. Turn them into recommendations, not requirements (including everything I write on my blog). You will find advice for increasing productivity, as well as how to connect more often or easily with your creative state. Choose from all the information, knowledge, and experiences out there that suit your path. When you dream about traveling to Spain (metaphorically speaking), you don’t have to learn Mandarin. Even if everyone says you have to speak Mandarin. You can, of course.
Listen to yourself more often. More often than to others.
Creativity is a highly individual asset. You may be able to compare products, but not the essence of creativity itself. At best, one can sense if creativity is represented in the ‘product’. But that depends on the recipient’s ability to perceive beyond the usual senses.
shortlist: create (it)
* It’s been almost two decades since E-commerce marketplaces like Etsy (USA 2005) and DaWanda (Germany 2006, ended 2018) started and proposed a new way of selling and marketing. Suddenly, everybody could start their own business with DIY products, including art, and open an online shop. There was hardly any quality standard, but that’s an entirely different topic. By the way, YouTube also began in 2005. Twitter in 2006. Facebook in 2004. Times of shift, truly.
** China’s art factories (SPIEGEL international article from 2006) are extreme examples of high productivity and very low creativity. To clarify, there is no judgment on my part (in general); I am just observing and trying to sort things out for myself. In this case, to let go of the idea to ‘produce’ more.