“Creativism:” the Power of Noticing

Every act of creation is an act of resistance against oppression. This resistance includes crafttivism.* It includes art as a political statement. It includes making creative protest signs, buttons, hats, costumes, public art, and every creative act that makes a political statement.

But that is not the end of the story. Creation as an act of resistance, let’s call it Creativism, also includes art for the pure joy of it, because joy is a form of resistance, and authoritarian regimes absolutely hate it when we are happy in spite of them. Creativism also includes art for rest and restoration, because rest also is resistance. It includes every act of creativity, because creativity is the opposite of destructive, toxic authoritarianism. Creativity is a celebration of freedom: the freedom to choose, freedom to express, freedom to think, freedom to dissent. Authoritarianism, by contrast, does not create—it copies; it steels, it silences. It has no genuine spontaneous joy, because it has no authenticity. All one finds there is jealousy, hubris, resentment and bitterness.

So make art! Whether your message is implicit or explicit, it matters not! The very act of pouring yourself out on paper, or in clay or in stone, or ink, or silicon chips, that act is powerful! But there is a caveat: it must be you, your authentic self. No delusions of grandeur. No hegemony of your will upon others. Far too many in our society grab a hold of paper, stone, clay, ink and silicon chips and vomit their delusions of grandeur all over their captive audiences. Their authentic self lies hidden beneath layers of quite “literal” shit.

Excuse my explicit language, but I mean it quite literally in a figurative way. These pretenders’ real selves lie hidden beneath the waste of others who have done the hard work. Others have hungered after truth and reality, have gobbled it up because they were starving for it. And these others (let’s call them artists) did the real work of digesting reality, metabolizing it, and actually creating something living, something beautiful. They then shared their little corner of reality with the rest of the world—not as a demand, but as an offering.

The Counterfeit Innovators are another matter. They steal the work of another, they steal art, innovation, ideas, power, money. They’d steal love if they could. They’d steal authenticity, if such as thing were possible. But it’s not, so their salvation, their only way of escape, lies buried deep beneath the waste, the refuse of others. As they grasp and clutch at what does not belong to them, they hope that their power will fill them, will give them purpose. It does not. They must settle for the illusion of purpose. Truth be told even their power is an illusion, and deep inside they know it. So when anyone with an iota of the authentic self shows up, they really hate it!

So you artists—and by artists I mean all you individuals out there being your authentic selves—pour yourselves out. Express yourselves! The very act of being real, the very act of showing up in all your messy glory, that act is powerful. And only you can do it.

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* “Craftivism” is a term that was coined to express the intersection of craft with activism.