The process is the point

Making art for the sake of it

I am teaching and hosting a writing retreat this week so I’m delighted to welcome

Allegra Chapman

today with her guest post about the role of creativity in everyone’s life. Allegra is an author, columnist, entrepreneur and creative wellness practitioner who writes The Gathering, which is a place for misfits, outsiders, big thinkers and rebels to think outside the box.

I hope you enjoy it. Do let us know what you think in the comments.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The process is the point: making art for the sake of it

Creativity is for everyone.

It’s not for the gifted artists, the chosen few, the prodigies or those with people on hand to financially support them. It’s for everyone.

It’s for you.

There’s so much gatekeeping in the creative world. It’s hard to get your work “out there”, jumping through hoops for publishers, curators and budget holders. Social media should have made things easier, but algorithms favour those who already have a huge audience, or who have the money to pay for one. It can feel like those of us who are more “minor” figures in this landscape are shut out. Even that we don’t have permission to call ourselves creatives.

I’m not going to deny that it’s hard to break through and make a career out of your art that will pay the bills. It’s very difficult, and there are a number of barriers in the way. There’s a conversation that needs to be had about privilege in the art world, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. I want you to know that, even if you never manage to make money out of your creative work, even if you never get loads of likes and followers for your art, and even if you don’t want any of those things, you are still entitled to create, and to call yourself an artist.

You are a creative being, and you don’t need anyone’s permission.

Human beings have been making art from the beginning. The oldest known painting story, found on a cave wall in Indonesia, is more than 51,000 years old. A hand stencil has been found in Spain that is 64,000 years old. For a species that is only 200,000 years old, it seems that finding creative ways to make our mark and make sense of our world has been a considerable part of our existence.

So it’s probably no surprise that creativity has been proven to be important to our health and wellbeing. Which came first - did we start making art because of how much it benefits us, or did we come to benefit from it because of how compelled we felt to make it? The answer probably lies in a combination of the two, but the health benefits are incredible…

Creativity is necessary

It probably won’t massively surprise you to learn that creative activities help to reduce stress, depression and anxiety. Or that they encourage relaxation and allow you to process complex thoughts and emotions.

But it might surprise you to learn that creative activities have also been shown to increase confidence and self-esteem, improve cognitive function and memory, strengthen problem-solving skills and build resilience.

Taking part in regular creativity also helps to reduce inflammation (therefore lessening chronic pain), lower blood pressure, increase heart health and boost the immune system. It also helps to maintain good motor function as you age, and has been shown to slow the symptoms of dementia.

As if that all wasn’t enough, creativity helps build social bonds and strengthens relationships. It helps to create a sense of community, and reduce isolation and loneliness.

I’ve long known how valuable creativity is for human wellbeing, but when I was researching my book - Creativity Is Your Self-Care: 52 creative therapy exercises to support your emotional wellbeing all year round - even I was surprised by just how many different elements of our health it impacts. This is such a fundamental part of who we are as a species.

So, whatever anyone may have tried to tell you, creativity isn’t a frivolous luxury - it is vital for your health and wellbeing. You deserve to give yourself time to explore your creative nature and build a regular creative practice - the benefits it can give you could be huge!

The process is the point

When we were children, we didn’t worry about whether our work was “good” or whether anyone else would like it. We just threw ourselves into creativity whenever the mood struck. The trouble is, that then the outside world got involved. Teachers were too harsh, parents suggested we focus on more serious things… We learned to doubt ourselves.

I still remember, vividly, being eight years old and having an art teacher aggressively make fun of my painting, causing the rest of the class to laugh at me. From that day onwards, I told myself, and everyone else, the story “I’m no good at art”. Writing was different - my teachers and my parents encouraged me and told me I was good, and they pointed me towards competitions and submission opportunities where I received further validation. So I was happy to consider myself a creative as a writer, but never as an artist.

I was 38 before I willingly set foot in an art workshop again. I was hesitant, and I only went because a friend was running it. She had promised that the space had nothing to do with being “good” at art. “We’re going to make art like we did when we were children - messy, raw and free,” she promised. That sounded like something I wanted to recapture, so I gave it a go. And I remembered, after 30 years of preventing myself from making visual art, how much I love it. I allowed myself to stop worrying about the end result and to relax into the process, and rediscovered what art is supposed to be all about.

I actually ended up making some paintings that I quite liked. I’ve continued to make art, and sometimes I like what I produce. Sometimes I don’t. That’s not the point. The process is what counts.

It is the process of making art - any art, visual, written or otherwise - that gives us all these fantastic health benefits. It’s the process that fills us with joy and puts us in touch with the core of who we are. If we like the outcome and want to share it with the world, great. But that’s a side issue.

Even when you do choose to make a career from your creativity, the process is still what matters most. I am paid for my articles, and I have paid subscribers on Substack. But when I write pieces from a sense of obligation, or because I think this is what will sell, they don’t tend to do that well. When I write from my heart, when I express the deepest parts of myself that I worry people won’t want to see or will judge me for, that’s when I get the biggest positive reaction.

So make your art. Embrace your creativity. This is who you are meant to be, it’s how you are meant to show up in the world. And it is really, really good for you!

---