NickVenturella.com 4-10-16

Live Creation is Magic

April 10, 2016

Have you ever watched a live caricature artist drawing his/her subject at an outdoor festival?

When this live artistic process is happening it’s mesmerizing. Typically, a small crowd begins to gather around to watch this drawing appear on the page from seemingly out of nowhere.

That’s magical!

But why is that magical?  Why does it capture people’s attention so?

I believe most people, at least those who have any level of appreciation for the arts, admire when someone is able and willing to to put themselves in front of a crowd to showcase their talent.

But not only showcase that talent, pull the curtain back on how the end product (the art) is actually produced. You get to watch the art production happening before your eyes, which makes the end result (if it is any good – relative to taste) seem like an amazing feat of nature.

And it is!

Mainly, because most people are unable to draw that well, or they aren’t willing to be vulnerable enough to show their creative process publicly, or some combination of both.

Often, artists like to woodshed their creations. In other words, take a creative idea, seclude themselves, iterate on their creation, until the best end result is ready and then only show that amazing end result.

The only thing that diminishes the value of the end result is that no one gets to see how the artist got there to appreciate the journey it took to achieve the end result. There is little to no context to the final product.

It’s far more amazing to witness the journey AND the end result vs. just the end result.

When you only get to see the end result you have to imagine the journey – if you’re an artist or musician yourself, you may be able to imagine that journey, but it still doesn’t have the zest of watching the process.

It’s in witnessing the process that a viewer connects more deeply with an artist. The viewer gains some level of insight into who the artist is and why they make some of the creative decisions that they do based on where the final product ends up.

In other words, when you see the end result you may say:  â€œOh, I get why she drew that little blob in the corner now. It got turned into a tree in the background, which balances the composition,†or something along those lines.

You don’t have quite the appreciation for each mark on the page when all you’re presented with is the final piece. However, witness the artist in process and the final piece will mean a whole lot more to you. In fact, you’ll likely put more value on it than you would otherwise – even if only an increase in sentimental value for having witnessed the art being birthed.

The same concept holds true for a musician.

I really enjoy the band the Foo Fighters, but the album Sonic Highways is far more interesting to me because I’ve seen the documentary episodes of the same name that showcase the history, context and process of each song being created, developed recorded and performed.

In business and creative endeavors, the more you can include your audience in your journey from concept to completion the more valuable it will be to them, and you for having the ability to connect with your audience in a way that most don’t.

Make it a great week!