Art is food

I’ve been thinking a lot about art and the role it plays in our lives, and this quote is stuck in my head:

When I listened to Stephen King’s memoir slash writing reference book a few months ago, this line stopped me in my tracks. At the time, I was wrestling with a desire to create but felt I couldn’t find the motivation or energy or inspiration or time. I felt burned out with my freelance work and wished I could quit and be a full-time author and artist right now.

In just a few words, Stephen King summarized the root of the problem:

We all have busy lives with a lot of things vying for our time — working, caregiving, cleaning, cooking, eating, exercising, studying, sleeping. It’s hard to find time for art, especially since we often hope to curate the ideal conditions for inspiration to strike. For example, I prefer having a dedicated space for art, a big chunk of free time, solitude, and a serene, inspired emotional state.

Lol. I think I could probably count on one hand the number of times the stars have aligned to provide those exact conditions for my creative work. Life doesn’t work like that. Life isn’t a support system for art.

It’s the other way around. When I’m not expressing myself creatively — when I’m waiting for the perfect conditions and they don’t arrive — I get a bit miserable.

I’ve heard creatives described as sponges. We soak up stuff from our surroundings, good things and bad things. We absorb artistic inspiration, yes, but we also become saturated with personal hardships and stories of local and global adversity. 

Just like the sponge I use to scrub my dishes, we’re eventually full of soapy, dirty water. We need the “squeeze,” where we release everything we’ve absorbed into works of creative expression: poems, paintings, doodles, crafts, essays, textiles, ceramics. The medium doesn’t matter, only the act of creation. When creatives don’t create, we’re like sad, soggy sponges.

Another layer of creative struggle comes after I’ve made something and I’m doubting whether anyone wants to see or read it. Another quote helps me in this situation:

It might sound silly out of context, but what Amie is saying is that art is not an appliance or a tool that people buy once and seldom replace. One glance at my overstuffed bookshelf or my gallery wall of thrifted art or my sticker collection validates the idea that consumers of art cannot be satiated.

I would go one step further and say that, actually, art is toast. It sustains us, fills us up, and we never stop needing more. (I personally love toast, but insert a different food if toast isn’t your thing or you have a gluten allergy.)

While we’re on the toast metaphor, I will add that AI “art” is not toast. It is cardboard — flimsy, inedible trash. Personally, the proliferation of AI imagery has made me hungrier than ever for real art, created by real humans. I don’t think I’m alone in this. 

Now might be the best time ever to express your humanity and share your art with the world.

We’re hungry for it.

See you next week,

Kara

Out of Office

What I’m doing when I’m not working

• I’m usually more of an audiobook person, but I’ve been listening to a few creativity and writing podcasts lately, namely Creative Pep Talk and The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. I would welcome more recs for podcasts on these topics!

• Sunday, October 12, was Canadian Thanksgiving, and we got multiple inches of snow in my part of Saskatchewan 💀 It has since melted, but winter is most certainly on the way.

• Proof of my overburdened bookshelf (designed and built by my husband):

P.S. Got a question about self-employment, anti-hustle culture, business books, or something else?

Kara Detwiller is a writer and creative based in small-town Saskatchewan. She specializes in long-form content writing for enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and manufacturing clients. She is also working on her first novel, among other creative pursuits. To connect, reply to this email or find Kara on LinkedIn. To support her work on Wishful Working, share this email with someone or buy her a “coffee.”

Why Wishful Working? I write this newsletter because I want to see more people enjoy a life not centered around work. For some, the path to freedom and flexibility is through self-employment, but we also need to challenge cultural norms and champion healthier working conditions and work/life balance for all types of workers.