art doesn’t need to change the world

The past few years, I’ve found myself hung up on this idea that everything I make needs to be groundbreaking.

Every single song or letter I write, every single film I make or every single photo I take, in my mind, had to be capable of changing the world in order for it to be worth sharing with others…

What a sad way to look at life.

Humans were built to create, our creative abilities are central to our evolution. 

We all need to create, constantly.

It is unreasonable to assume that every single creation of ours will change the world in some way.

I’d argue that if one believes that every creation of theirs has to change the world, they’ll never manage to change anything because they’ll never manage to create anything.

This fear of my art not being “good” enough, or “profound” enough left me in this dull state of paralysis where I spent my time coming up with all sorts of ideas on how I could change the world, instead of taking action on any of them.

I do believe that we all have the power to change the world, whether that’s through art, business, charity or smiling at strangers on the street, but I’m quickly realising that the only way to change the world is by allowing yourself to create a body of work that may not change anything piece by piece, but could change everything as a whole.

If an artist measures their success by how many people see their videos, or how many people buy their paintings or go to their gigs, the artist will quickly lose the love for the art, because nobody is “successful” in the beginning.

The only artists who see any “success" are those who forget about the metrics attached to their art and make it purely for the sake of making it. They’re the ones who can persevere through all the shit engagement for however long it takes for their work to begin to stick.

Creation itself is the achievement, not the numbers attached to it.

Your next art piece does not need to change the world.

It just needs to be made.

- louis