Overheard, Two Artists: "I Cannot Not Do It"

First artist: "I was reluctant to put my work out there in public because growing up my father would imply, 'Who do you think you are?', 'Who gave you permission?'"

The second artist replies: "God gave you permission."

Last night's conversation continues and I join in. We come to consensus: At some point in our lives we cannot not do it. Whatever It is.

It runs the show now.

You must understand most artists (heck, why limit this to artists? Last night an engineer shows me a poem on Kuan Yin, Jesus, and samsara that a fellow QA engineer at a well-known Vallley company authored; plus of course coding can be art) think of G-o-d as the Totality (aka Inspiration, Infinite Intelligence, Nature, Universe, Source, {insert your sense of where inspiration emerges from}).

I can imagine Guy, the philosophical Belgian co-owner of Mapro resort on Thailand's Phi Phi island rolling the tobacco along the contour of the bamboo table into the sheer cigarette paper and saying: "Now why confine the Totality to any label?"

And now I might out woo-woo Ms. Communicatrix. She writes her major takeaway from SXSW is: "I will probably not make money with any of my online ventures, present or planned. And I’m okay with that."

I’m okay because I no longer need stuff so much as I need happiness. (Recognition is still attractive to me, but I figure by the time I get any, I won’t care much about that, either.)

I’m okay because I saw people up on those daises (which looks a lot like daisies, doesn’t it?) who were making money and people who might never and the only thing that I found compelling in either was the passion that drove them. - "A preliminary and rather alarmingly woo-woo perspective on SXSW"

That was my takeaway too.

My teacher spoke Wednesday about this 'cannot not do it' shift. "Awareness is self-aware. It is empty, it is lucid and it has a sense of love and compassion and well-being... A well-being that spills over. An upwelling that spills over... We feel a deeper call to express realization than to groove in the realization. All of existence shifts into something completely different... This life is no longer going to be about 'mine'... I might have to actually be a servant rather than be a spiritual consumer. You can't become awakened without becoming responsible for what you know."

We become a servant to art. The passion at the seat of inspiration has a momentum of its own. Sandbagging ain't working. The holding-back dam breaks. The river by nature wants to run wild.

Shel Israel at the closing "Naked Converations" session of NewCommForum paraphrases a keynote at Syndicate by Larry Weber. "He says CMOs ask about psychographics, demographics, holographics,...whatever graphics. (Audience laughs). When the only question you need to ask is: 'What does the customer want?'"

Robert Scoble follows: "We're [the blogging community] doing the same thing - obsessing with numbers and lists. I felt lost [in this new emphasis on metrics]. Recently I realized talking to the Hotmail team that the most successful product teams talk and share because... They love product. That's it."

For you the passion could be kite-flying, not Hotmail. "Blogging lets me share my loves. Either love what you do - or go fly a kite... How much do you love your product? "I love my product. I love my company. I love my craft," and everything you do demonstrates that. Every post, every email, every call back."

This isn't the first time Scoble emphasizes passion. But with godzillion blogs and splogs mushrooming everyday it seems to be the ingredient that's neglected these days in the pursuit of technorati rank and googlejuice.

One thing blogging has given me insight into what it is that I cannot not do. I find myself writing about that whether it's on the agenda - or not. Blogging naked has eased me at a pace I can handle (what choice is there ultimately?) to make my avocation my vocation. (BTW my avocation is not blogging.)

Last night I heard a kick-ass presentation that nearly matched Kathy Sierra's SXSWi "How to Create Passionate Users" pres in its intensity and epiphanies last night by the artist and marketer team at Los Gatos-based Marketing4Artists.net.

It basically turns the marketing premise on its head. Sure I've worked with plenty of engineers whose product was a solution searching for a problem, but something else is going on when the inspiration isn't driven by an IPO or sale to Yahoo.

What if your business is art? What if it stemmed from a great upwelling that spills over rather than a quantitative market research study? In fact, you can't even claim it is yours per se but you're a steward of it? Does that turn marketing on its head? What companies do you think started as art, as deep inspiration that needed visible expression?

In the presentation, photographer Marco Zecchin said, "Usually marketing comes from customer needs. Art is the opposite. It comes from the wellspring within."

Their March newsletter kick-starts their premise (snippet below). Hmmm, I think a lot of us can relate.

1) Don't pollute, compromise or dilute your art.

Your art comes from inside you, don't let it be directed by some outside force for the sole purpose of marketing or selling it. Serve your passion.

2) Honor and respect your art.

Listen to what your art is saying to you and therefore to the outside world. Don't second-guess it, just voice its authentic story!

3) Champion your art.

Stand beside it and advocate its rights to exist in the world. Evangelize it!

The good news is that it is much bigger than you are! You may feel shy or timid in championing your art but you are not alone. Take strength from your art's sacred mission.

p.s. Did I say I was exploring art, brands, biz, passion, etc. for week or so? I'm going to go deeper with this topic for much longer I sense.

tags sxsw sxsw2006 marketing art innovation startup passion entrepreneurs inspiration spirituality

Comments

[renaissance costume]

Nobody could tell you who you are or what you can do nor somebody can dictate your limit and tell you to stop. If God gives us the right to explore this world to the fullest, then no King has the right to insist your limitations. If you are an artist or perhaps if you are a human being, you must live free from all the worries and let go from all there judgments.