"Everyone Is Creative"

The whole "Everyone is creative" bullshit undermines professional artists' insistence on being paid fair rates for our work. Of course everyone, regardless of skill level or intent, stands to gain all kinds of benefits from engaging in creative activity: this does not mean that the works produced are automatically meaningful or valuable to anyone at all.

I am able to sing, and I am able to dance; I can do both of these things at a bare minimum of competence, and I do both of these things daily, in the privacy of my own home, and my body and spirit are greatly served by this kind of activity. However I would never in a million years say "Hey let me do this on stage for people!" My singing and dancing absolutely brings benefits to me, and I also recognize that I am not good enough at singing and dancing for it to bring benefits to other people. Musicians should be paid for performances; do I think people would pay to see me sing and dance? Not anyone in their right mind. This doesn't mean that I should stop singing and dancing at home---it means "not everyone who enjoys singing and dancing is the same thing as a professional singer or dancer."

You don't need permission to make art! Including bad art! I honestly don't have a lot of patience with people who have so much fear and/or need so much validation to make their work, I don't get it. No one needs permission to pursue whatever kind of creative making they want in the privacy of their home. I run 24/7 constantly thinking about how to put what's in my head into these materials and get it out and I don't put one ounce of thought into worrying if people like it or not, or if I'm "supposed" to be making. If you really feel compelled to do the work then for fuck's sake do the work!

But please don't propagate harmful stuff like this "Everyone is creative" bullshit---everyone is NOT creative, and artists have specific skills to offer that other people do not have, hence why artists are necessary parts of the community, hence why people contact me asking me to make animations and logos and other things that they are not able to make themselves. Artists spend a lifetime learning and building those skills, and we deserve to be paid fair rates for the work we do. I think that the "Everyone is creative" campaign is part of an effort to make sure that creative work is only done by wealthy artists who will do the work for free, and it's trying to convince everyone that this is how creative work is done, because look, anybody can do it, everyone is creative!