Creativity: Hustlers, Fakers, and Thieves

Host/ Author/ Master Craftsman Gary Rogowski

Creativity: Hustlers, Fakers, and Thieves is a website and podcast about the nature of creativity. Through a series of interviews with working artists we will explore the concepts that inform their creativity. Concepts like Curiosity, Practice, and Failure are used intuitively by artists every day. These are the ideas and values that a creative person has for their work whether they are an apprentice, working artist, or master.

Listen to the latest Podcast

Creativity: Hustlers Fakers and Thieves

Precision with Patrick Edwards, Marqueteur, Furniture Restorer, Historian

00:00 / 24:16

Creativity is not the province of a chosen few. It is available for us to use every day.

How do we access our creativity? There is a connection between our hands and our mind. Nurturing this pathway helps any artist find inspiration. It’s a hustle to stay creative. It’s work. It is also the best work we can do for ourselves.

How can creativity be accessible to those who fear they have nothing to say or that it’s all been said before? Young artists can feel defeated by a world that tries to ignore or stomp on their creative ideas. Know that we are born imitators as soon as we open our eyes.

How do our ideas about creative concepts shape our work? One artist might find her inspiration in nature while another studies past artists and movements for an intellectual thread to follow. Understanding our likes/ dislikes shows to us pathways to follow.

How does our creativity influence our thinking? Some may see a red pine cone on the ground as debris to rake up. Another may see color choices and the golden spiral made visible in his hand. Examine the incredible world of design outside your door. Steal your ideas reverently from great sources like nature.

How does movement/ activity help us to think creatively? Movement stimulates ideas. Read Rousseau, Nietzsche, Darwin, Matthiessen, Tharp, and McFarlane to see how ideas tumble into our lap when we move, walk, or hike. How can we move to generate ideas?

How can we stop the voices that say I could never do that? These voices that call you a faker. This chorus exists in each mind. Learn to tune them into the static they truly are in your Left Brain wave field. Find joy in abandoning rules and play on the Right side of your mind. Give yourself the freedom to ask What if? What if I tried?

Our purpose is to inspire other artists: would-be, practicing, and worn out artists who need to see that their efforts mirror that of others. They are not alone in their struggle to be creative however fake or futile their efforts may seem. The world may offer them little comfort and perhaps less compensation but the gift is that in the creative state comes the kind of reward that few other activities can match. That right brained sense of flow is what keeps us coming back.

How many of us have been told to stop daydreaming and do something sensible with our time? This kind of no nonsense approach to living is a good strategy if you’re a banker. But if you’re a dreamer, then there is no room for that kind of sensible attitude. Creativity: Hustlers, Fakers, and Thieves is a website and podcast hosted by author/ craftsman Gary Rogowski. Its purpose is to bring awareness, confidence, and a real life approach to being creative.

In one sense I believe that creativity is something useless and beautiful. Something useless and beautiful describes how the arts function. We don’t need them to survive. We need them to live. This important distinction comes in understanding the difference between life with a purpose and meaninglessness. One attitude gets you up in the morning to start work. The other says: why bother? Why get up? Another day’s useless amount of energy to be spent on work that no one cares about. One’s physical needs can all be satisfied and still leave one with a sense that something is missing. You can be rich and feel empty. That part that feels missing is the sense of purpose in a life.

In a series of conversations between a Master and his Apprentice and with working artists, we will show that people are not alone in their struggle to be creative, to be not sensible. This work is difficult and no one cares if you do it. No one cares if you write or paint or throw pots. But the effort, the commitment, the rewards of seeing your ideas realized can lead one to a sense of purpose.

As Viktor Frankl pointed out in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, “Everyone has his own specific vocation . . . which demands fulfillment.” Our goal is to help people to understand and develop and describe that creative vocation for themselves. We will offer stories of inspiration but also a sense that this creative world is not just for the incredibly gifted. It is for anyone interested in choosing to do creative work. Through the media portals such as the podcast, books, website, and interactive classes we will help our audience understand the importance of this work in a life. This self-help is important no matter how one puts bread on the table. This is the work that puts life into the soul.

Burdened by the ineffectiveness of the internet to solve our anxieties, people need to understand that happiness cannot be pursued inside a screen. As Frankl puts it, happiness must ensue from the work that we do. It must come from what we do every day in our lives, from the meaning that we find in ourselves. Leading a creative life can help us to find that meaning, art and our need to appreciate and to create it.