We don’t often consider creativity a prerequisite to living a good life. But one can reasonably view life as the ultimate creative pursuit. Existential thinking encourages living life as a work of art. Nietzsche wrote that creativity may be required to become who we are or who we may want to be.
The poet Goethe suggested,
Everyone holds his fortune in their own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
Have you ever felt stuck or experienced a lack of meaning?
It seems the way out of being stuck requires us to utilize our creativity. Similar to a writer experiencing writer’s block (staring at a blank page); humans can experience a type of existential angst. Kierkegaard once called the most common form of despair not being who we are.
The existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre believed that not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust toward existence. “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.”
Although it is not just the existentialists that talk about creativity and meaning. Even the great saints and mystics stress the importance of life as a work of art. The Italian friar St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) described an artist this way,
“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, head, and heart is an artist.”
Life as a work of art is about seeing what is possible and then crafting the type of life you want to lead. To quote the late artist Henry Moore, “To be an artist is to believe in life.”
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Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
Life as a Work of Art