Hi, Debbie!

It’s so good to connect with you this week. It’s been too long! How’re the kids? Did the doctor give you the “all clear” on those moles?

Wait. You’re not Debbie. Unless you are…?

Whoops.

Uh…

Oh, right. Hey, creator. Sorry to change things up on you. Did that upset you? Scandalize you a little? Create a little cognitive dissonance for that brain of yours?

Good.

All art is a little scandalous. It takes that which you treat as precious and sacred and exposes it. A great artist knows how to play the trickster, that devious misfit who stirs things up in a way that changes things for the better.

As a species, we need such an occasional “idiot” to help us see the frivolousness of so many things we take for granted. Our routines. Our rules. Our boundaries. They can all be a little silly. And anything silly is worth questioning, maybe even defying.

This is what we see in the work of intelligent and thoughtful creators. They aren’t simply making stuff for the fun of it. They’re trying to change society by poking fun at it, exposing it for the fraud that it is.

Society is a reflection of the way things are. Art tells us what could be. This can happen in amusing and delightful ways, as in the case of Andy Warhol taking pictures of soup cans or Fred Rogers and his puppets. But it can also happen in serious and poignant ways, such as Picasso defying the regime of Francisco Franco with his “Guernica” painting or Sinead O’Connor burning a picture of the pope on live television.

Anyway, stop being so serious. Or rather, make sure your art, serious as it may be, is pushing a boundary. That is, if you want to be truly interesting. If you want to change things. If you want your art to be meaningful—even if only to you.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun and create work that simply amuses us and our audience. It just means that part of being an artist is to go left when everyone else is going right. It means to defy. To stand up to the forces and systems that make the world the way it is and say quite clearly, “I disagree.”

Granted, the world doesn’t like being disagreed with. It wants to remain the way it is. Often, an artist is forced to hide their critiques and challenges in clever and creative ways. But if you pay close enough attention, you may find a deeper message than you thought was there. That’s the subversion of art.

And why do we need subversiveness? Because change can be good. Stasis eventually leads to atrophy, and progress is dependent on those crazy enough to to call into question what we value most.

The role of the trickster is not to lead the change, but to illustrate how ridiculous things actually are. When we see the silliness of the status quo, we are forced to change it. Forced to reimagine another reality.

That’s what art is for. And my sense is we need more tricksters in the world than ever. We need comedians and artists and creators to make stuff that does more than pander, that makes us think differently, that invites us into the dream.

That’s how we change things. That’s how we grow. That’s how the world gets a little better.

And if you want to hear more, check out this week’s podcast: The Creative Idiot.

Talk soon,

Jeff

P.S. When was the last time you did something a little scandalous? What was it? Shoot me a reply.