The Artist's Manifesto

The Artist's Manifesto launched in May 2017 in PDF download from the site here. It still available for you to download above or at the bottom of the article. I wrote it first and foremost as a message and reminder to myself of what I am supposed to be doing here and why. It is a statement of who I am and what I stand for. It is you could say, my entire creative philosophy for life and work.

Subsequently, I made it available to everyone and almost 1000 people have been sent it to date. Feedback has been very encouraging and now I feel it's time to broaden out and explain some of these fundamental concepts further. The Artist's Manifesto is a call to arms to creative people like you to hold true to your creative integrity. The paperback is available on Amazon April 2018. My acknowledgement must go to writer Jeff Goins for providing the nudge to write my own manifesto.

Here's what it's all about.

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The Artist's Manifesto is a call to artists everywhere return to making art that matters, to follow our hearts, to create for the sake of it instead of following popular opinion and the lure of applause. 

You see, there is a strong and powerful draw from the world to conform, to row in, to be a part of the machine.

It says; to be worthy you must be successful. In order to be successful, you've got to follow the rules.

You've got to go to school, do science, engineering or maths. Get a job, pay tax, vote, don't break the law and be a good member of society

I say no way, and I want you to join me.

I believe everyone is an artist at birth, only we are conditioned out of it. Primed to be obedient, to follow the rules.

I'm tired of trying to fit in and make the system work for me.

Something has to change and I believe it's time.

If you do too then keep reading

I Am An Artist

I am an artist, a creative person.

I'm guessing you are too, because you’re reading this, even if you’re not presently calling yourself so.

I’ve always been an artist, I felt it just like you do. That feeling of something bigger and broader, waiting for me. That something inside me, a feeling that I can’t explain.

It drew me to weird people, to freaks, people with tattoos and crazy hair and crazy clothes, to bars with alternative music, to lyrics of songs, to arty non conformist things.

To the hidden meaning in words and sentences, to a deeper reality that escapes most of the world. It all just felt like it was my place.

But instead of following what felt natural I chose to fit in. I chose to be normal, to get a job, to follow the pre written rules for survival and success.

But it didn’t last.

I was working in the world others made, and I was bound by the rules of that game. On one side I had this need to make unique things, and on the other I had this idea that I needed to follow the rules.

This was like trying to ride two horses at the same time and it didn’t work. I ignored my inner voice for years and made many wrong decisions along the way.

After many years of hammering that square peg into a round hole I finally gave up and decided to follow the voice.

Have you ever felt like I did?

Are you tired of trying to make those shoes fit?

Is the constant need for acceptance killing your creativity?

If you’re fed up following the rules others made and if you’re ready to follow your heart then The Artist's Manifesto is for you.

What Is The Artist’s Manifesto?

The Artist’s Manifesto is a call to arms for creative people like you to ignore the opinions of others, to leave behind the need to be accepted, and finally create the beautiful things you were meant to.

It is a request for you to find the silence, to finally listen to the small voice that’s been calling you all your life. It’s call for you to bring a true representation of yourself into the world without fear of rejection.

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong. – Orson Welles

Who Is An Artist?

Everyone is an artist and everyone has the ability to create art. We were born with it, it is inherent in our being.

It wills to be expressed and will express if left to do so unhindered. Everyone feels the need to create in their own way. No one has the right to encroach on other people’s creative integrity, method or means of creation.

Art is unique, it is never the same despite the insistence of the world to place art in boxes with labels.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. – Henry Ward Beecher

The Artist's Challenge

The momentum of the world is our greatest challenge.

It has been building for a very long time, and if we try unwittingly to be a part of it then try to create from there, our art will be spoiled.

Our society is constantly in the making and is becoming more and better than is was before. However, we creatives must step outside of that to create.

We must enter our own world and make things from there.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. – Pablo Picasso

Creative Integrity

You must be selfish and uncompromising in your art. You must maintain creative integrity no matter what. The small voice that directs us sounds like a whisper and stays with us always.

It’s loud when we are quiet, and quiet when the world is loud, but it never leaves us. It calls us to keep our creativity intact and true, to never compromise despite the temptation from the world to do so.

If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it. – Ray Bradbury

Download & Share The Artist's Manifesto

I hope you share my enthusiasm for creative integrity. If so, please consider downloading and sharing this message.

It's something I believe wholeheartedly in, and feel every artist everywhere needs to embrace.

Artists like you and me are needed, we are more than necessary. We bring balance to a crazy messed up world, and so it is our duty to create.

We are the Storymakers, and we create stories from our art. If it were not for us the world would be a very dark place.

Download The Artist's Manifesto and let's get back to creating things for the right reasons.