How The Renaissance Conference Sparked My Creativity
Renaissance Conference was 2 words: life changing. They are based in London, but this was the first time it was iin America. I didn’t know what to expect but I loved the theme “Spark Your Creative Soul”. It did exactly that. If you are a creative and want to attend I highly recommend. If you have no idea what I am talking about then keep reading. I’m gonna lay out my 5 key quotes/takeaways as I give a recap:
1. Creativity is Self Forgetful And Self Giving
This quote stuck a chord in me. It’s so easy for me to make my creative work self-centering. I immediately think: How will people think about me because of my work? Creative work can become ME focused instead of others focused. Someone said, “To create is service…[and] great art makes you forget the artist and lose yourself in the art”. This is powerful. Because, like I said in my About page, maybe withholding our gifts isn’t humility after all but actually a lack of service.
2. Stay Persistent Even Without Human Praise
This is a moment of transparency. I recently found out I didn’t get a film grant that I’ve now applied for twice in a row. When I found out my heart sunk. Moments of disappointment like this can make us question. It’s so easy to begin thinking, “Dang, maybe I’m not cut out for this? Maybe my work is not good enough.”
But how many of us don’t do a thing because we are waiting for people to applaud us. I got to speak with someone on the Renaissance Conference’s media panel (my favorite one) afterwards about this. We talked about how as creatives we do desire that applause to keep going because it feels crappy if nobody acknowledges our work. Simultaneously though thhe goal is to have our work be self forgetful and self giving
3. You have to be fearless. You have to be willing to make mistakes
Maybe the craft isn’t getting praise because it isn’t good. That’s okay. The point of art is not to be perfect. There’s room to grow always. That’s the beauty of it.
I know me and pride want to be perfect always. But I got to remind myself it’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes help you grow. It doesn’t mean you are a bad artist or can’t do the thing you wanna do. It just means that we need to practice more.
4. Ask God for Power
I left out the part where the Renaissance Conference was filled with a lot of prayer and worship. At the beginning, at the end, it was everywhere. I am not a Christian content creator. I am an artist and a believer so my faith intertwines in my work naturally.
So one thing that stuck out to me was this common thing of inviting God into the creative process. Not just at the beginning but throughout the whole thing. As the speaker said, we are commissioners to collaborate with God and connect with God and others.
So moving forward instead of just a lil short prayer before I start, I want to infuse God in everything. I want to write WITH God more. Edit WITH God more.
Also, I desire to be bold with asking God for power and to infuse with what we don’t have – instead of just impressing people
5. Play
Building off of that, there is also beauty in just playing with God. Doing the art with God as a fun thing instead of always being deep and serious. I want to get back to the place where I create as a form of play instead of for human praise or an algorithm (yes we did also have a speaker discussion on AI and creativity – rant for another day)
I want to experiment & play around again with God. I don’t gotta be so serious all the time for real. Someone also said at the conference, “If you would burst if you wouldn’t say it then do it” . And that is how I want to create. It’s also why I have this blog and am making videos. Because for me, creating is sort of a beautiful technique that helps me survive. Overall, it was amazing!
Renaissance Conference is happening in America next year in SF and NYC. I won’t be able attend due to Juneteenth weekend but I definitely recommend going at some point in your life. But in the future maybe I’ll join the London one?
