Experimental And Blind Faith

“How can we offer the art it needs without blind trust? We are required to believe in something that doesn’t exist in order to allow it to come into being.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

“In the process of experimentation, we allow ourselves to make mistakes, to go too far, to go even further, to be inept. There is no failure, as every step we take is necessary to reach our destination, including the missteps. Each experiment is valuable in its own way if we learn something from it. Even if we can’t comprehend its worth, we are still practicing our craft, moving ever so much closer to mastery.” -Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

To make our art or do any kind of passion project, we need two kinds of faith: experimental faith and blind faith. What type we will call upon depends on where we’re at in our artistic journey.

At the beginning of a new project, we need blind faith. If per our definition, art is “doing something that might not work in service of others”, then we realize what we’re making, wasn’t there before. It’s brand, spanking new. Blind faith moves us forward and allows us to take the leap (encouragement from our family, friends and colleagues–a supportive community–also helps tremendously).

Once we’ve committed and entered in, what now keeps us going is experimental faith. Trusting the process. Knowing that our failures are not failures, they are merely experiments. We go down rabbit holes, we start and stop. We ideate. We pivot. We learn what’s helpful and not. What works and doesn’t. And why. We sort. We keep and discard. The answer is out there, we just haven’t found it yet. 

Like Edison, we trust that eventually we’ll make our light bulb. It just might take us discovering 10,000 or more ways of NOT making it, first.