The Highly Sensitive Person as Artist, Sign #7
Visit highlysensitiverefuge.com , 21 Signs You’re a Highly Sensitive Person, author Jenn Granneman Dec. 12 2019 .
Disclaimer: I am not giving professional advice here. These are my opinions. That said……#7 You’re a Seeker.
You are “captivated by the mysteries of human nature and the universe.” You want answers.
This is cool, but honestly, I got almost nothing.
While being ‘a Seeker’ seems a great addition to the makeup of the HSP Creative, I honestly see this as another layer of complexity and difficulty.
Life as an HSP Creative is difficult enough, and now we are either entranced or captivated or…distracted?… by essentially unanswerable questions? Hopefully this adds to our creative uniqueness(es).
I can see such propensities being a great benefit for the writer and dramatist. Any storyteller. Perhaps reincarnation of William Blake, a visionary with feet in both realms. The original Blake that is. But not universally useful to painters and dancers and fashion designers.
How tough is the row the Creative hoes? Here’s Steve Pressfield: “The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.” From The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Oh great.
But here is the light at the end of the tunnel: we are workers.
And if you don’t want to work, then you are not an artist. You’re a wannabe.
The Deigo Rivera character in Frida (2002): “If you’re a real painter, you’ll paint because you can’t live without painting. You’ll paint till you die.”
So while we may be ‘Seekers’, we HSP Creatives are also workers.
Creatives as an economic group are just the same as everywhere else. Some Creatives are predominantly worker bees, some are very empathetic, some are analysts, some are bosses. Check out research on the ‘colour’ types of workers that make up a well functioning organization. (Yah yah, Creatives are mostly an organization of one. I say it still applies.)
The idea is that most people are predominantly one of the four worker types. We are made of a mix of all four characteristics, but predominantly one type. Worker bee Creatives love to master what to do and get to work. Knowing what to paint is their hardest task. Empathetic types are moved by social and political issues and technical mastery is a means to the end; boss Creatives have hirelings and big projects; analyst / thinkers love complexity, mastering techniques and processes.
Since the leopard can’t change its spots, we need to recognize our strengths and how to use them. Even if we have to invent both ourselves and the world we want to create in. Be the change you want to see and all that. Being captivated by ‘the big questions’ some of the time is just another component of our experience, layering over all the other stuff.
It gets dark, though, when you spend untold hours delving into diversions that aid you in nothing. One can get lost in an endless exploration of new techniques, social causes, questionable business ventures, conspiracy theories or even Youtube vids about our ancient alien lizard overlords and DNA (I heard, supposedly) amongst many other rabbit holes we can fall into. Just sayin’. The Illuminati only want your money.
To truly seek answers to “life, the universe and everything”, I would recommend time spent mastering deep meditation. You could make direct contact with the Cosmos.
Or as Roy Batty said, “I’ve seen…things…you people wouldn’t believe…” Blade Runner, 1982.
Yeah, so I got almost nothing.
Hey, it’s a new year! Get to work!
Sean.