By Brad Beckstrom
I had a dream the other night that I was getting up every morning and shooting myself out of a cannon. The dream was odd because it was on a bit of a loop. There were multiple human cannonball shots, featuring me, but they were all different. Some of these went well, others went very poorly. I don’t recall any crowds cheering. It was just me and the cannon.
I’m glad I don’t visit a shrink or try to attach any deep meaning to these type of flying, falling dreams, but at times, they are oddly insightful. You see, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about creative ambition. Creative ambition in the sense of mastery, versus success and recognition. Shooting yourself out of that cannon, taking all of the risk with the just the dream of ending up a bit further down the road.
Making art versus money, what would happen?
When many of us think of “ambition”, we think of success, recognition, financial rewards. What interests me is looking at ambition from a new angle. Asking the question; what would happen if we took all of that drive and ambition and threw it into making art versus making money?
I’m not strictly speaking to career artists, musicians, writers and other creatives here, I’m speaking to everyone. As human beings, we’re all natural born storytellers and creatives. It’s how we learn. It’s always been how we learn — from cave paintings to stories passed down through generations in front of campfires. [Read more…] about Creative Ambition or Shooting Yourself Out of a Cannon Every Day.