All Gear - No Idea

Introduction

In today's materialistic world, we are bombarded with advertisements and ideas that we need expensive stuff, and it doesn't matter what you do, simply existing you will be told that you need this and that to do well and feel well. The creative and artistic space is no different. You need expensive exclusive brushes, camera gear, or the latest iPhone, you need expensive software, and whatever artistic trade or hobby you want to do you're told that you need to spend your money to have fun and to make something of worth. Constantly on social media, we are told that to cook like a professional we need handmade knives from Japan or if you want to make a simple cup of coffee at home you need an entire espresso machine. I want to make it clear that spending money on something you love or on higher quality things for your work or self-enjoyment isn't wrong, there's nothing wrong with it at all, and doing something you love you will inherently spend a lot of time and finances on it. But I want you to know that you don't need to, especially not at first, and don't let this idea hold you back from creating something meaningful for yourself. Yes, there is a difference in the quality of coffee beans, paint, and cameras, but at the end of the day, how you use these tools matters. I think today we see a lot of people who have "all the gear but no idea", and perhaps it's a symptom of our constant desire for instant gratification, we believe that if we only spend a lot of money on something we will automatically be better at it and we don't have to live with our own failures. In the end, having more ideas than gear will take you further and we will discuss this in this blog post.

I personally have a bit of a hate-love relationship with photography and for the longest time refused to call it an art. In my head, it was a craft so seeped in pragmatism and a part of everyday life that surely it couldn't be art. I also believe perhaps a little stereotypically that the whole concept of "all gear - no idea" is most encultured in the photography community. It seemed to me in my surroundings many years ago that anyone who could afford a costly camera and some good lenses instantly labeled themselves as a professional photographer. In my immediate surroundings then were only high-quality, high-resolution, and over-edited images that looked like they were from a National Geographic copycat made as a high school project. In the art world and the museums I visited, it was mostly the same, bland and soulless images with a wall of text next to them, explaining the profoundness of the photograph. I despised it, and it felt like a great disrespect to me that somebody could pick up a camera and photograph something, seemingly without effort and just call it art. In my head photography was something we do to capture a moment, much like a painting but only more direct, and as a youngling, I loved going through my family's old photo albums, I'd sit for hours and look at family and friends that I had never had the chance to meet, still in some way they were with us. These photos moved me on an emotional level like good art should do. Alas the photography I saw around myself as a young adult was not of the same kind, and perhaps it was due to the overexposure of social media. Everyone lives a rich and fantastic life, but the memory and the sensations of that meal you're enjoying with your friends don't translate into a simple photo on your Instagram story, but I eventually learned that it can.

I realised that the happy amateurs that surrounded me and somehow found their way into exhibitions weren't the only expression of photography. I realised that the ones I knew who did their work in secret had been working for years to perfect their crafts and lacking expensive cameras and lenses these people captured genuine moments, I saw that they were making art. I saw for the first time the amount of time and energy these people poured into their craft, getting up while most people sleep to get the best light for their shot, and the length they went through to ensure a good composition and angle, and then after having spent their days working continued to spend their nights editing and fixing these images. Perhaps it became exceptionally clear to me when I met my wife, because when she told me she was into photography I thought "Great another one", but her work is very different, she edits the photos with abstractions to a point where it looks like a painting. I remember seeing some of her work and following her progress in the following years and I just had to accept within myself that - yeah photography is an art form. For me, it was so refreshing creatively to see somebody mainly use their phone to make such outlandish portraits and works, and being with her and seeing her just find inspiration everywhere she went - not only inspired me but made me realise that art can't be confined to some single practices or ideas and that I was completely in the wrong for trying to gatekeep it, and she really taught me that sometimes it's not about all the expensive gear you have but rather the ideas from your very being, and that translating them into this world can be done through a variety of means. If you love what you do and you pour your soul into it, you will make art and it will be great, you don't need to empty your wallet first.

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Expensive Gear & the Value of Ideas

Gear isn't going to get you all the way there, and while spending money may help you in your pursuits and make your life easier it's not a requirement to create. You don't need the most expensive gear to start doing anything, and a lot of stuff you can source cheaply or even for free. Don't let the monetary situation hinder you from creating. Sure a more expensive paint might give you a nicer colour, or a more expensive camera a clearer image and they can provide a lot of benefits but you don't need it make a painting or to take a photo. It's important to work with what you've got and to utilise these limitations in a creative way. I guarantee you that you can still have fun in the process and even make something you enjoy and that brings you pride. Because at the end of the day art is equally about the process as it is about the end product. Do not overspend and do not be fooled by the allure of expensive gear, if the wish to create within you burns as bright as the stars nothing can stop you on that path. There will be nothing in your way as you create and you will find that your gear only gathers rust and dust, for art is made in the heart, it is not made by mortal hands and it is much greater than you could have imagined, put your money to good use and put it where your mouth is. Your work will impress no one by the price tag or by the cost it took to create, indeed your art speaks for itself, and on its own accord it has revealed the inner workings of your soul. It has declared what you have put into it.

So pour your heart out, and let your work be true. Do not be tempted to wait for your exclusive tools to arrive, seize the moment and remember that inspiration is free, it is of divine providence and no one can put a price on that. You only need the absolute necessities to create. Crudely speaking even to paint you just need paint, anything can be a brush and by the same decree that you have a mind to think you have fingers, and should you lack either you have something else to compensate for it. You are not lacking in anything, truly you are in abundance of the tools you need. Do not paralyse yourself by choice getting stuck in thinking "what do I need to buy to improve?" and next time you find yourself window shopping remember the value of your ideas.

Ideas are often worth more than any tool, indeed ideas are air that can be manifest through your words. Writing and poetry requires nothing of you, but it demands a lot of your mind. Speech was the very first art of humans, and through this expression the rest have manifest. Speaking is free, it costs you nothing, and the tools are only luxuries to capture that speech, and once the floodgates are opened to capture those ideas into something physical is a blessing. The expenses allow you to remember more accurately those ideas, they allow you to capture them in space and time. But the idea itself is bare and exists in complete void, indifferent to both space and time, it is eternal. While it is fun and a blessing to have captured it it is by far more divine to have experienced it, and to be able trace the words that your soul has spoken to you is a joy that can't be described or enjoyed outside of the experience itself, and for that you need only what you have been given since your birth. If you have no tools but an idea you will make something and it will be great, but if you have only tools but no idea you won't create anything, anything at all.

Art and creativity it takes a lot of effort, a lot of time, it takes countless hours of practice and research it takes so much in fact that for some they are entirely consumed by it. Their entire lives become art. What art doesn't take is money, or anything else. You were birthed with the ability to create, it is something much larger than you and something much greater than this mundane world. Being limited by what you have can also be creatively liberating and lead you to entirely new ideas.

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Necessity is the mother of invention

Imposing limitations on your craft can bring a lot of creative and imaginative solutions to problems and can lead to some real artistic innovation. Because when your mind is filled with what-ifs and the thoughts of all the things you could do if you had this and that you're not in a mindset to create. Creation is always unfolding - it's always right in front of you. Limitations of course don't have to be physical but we won't go into the details of what these may entail. Try limiting yourself and see what you can do with as little as possible, the results might shock you. When you can't rely on your tools to do the heavy lifting for you then your mind and soul really get to work. You don't need much, and you don't need anything to start. All you need is to start. Take a pen and do whatever your heart desires. Let it guide you through the process.

You have everything that is necessary for creativity and art, it's all within you. If you don't have the money to buy the gear you think you need then save up but don't let it stop you from creating right here and right now. Especially with the abundance of information in our digital age there are tons of resources for free that can help you and guide you. At the end of the day the quality of your work isn't entirely bound to what you use, if you only have or can only afford cheap paints then start with those. As you practice you will become better no matter the price of your resources. A professional chef can still do more without a knife in a kitchen than an amateur with all the knives in the world. Don't be held back by the material, instead seek to have your mind set you free to the unlimited space it holds. Be creative, take risks and use your necessity and your lack as your greatest resource, you might discover something somebody would never have thought of.

All that is needed for art is your active participation. It needs an idea and gear only helps, but it doesn't do the work for you.