If we’re being real for a moment, let’s acknowledge that we live in a world where commercial opportunity often takes precedence over artistic sensibilities.
Yet, it’s crucial to remember the importance of nurturing creativity and allowing artists—writers, illustrators, filmmakers, musicians, actors, or anyone who uses creative expression to produce works of art—the freedom to experiment without letting notions of what will sell influence creation.
In this edition of our newsletter, we explore the importance of letting artists “play,” and why it’s crucial to foster innovation.
And, we’re releasing a bonus freebie in the form of the graphic novel Pressed, a playtime experiment from co-founder Jesse himself!
The very role of the artist is to push boundaries through creative expression.
At its core, being an artist involves using imagination, skills, and techniques to communicate ideas, emotions, and experiences to an audience.
Artists often draw inspiration from their surroundings, personal experiences, cultural influences, and social issues to create meaningful and impactful pieces.
Artists play a vital role in society by challenging norms, sparking dialogue, fostering empathy, and enriching cultural heritage through their creative endeavors.
Yet no matter the medium, we see commercial prioritization over creative sensibilities in various forms of art.
Market-based limitations in art can look like a number of things, such as:
Writing a book in a popular genre solely for its commercial appeal
Making films following formulaic plot structures and character archetypes to cater to specific audiences
Writing songs with repetitive hooks or simplistic lyrics to appeal to the masses
(It can also look like key stakeholders in publishing and film not “taking a chance” on diverse narratives and/or storytellers, but we’ll save that deeper dive for later.)
All of these examples have something in common—a fear of taking risks.
And this comes at the expense of artistic innovation, integrity, and personal vision.
We must encourage artists to be brave, because fear restricts the very creative process that is necessary to get to the “big idea.”
Between the two of us as co-founders of Moonbeam, we have worked with hundreds of artists across the literary and filmmaking landscapes. We are also artists ourselves—Jesse is a children’s book creator, and Rebecca is a writer and filmmaker.
We get it—we all got bills to pay. For emerging artists, it can be tempting to want to emulate approaches that are already tried and true in the marketplace.
If you’re an established artist, the business (and even yourself) may not feel comfortable with you branching into new genres, voices, styles and subject matters to experiment with your art, when sales and livelihoods are at stake.
Nonetheless, we believe an artist’s playtime and risk-taking are necessary in the long-game of creative—and commercial—success.
Playtime allows us to go deeper into our craft, explore new ideas, and push the boundaries of art and culture. When we are free to play, at worst, maybe we get it “wrong” for the market, but our creative process still benefits from testing things out, preparing us for eventual product-market fit.
At best, we produce work that is truly innovative and impactful—and finds commercial success.
(As a prime example of this, refer to NPR’s recent interview with rapper André 3000 of Outkast, after the release of his solo flute album, described as a “stunning 87-minute mind-bender, minimalist and experimental, tribal and transcendent.” This, from an artist whose original influence was predominantly in the realm of Southern hip-hop with funk, jazz, and techno elements, and inspired a generation of artists.)
On a personal level, we’re sharing what it looks like to experiment in artistic freedom.
For his own part, Moonbeam’s co-founder Jesse, who is an award-winning children’s book creator with six traditionally published books on the market, invested his own money and time with Yonson Carbonell and Naomi Fantauzzi to create Pressed (a whimsical graphic novel).
This was an experiment in creative expression with zero consideration for market fit, comparables and business cases. Even though as a literary agent, Jesse has sold over 40 book concepts to a dozen major publishers in the last 24 months, he purposely shared this book with no publishers. He wanted to ensure capitalistic considerations weren’t anywhere near the making of the art.
Just pure artists at play.
We’re sharing it with you in hopes that whatever you do—engineering, entrepreneurship, artistry, you name it—you take more time to play within your life’s work.
Sincerely,
Jesse & Rebecca