I went to see my friend Chiara’s show at the Rickshaw Stop in SF the other night. Chiara is always up to something innovative and authentic but this was a Motel Pools set, the garage-rock iteration of her rich, smoky vocals accompanied by a killer band, who keep up with her wild and angsty energy brilliantly. As Motel Pools plunged whole-heartedly through their set list I found myself thinking about Chiara’s commitment to her work and the power of her artistic recklessness. It wasn’t long before I was wearing the Give No Fucks mantra tee I bought at her merch booth and connecting the dots between this idea of artistic integrity and the importance of not caring about the outcome.
So much of our world is outcome-driven. It’s all about success, it’s about the finish line, the goal, solid metrics proving to us we did it, we succeeded. But good artists care more about process than outcome, good artists create because they can, because they have to, because they are compelled to. And they value the act of saying what needs to be said over how people will react—over what the outcome will be.
This is what I’m learning from Chiara at least. I’m learning to give no fucks about the outcome and I’m learning to step fully into the creative process for the sake of the creative process.
