Emergence ⟺ submergence

Acknowledging your submerged self, the media you choose to portray it, and The Beatles.

Have your ever felt that you are emerging from something? If so, where are you emerging from?

I just saw a marketing post flow through my Instagram feed that sparked today’s writing. The music industry consultant, Natasha Brito¹, put forth the idea that artists are always speaking to their audience on two levels:

• one that is plainly stated like a tagline like, “funk rock band hailing from New England.”
• and another subliminal level experienced by the audience through the work. This layer of messaging includes unspoken identity elements like logos, artwork, fonts, design, colors, sounds, clothing, and I believe, perhaps even through the marketing medium and search elements like taxonomies too.²

This seems spot on to me as I’ve always felt there are at least two tales being told by creatives, and sometimes they are even a bit contradictory. There’s the obvious, elevator-speech level messaging, and the under-story, which is detected by vibration and energy within a given media ecosphere – with conscious elements dropped by the artist top-side too.

As someone who practices my craft often, I realize that the work I make always also includes personal memories, wonderings, and challenges that I release while making the piece. In this way, the very making of the work is an alchemical practice: mixing disparate ideas and to make something tangible and whole with them.

Something others may recognize as ‘gold,’ or at least I do.

Maybe your work is a symbol of your transcendence of some kind of suffering?

I can’t say I have answers. But I do know as an introverted person who experienced some trauma and practiced some courage, layers of understanding emerge in my work over time. And I usually see them all after the work is completed. And I love this. The process of making is the emergence.

The Beatles

Remember seeing those Ed Sullivan show clips of The Beatles? Girls were screaming in tears, and the energy of anticipation was so high that they were born into American culture as icons overnight.

The ‘above ground’ marketing story was that The Beatles were ‘4 young lads from Liverpool,’ ‘a rock and roll band’ and similar descriptors. But the subliminal cues were huge, these four young men were carrying overt energy of sexuality, simplicity (“I want to hold your hand”), brotherhood, and gender-bending loving freedom that made folks crazy.

Their mop-top longer hair at the time was nearly scandalous, and John, Paul, George and Ringo were free enough to not only look different but have loads of fun while they were rebelling in plain sight.

They loved what they were doing, and this was scream-worthy right there.

A quick, Yeah Yeah I know caveat: Nothing takes the place of knowing your craft. The Beatles were all consummate musicians, and the synergy of their work together was extraordinary. That’s the above ground stuff: practice and spending time together with common purpose. But what’s below is what drives the beat. The deep sounds from nature, sexuality, creativity, history, rhythm, and nature.

Self inquiry for creatives

Here’s are examples of how you could explore the latest emergences of your deepest self:

If you have a creative moniker like “water-colorist,” what else is submerged below? How deep is your appreciation for your media? Water? How does this element affect how you do your work? How do your memories of water affect your work? What does working with water and color mean to you?

If your creativity is expressed in relationships, how do you show your love and build bonds? Are these tangible and visible to the people with whom you wish to relate? Is there a particular medium you use to express your simpatico? Phone, writing, visits, purchases, practical support?

If your creativity is expressed in making food for people, how do you chop, reveal, and coax deliciousness out of natural ingredients? What are the origins of those ingredients, the place they grew or roamed or swam? What moves you while you are cooking for others? How can you delight more in that?

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FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT 😉

This is a Term of Endearment Post (TOE)

1. My day job right now includes supporting two Rhode Island summer music festivals via digital marketing. What I love about this work, is that I’m positioned to help raise the visibility of lesser known artists, helping them to “emerge,” so to speak. This gives me great joy. ↩︎
2. This is one of the layers of meaning I’m working with in this digital sphere: taxonomy, search and medium. There are no hard-and-fast rules to do good work using these tools. I believe media choices and standards are shifting as we speak in the day of AI-based search and regurgitation. ↩︎