We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jackson Floyd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jackson, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
For me, Creativity has always been an intrinsic part of me. This is because I attach my creativity to my emotions which means I have an endless supply of creativity because humans have an endless supply of emotions. There are some instances where i’ll sit down to create something and find myself struggling to think of what I want to make but usually closing my eyes and focusing in on how I’m feeling at the time leads to some sort of image or theme popping into my mind which is what I end up creating.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I like to refer to myself as a “Cartist” due to my stylized photos of cars. I believe it would be disingenuous to call myself a car photographer because my photography skills are not the greatest. I just happen to be great with photoshop so, I’m a Cartist. I also paint which is my favorite aspect of my creativity. Painting is a way for me to put my emotions and inner thoughts into something physical which means so much to me. If anyone is interested in seeing my paintings, you can find them on my personal Instagram account: misterphloyd and you can find my car photos on my car photography Instagram account: jacflo.pics. I don’t have any events or anything like that coming up. Right now I’m just focused on growing my brand and getting my art in front of more people.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think my 3 biggest qualities are my understanding of my emotions, my confidence in my abilities, and my pride in what I do. Understanding my emotions is important because most of the art I create comes partly from my emotions so if I couldn’t understand my emotions, I wouldn’t be able to properly create. The confidence I have in my abilities is what keeps me going. It allows me to never hit a wall where I tell myself I’m not good enough and give up. It’s a trait I think so many artists struggle with and a trait that holds so many of these artists back. And lastly, my pride in what I do makes me never shy away from what I create. I love showing my work off whenever I get the chance and if I didn’t have this trait, it would be impossible to grow as an artist. You need to get your art out there if you want to grow.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I believe I have an amazing ability to not get overwhelmed. Anytime I feel like I might have too much on my plate, I just remind myself that it isn’t going to ruin my life and everything will be okay. If you can get to the point where you can tell yourself everything will be okay, and you can genuinely believe that, you will never feel truly overwhelmed. I believe this is one of my biggest strengths and a huge part of the reason why I’ve had the success I’ve had.
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Image Credits
All photos by Jackson Floyd
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