Childish Gambino / Donald Glover's Creative Process

[TJ Reeves]

If you don't know who Childish Gambino/Donald Glover is, you need to.

In my opinion, he is currently this generation's most prolific and dominant poly-creative. No one in this generation comes close to the dominance he's had in so many different creative areas. 

Here are some area's you may have seen his talents:

 - TV acting, most notably with the award winning show Community (which he starred in).

- Movie acting, most recently appearing as the scientist to save Mark Wahlberg in The Martian. He will also star as Lando Calrissian in a new Starwars movie to be released soon.

- Screenwriting, as the chief editor and story writer for the hit shows 30 Rock and Atlanta.

- Stand up comedy, with his own 1 hour special on Comedy Central called Wierdo.

- Hip-Hop, with two wonderful rap albums and a vicious free styling ability. 

- and most recently, with an RnB album that debuted at #1, called Awaken, My Love, where he COMPLETELY changed styles.

Seeing his creative process may help you see how important it is to carve time out to think and create. I found a neat article that describes his creative process. Notice how much space he allows for himself to dive into his intuition and intense focus. Also, notice how his interest in different subjects informs is creativity instead of taking away from it... some people get too focused on one subject without taking in outside ideas for inspiration: 

"Like many other artists, Gambino is most creative when he’s at home. He says he has an empty room in his house where he lets all of his creativity and imagination run wild. It’s full of his music, equipment, spray paint and white walls to use as his canvas. “I wake up every morning and I start grabbing things — spray-painting the walls, recording, writing,” said Gambino. “They’re all connected for me. It’s all about trying to get to the bottom of what being a human is.”

Childish Gambino admitted that although he may seem to be living a double life—acting under his birth name and rapping under a stage name—that there is no dividing line for him. He said, “I don’t separate things, all my ideas bleed into each other.” He also explained that his multitasking career was inspired by surrealist painter Salvador Dali. “I wrote a postcard to myself that said, ‘Never forget Dali.’ He would paint, do sculpture, ­architecture, film, photography.” Which would explain why Gambino doesn’t feel the need to ever box himself into one specific title or field."

The question is: How much time and intense focus have you devoted to your creativity? Or do you just feel 'too tired' to make things? 

Edited April 22, 2017 by Treeves4u