Im[p]erfection | An Inspiring Look at Creativity and Art At It’s Core With Seattle-Grown Photographer Chase Jarvis (aka Rockstar)

November 8, 2013 from Starbucks in Newcastle because it sounded like fun to write this.

by Julian Michael, Kreate Media

Face your fears. Be brave. Embrace your message. It won’t be perfect. It definitely won’t be perfect the first time. All touchpoints for today’s conversation at the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center with bigger-than-life yet so down to earth, Chase Jarvis.

“What an awesome f%cking town we love in,” Jarvis opened his talk with. Who would argue with him, he’s right!

Keeping with the vibe, I was absolutely f%cking inspired to be in the presence of a modern day legend in the creative and photography community worldwide. Today Jarvis made me take a long hard look at what I’m doing with my life, with my creativity, how fear and passion work hand in hand, how I need to get more work out there instead of talking about it and developing it in my own im[p]erfection. Without knowing it, Jarvis made me shift a gear this morning forever.

Boasting some of the world’s prime Fortune 100 clients such as Apple, Nike, Microsoft, Toyota, REI and many more premium clients around the globe he’s had the chance to see many perspectives and many things most of us would dream about in our highly centralized lives. We’re allowed to dream, though…right!? I mean that’s what his talk was really about, about getting your dreams into reality through whatever channel that may be.

Projects = Bleeding Passion & Pure Creativity. We need to do more of these.

“Did you know Ansel Adams used to sell his paintings for 25-cents or up to three dollars,” riveted Jarvis about the famous landscape portrait artist during his 90-minute chat. Jarvis shared that Adams was actually a musician first and that he used this channel with high-end audiences to divulge his love of photography. “Are you willing to sell your art for 25-cents or three dollars,” Jarvis asked the audience inadvertently.

Hearing his account of Adams really made me circle back to when I was starting out trying to capture the sports and lifestyle modeling agencies’ attention in the northwest. A few years ago I embarked on eight months of pro-bono portrait sessions with talented models I hand-selected for three to four-hour sessions up and down the west coast looking to rid myself of the imperfections and find the very best to present agencies. It worked! I landed dozens of jobs for leading agencies and produced some amazing images during this period. But only after thousands of dollars in expense, thousands of hours on-site, countless hours buried inside my laptop burning the candle at both ends on the Photoshop and Lightroom wave. I was passionate. I was churning out my creativity daily with imperfection, fear or failing and ambition leading the way. That was awesome! That was was flashed though my head today.

Creative minds think similarly in their function. That little mouse wheel is always turning and if there’s no outlet, the wheel just keeps on turning and turning, many times with a new mouse on the wheel. CreativeLive, ChaseJarvis, Seattle 100, and Songs for Eating and Drinking are all recent Chase Jarvis endeavors where a different mouse jumped on the wheel, was fully explored and evolved into real life enterprises, businesses and/or experiences for many.

Phenomenal. Just absolutely phenomenal to take action on so many types of endeavors (projects) and create, build, learn, grow, get it wrong and get it right. I’m in awe.

Macklemore, helicopters & the line at Zoka and the power of boots

“He was just out of rehab, living out his parents’ basement,” Jarvis said about the now famous R&B megastar Macklemore pertaining to a video clip he showed from his ‘Songs for Eating and Drinking’ series he produces. “(Macklemore) was so vulnerable that day,” he added. You could see it in his eyes.

Jarvis’ clip shows Macklemore reciting ‘Wings’ and other popular lyrics that eventually went multi-platinum. It’s casual, cool with an ultra-live feel. It’s #epic what Jarvis is doing with this series of bringing together silos of creative Seattle-based talent in a variety of musical arenas for a concerto of sorts that drive the creative bus to new horizons…including the top of the Sorrento Hotel apparently, according to Jarvis.

Zoka: The Birthplace of the ‘Best Camera‘ App

In Seattle there are a chain of coffeeshops called ‘Zoka’, which are quaint and cozy, usually larger than most, and darn if they don’t have rockin’ customer service and coffee drinks (yelp.com where are you?). Jarvis was standing in line at Zoka in 2008 (-ish) waiting for his daily dish of espresso when his buddies continue to give him sh&t about taking pictures with his (ghetto) flip-phone, spending way too much time trying to edit them, then attempting to share them. He had an epiphany…why is there nothing out there capable of all this in one!?

Apps, as in iPhone apps, etc, were just coming out and legitimately Jarvis’ new app claimed first to market with amazing potential. Many of us now know the very popular app ‘Instagram’ sold for a whopping amount of money to Facebook. Jarvis admitted to failure by missing a window of opportunity that was ultimately due to not embracing the Im[p]erfection that accompanied such an endeavor. A learning experience worth billions, almost literally. The audience was a little more silent during this segment.

“Entrepreneurs are artists. And artists are entrepreneurs,” Jarvis almost muttered. “I wish I would have known that at that time.” I found myself nodding my head uncontrollably during this segment. I meet dozens of entrepreneurs on a weekly basis, many of which forget or haven’t fully acknowledged their true contribution to society and the world. This quote will forever resonate with me.

Boots (as in Bootstrapping): CreativeLive is Alive

For most entrepreneurs ‘bootstrapping‘, or using one’s own funds (typically in limited amounts) is the preferred and often the only method of getting their idea, business model, technology and/or concept, into the world. For Jarvis, this was just another endeavor that started small and made a big impact.

“Our goal is to transcend the barriers of three most common barriers to education: Geography, Cost, and Access,” said Jarvis about the ‘why’ for creating this online educational platform.

CreativeLive is an endeavor he believes will grow even more influential than his Best Camera app, which was voted a top app by the New York Times, according to Jarvis. This medium opens the doors to creatives and people in general to learn directly from the leaders in the creative world on a live platform brought exclusively to their front internet door! #epic!!

“Done is better than perfect,” is really what I heard emphasized throughout his talk. This was a quote from a friend of mine in the professional organizing world, Denise Rosemont of Simply Placed. Little does she know this single quote has allowed me to accomplish so much the past few years that my perfectionist mentality (common for creatives) was holding me back from. Thank you again Denise!

Combine this quote with those of Jarvis’ words and I’m ready to kick some Im[p]erfection ass in the near future with a side of fear overcome! Holler back atcha Macklemore and thanks millions Chase for a great morning of inspiration.

To learn more about ‘Creative Mornings’ visit their Seattle site at http://creativemornings.com/cities/sea.

Julian Michael is a Seattle-based Photographer and Creative Director who enjoys capturing people, sharing and telling stories and working within a variety of creative fields to keep the fire going. Cheers! Reach him at jm (at) julian-michael.com