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Artist Archetypes: The Maker
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Why do you create? The "Maker" Archetype is driven by the joy of the craft and the process, often valuing artistic integrity over external validation.
Knowing your strengths, gifts, and motivations can help you uncover the essence of what drives your creative process. This season on the Be. Make. Do. Podcast, we're discovering Your Artist Spiritual Archetype.
In this episode Lisa and Dan introduce the Archetypes and highlight The Maker Archehtype.
The Maker, The Mystic, The Soul Healer, The Imaginative Visionary, The Prophetic Critic or the Storyteller? What's your archetype? Take the quiz at www.soulmakers.org/quiz
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Stay in touch and share your thoughts: TikTok: @bemakedopodcast Instagram: @bemakedopodcast Facebook: @bemakedopodcast YouTube: @BeMakeDoPodcast
Join the conversation at www.soulmakers.org/bemakedo
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Transcript
Introduction to Be Make Do Soul Makers Podcast
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Be Make Do Soul Makers Podcast, where we explore what it takes to pursue your calling as an artist with spiritual wholeness and creative freedom. I'm your host, Lisa Smith, and I'm here with my producer and co-host, Dan ABH. Hello, everyone.
Exploring Artist Archetypes
00:00:29
Speaker
So today we are continuing our conversation about the artist archetypes, which is our theme this season, kind of trying to think about what motivates us to create, what motivates you to create in your own unique and specific way. And today we're going to get into the maker archetype.
00:00:48
Speaker
So before we get into that, though, first of all, I just want to say thanks for everyone that has been doing the quiz. It's been overwhelmingly awesome to see the cd amount of people that are taking this quiz. um And with that many people that have taken the quiz, a couple of questions have came up. So I love for us to address those. So ready for the first one. Let's go. Where did this quiz come from? Great, great question. Well, it came from us.
The Maker Archetype Quiz
00:01:16
Speaker
thank you next question the end ah We made it for Soul Makers and ah for the podcast as a tool. um Actually, it started as something I developed years ago as I was observing over 20 plus years working with artists and creatives, um observing patterns.
00:01:35
Speaker
in people and when they're trying to figure out ah what choices should I make um as ah as a creative, as an artist? What what path should I pursue? um the The angst and the tension that comes from trying to pursue somebody else's idea or vision of success and not being true to yourself and true to what really motivates you. Time and time again, I find people get into spaces um that then they start hating what they do or they don't have time to make art the way that they wanted to um because they're following somebody's plan for, quote unquote, success. So we created this as just a fun way to get people thinking about why you create. um So yeah, this is something that we created based on our observation. So it the science, um there's no science behind it. at all. It's just observable um realities. And then we've borrowed from other um types of quizzes and stuff like that to help with some of the language. But yeah, that's where it came from.
Multiple Archetypes: A Unique Blend
00:02:43
Speaker
Great answer because that's the truth. Yes, that's the truth. All right. And then there's a few more questions here, but I think this one we should address too. Okay. um Because I know this has been coming up a lot for um people and myself. ah What if I am more than one archetype?
00:03:00
Speaker
Ah, yes, that is a good question. And the truth is, of course you are. You're more than one archetype, right? So because the way that this quiz is shaped is is not a personality test, okay? So it's not like the Enneagram or um even a spiritual gifts test or like Strengths Finders or something like that. It's not that robust.
00:03:26
Speaker
ah Sorry to say. It's really geared towards asking you five simple questions that are kind of sneaky ways to ask you why you do what you do, what gets you out of bed in the morning, and also to to turn on the light bulb that we are all so different. Even if we could both be musicians, we could both be writers, we could both be poets, but why I write poetry could be very different than why you write poetry.
00:03:54
Speaker
And if if we understand that, then we can start asking even better questions about what is going to be fulfilling for you in your creative
The Maker's Journey: Joy in Creation
00:04:03
Speaker
life. What kind of support do you need in your creative life, et cetera? So most of us are ah probably a um and of several of them, or maybe 60% one thing and 40% another. Does that math add up?
00:04:19
Speaker
ah or 20% everything or something like that. And that's good. you know you can You can look at the other archetypes once you take your quiz. Look at the other archetypes. Maybe something about that also resonates for you and you create your own little bag of understanding. It plays out differently depending on who you are. um So yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, we are on to our third archetype so far in this series and we are about to get into The maker. The maker. Let's do it.
00:05:02
Speaker
All right, let's get started with the maker. So to describe the maker, I think the the one sentence that we have at the top of that that page is is great. It says, to you, everything is a creative project. It's the joy of making that drives you. You're just wired that way. And I think that fully explains what the maker is. Again, we're talking about our motivations. So a maker is somebody who is extremely um In love with the craft they want to explore every possible sound that that guitar will make and
00:05:42
Speaker
bend it into new and innovative ways. They want to they enjoy the way um that the clay shapes and what happens in that, and maybe even the technical components of how that's made or how pigment is made. um They're very, very invested in being good at what they do and being good at the craft. But that also brings enjoyment. So that is a fulfilling experience to just make something, to create something.
00:06:21
Speaker
I think that that is the underlying most important thing about the maker. I, for instance, am not a maker. I'm not at all. I appreciate craftsmanship and I appreciate what that brings you. And I do enjoy the craft and I do enjoy doing it, but it's not why.
00:06:41
Speaker
So you know for for me as an actor, i like can I can get so nerdy about acting and about theater. I love thinking about it. I love doing it. But what really motivates me to create is the possibility of of playing with ideas and connecting things and helping new things to happen. And so I'm just as satisfied doing that um like in this arena as I am on a stage. For a maker, that would not work. For an actor maker, it's got to be acting. It's got to be on stage. Right, right. And you know, I swing several ways when it comes to the archetypes, but yeah this was the one, Lisa, that I was sure when we were
00:07:22
Speaker
putting this together and looking at it, I was like, I'm a maker. yeah I mean, i even just looking at the description, I'm like, oh, I'm such a maker. And maybe I was at one point in my life, maybe in my 20s and early 30s, I'm not gonna say how old I am, um that I definitely felt the passion that's kind of spilling out of this description right now. where it was so focused on making things. And um at the time, I didn't understand where that was coming from, which is a beautiful feeling. To be honest with you, it's just like, oh man, like I just can't wait to do this and I have to do this. I have to make something, create something, whether that's music or um or make an event or put on a show or whatever it is. um And I think ah as I got,
00:08:14
Speaker
um and older again i am um I definitely started to veer off from that. I do still think if we talk about percentages, I definitely will rank in the maker, but it is not my my my my top one. and i And I figured when I get into um My later years I may become a prophetic critic. know you know yeah It's possible and I mean like you were like the question was asking before um a lot of artists just by virtue of the fact that their artists have some of the maker.
00:08:49
Speaker
you know, obviously we love to work with the materials and work with, um, within the bounds of whatever our creative tools are. But the the differentiation is that like, it's that like, why do you get out of bed in the morning? What, what difference does it make? Like for instance, okay. So we can talk, uh, examples a little bit here. yeah Um,
00:09:13
Speaker
I was thinking that I think ah Prince is a maker or Bjork. um or even I was thinking like um Stanley Kubrick, probably Frida Kahlo, and here's whats here's what gets interesting with these guys because you might say, actually, I was talking with my husband Jay about this before and he's like, I don't know about Prince and Bjork as um as makers like because their work is visionary.
00:09:42
Speaker
you know they've like Prince has transformed
Challenges of Artistic Integrity vs. Expectations
00:09:45
Speaker
landscapes within music and Bjork is so insanely creative that her work is is visionary, but that's, there's difference in the motivation. So from what I've seen in like interviews and stuff with Prince, he- Those are the best. Yeah, he really does not care what anybody says. He doesn't care what anybody thinks. And I think ah my impression is I think he loves that people love his music, but he's not creating it for them.
00:10:17
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? right Like what I've heard is that he has like vaults of music that's never even been released. Like he just was constantly creating. He had such ah an incredible amount of talent, but love for the music and the sound. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you another fun factoid about Prince is that when he was approached to do the 1989 Batman film, the studio was not expecting that's what the soundtrack was going to sound like. oh Because it was so 100% Prince, like what they assumed that it was going to be. And it just sounded like a pop record. You know what I mean? It's sort of like this dark brooding thing that maybe Tim Burton or the execs and i Warner Brothers were trying to go for. And I just can't imagine, and again, don't quote me on this, but I can just imagine Prince just saying, you asked me to do this thing. I'm going to follow through. I'm going to do it in like record timing. Like I think he did all the whole thing like in two weeks. Wow. And it it's is 100% him. And it still gets to the themes of the film, but like he wasn't gonna like change himself or change where that comes from. um right And I think that's really, I think his whole career um up until his um his passing was always like that.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, because he's motivated by that curiosity of what can I create? what What do I feel is happening here? And so somebody at Prince's level can do that with a Batman film, right? But if you're just starting out as a maker,
00:11:52
Speaker
and you're just starting out as a musician and ah somebody asks you to write something for their thing for their you know documentary film or their film or whatever or their exhibit or if you're working in a church context for a church service or something and you're like, I'm gonna write what I feel and I don't care what anybody else thinks.
00:12:16
Speaker
Probably you're not going to get paid. Probably you're not going to be asked to come back again. you know So there's the challenge. There's the challenge for the maker is that the artistic integrity is the most important thing to them. The authenticity is the most important thing to them of that experience and the art itself.
00:12:35
Speaker
And that can become difficult when you're trying to work with other people, especially when there's money
Dedication to Craft and Success
00:12:42
Speaker
involved. So this is the challenge in creating a career for ah for a maker is to be able to learn how to talk about your work.
00:12:51
Speaker
with other people in ways that they can value, that you're sharing values, you understand their values, they understand yours, and it aligns. And I don't think there's anything wrong with having that level of creative integrity. It's just being able to communicate and make sure you're making strategic partnerships with people who are on board with your vision or you're finding people who you can be on board with their vision.
00:13:18
Speaker
um Another thing is connecting with people who have the same level of um expectation around craftsmanship, because makers tend to be very high have high expectations in the level of craftsmanship. And so it might get frustrating to work with people who are like, eh, that's good enough.
00:13:38
Speaker
And you're like, that's not good enough for me. I'm not putting my name on this, right you know, to be able to ah communicate that, but also to understand when is the time to say, my vision is the right vision. And when is the time to be able to say, okay, I can give a little or time constraints are, you know, that's the kind of kind of thing there. But I do think, um,
00:14:07
Speaker
this this distinction for somebody like a prince or somebody like Bjork. Like if you think about Bjork, she's so adorable for one thing, but she's so creative in every piece of who she is and the way that she sees the world. And both of these people have had a lot of creative, have had a lot of industry success, but they're not, I wouldn't call either one of them I don't know. We could argue about whether or not they're celebrities or like they've sought after celebrity. I feel like Prince in some ways kind of like the anti sort of anti-celebrity. I mean, he was shy. I mean, he changed his name to a symbol. Right.
00:14:52
Speaker
How much less accessible can you get? You can't even say my name. How do I search for this? Exactly. Yeah. So it's like they have incredible creative vision, which you might think, okay, so somebody with creative vision, that's an imaginative visionary. Almost said imaginative visionary.
00:15:12
Speaker
That's imaginative visionary. But that what we're talking about when we talk about imaginative visionary, again, is motivation. right So they're motivated by the ideas of how things could look different. And in particular, how things could look different in the world or in a particular space or how it could help people do things in a certain way. The maker is extremely visionary in their work, but it comes because they're obsessed with what their materials can do and what they can express through the materials and have intense curiosity about what's possible with the art stuff itself. And it just so happens, I think that a lot of people who do find um success in the arts and entertainment industries actually are makers because right
00:16:04
Speaker
It takes a lot of dedication to just do the work consistently, day after day, year after year, um to find success. like A lot of it is just a numbers game, a ah ah being in the right place at the time right time, being around long enough. There's tons of people in Hollywood who were, quote unquote, discovered after 10 or 15 years of working in the industry.
00:16:29
Speaker
But part of it is the odds of getting that kind of recognition or that work is just showing up and doing it because you love the chance to do it. Right. And just like in the statements that we provide in this quiz, like the one about that the process for the maker is just as important as the outcome.
00:16:47
Speaker
I don't think Prince cared about how the soundtrack about me in 1989 was gonna come out. I think what Prince cared about was that he was so good that he could come up with his own vision for something that already had a vision. And he's like, well, this is the vision of the music. And here's the thing, I can play every freaking instrument on here and do it in the studio. It's quite astonishing to see some of that footage. Yeah. Yeah. And what about like the overlap of like another archetype, like the mystic?
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one because the Maker Mystic feels, in fact, I think the Maker Mystic is probably its own little sub-architect. There's always sub-genres in music, Lisa. Oh, there you go. Oh, sorry, we're talking about archetypes. ah Yeah, I mean, it goes back to what we were saying before that everybody's probably a mixture. And I think that's helpful, that is really helpful to think about.
00:17:38
Speaker
um Because the mystic, and we'll get into that later, but the mystic, it has a lot to do with making meaning for myself. It's the way I'm kind of using the art, its process, to help me figure myself out, the world, God. It's just where I go, almost like journaling. That's that's an oversimplification. but um So those people may also be extremely dedicated to the craft. They may be very, very good at what they do in order to have the satisfaction and like find satisfaction from the work of their hands. But the important thing to think about, it's a great exercise to do that, to look at the mall and think, okay, yeah, that that makes sense to me. I don't really care
Spiritual Life and Art: Integration and Fulfillment
00:18:22
Speaker
about that. So you can create you can create an understanding
00:18:26
Speaker
of what's important to you. If I didn't have this piece of it, I wouldn't want to do this anymore. Or why do I get out of bed in the morning? That's that's kind of coming to me as like the best way to talk about it. like Why do I get out when I don't feel like it and I have to go to the studio today? Why am I going to the studio? Is it because if I do that, people are going to know who I am?
00:18:55
Speaker
Is it but because if I do that, I'm going to get a paycheck? Is it if I do that, um I'm going to change somebody's life? Is it because it's how I feel whole and grounded in the world? It may be a combination of those things, but not everybody has all of those. And that's one of the interesting things about The Maker. I've i've really come to appreciate and appreciate how different I am actually from that. And I think what we can learn from the maker is that attention to the process and the craft on a regular dedicated basis actually does bring a lot of different kinds of results with it. Like every episode we talk about these archetypes, I'd love to just touch a little bit
00:19:45
Speaker
on possible challenges that this archetype could possibly run into. Not saying you will, but let's just talk about the possibilities. Well, the first thing we already kind of talked about this a little bit was the need to create strategic partnerships with other people and be able to communicate why you do what you do. I think sometimes and there is a lot, maybe even in a mystical standpoint, there is a lot of soulfulness happening underneath what the maker is doing, but they're not always a self-reflective
00:20:20
Speaker
To get the words to explain to other people why so being able to do that the other thing is I think. And this is just observation that perhaps they might be a little less trust trusting more.
00:20:35
Speaker
concerned, maybe concerned with institutions. right So when that comes to your spiritual life, what I've observed, a lot of makers will either not feel like they really need church or they they are involved in ah in a church community or a spiritual community, but it doesn't have anything to do with their art making. Like those two things just don't connect for them. It's like separate almost. yeah And so that would be my challenge from soul makers is, um, to think bigger about how those things connect rather than like, it has to be for something in particular. Right. Um, you know, maybe that's where makers can kind of lean into the, the mystic side a little bit. And, and like I said before, to do that work of self reflection, to connect, um,
00:21:27
Speaker
that this is a gift from God and you being um grounded and shaped. as a Christian in your spiritual life and that focus on the B, the becoming who you were created to be, marrying that into making what you were created to make, then what comes out, regardless of what it is, is still ah ah a fulfilling of a calling as an artist and the what you do end up giving to the world is is very meaningful.
00:22:01
Speaker
in whatever way God intends it to be. And that doesn't have to be your focus. You don't have to be worried about what the impact is or what um whether or not it fits into somebody else's categories. Concern yourself with where it's coming from and and go for it. And concern yourself with that, how you're making and the love of making. And trust that God is going to fill those spaces, fill those artifacts, fill those times um with His Spirit in whatever way.
00:22:30
Speaker
he has intended.
Closing and Upcoming Conversations
00:22:32
Speaker
So that's the maker. That's the maker. In our next episode, we'll be talking with Jason Hammacher, who is a local to the DC area. He owns a gallery. He's a photographer. He has an incredible story. It was also in the band Frotus. So he has a lot of interesting experience and is quite a maker. So we look forward to talking with him soon. All right. See you next time.
00:22:56
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Be Make Do, a Soul Makers podcast. All links and resources are located in our show notes. What's your artist archetype? Are you the maker, the mystic, the soul healer, the imaginative visionary, the prophetic critic, or the storyteller? What's your archetype? Take the quiz at soulmakers dot.org backslash quiz.