Tuesday Real Talk: It Has to Grab Me Now

There’s a topic that finds its way back into my mind every now and then.

Creativity.

Even though I am no longer part of the Indie Arts & Entertainment Community, I am still deeply passionate about experiencing creativity.

I don’t keep up with mainstream.

Honestly, I don’t even keep up with the Indie scene anymore.

But I still consume:

Music.

Literature — mostly audiobooks now.

Visual art.

Visual storytelling.

The difference is this:

Now it has to grab me.

At 65, I’m not chasing trends.

I’m not trying to keep up.

I’m not studying scenes.

If something captures my attention, it’s because it stopped me.

It could be the vibe.

The colors.

The texture.

The intro of a song.

The tone of a voice narrating a book.

A story that feels relatable without me having to decode it.

I don’t want to work to understand art anymore.

I need it to feel relatable instantly.

I love a painting that tells me a different story every time I look at it.

I love the perfect voice — or voices — that bring a book to life and let me step inside the room like I’m a fly on the wall.

And music?

Music has to grab me from the intro.

Carry me through the middle.

Land the outro.

It needs a hook I don’t have to fight to remember.

Lyrics I don’t have to analyze to feel.

A vibe that either lets me chill or makes me want to move.

I’ve always believed art is about the experience.

Not all art grabs people the same way — and that’s okay.

But here’s what I’ve noticed.

Sometimes creatives try to do more… and lose people.

More production.

More layers.

More effects.

More symbolism.

More bells and whistles.

But sometimes simpler would have been stronger.

Sometimes less would have landed deeper.

The creative industry today is saturated.

There’s so much content that we now have to screen creativity.

And that takes energy.

Energy some of us don’t want to spend anymore.

So for me — it’s about the experience.

Did it catch my eye?

Did it move me?

Did it pull me in?

Did it feel honest?

I know pretty quickly if something is for me.

And if it makes me want to experience it a second or third time?

That’s when I know it landed.

This isn’t criticism.

It’s clarity.

At this stage in my life, creativity doesn’t have to impress me.

It just has to connect.