AI Creativity: The Rise and Why Yours Matters
Let’s be honest: it’s tough out here. I just came back from a much-needed break. A pause to reset. And while I’m feeling refreshed and excited to return to this next season of Heal and Grow with Creativity, I’m also holding a lot.
This post isn’t going to be polished or neat. I’m not here to perform or pretend I have it all figured out. I made a few notes to keep me grounded, but mostly—I’m sharing off the cuff. Because what I have to say doesn’t fit inside a tidy little bow.
So let’s just be real with each other.
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It’s 2025. And Everything Feels Like… A Lot.
To be alive right now in the U.S. means being bombarded constantly. Every time you open your phone, turn on the news, scroll through social media—it’s another crisis. Another wave of heartbreak, hopelessness, anger…
And in the middle of all this chaos, I’ve found myself wondering:
Does creativity even matter right now? Does art and self-expression even have a place in a world that feels like it’s crumbling?
And as a creativity coach, that is a tough question to ask. This is the thing I care about the most. This is the work I’ve dedicated myself to. And suddenly, it feels… small. Frivolous. Like I should be doing something “more important.”
But here’s the truth that I keep coming back to: creativity isn’t frivolous. It’s absolutely necessary.
Taking a Break Helped Me Remember My Why
This is why rest is powerful. Stepping away from constantly creating, producing, performing—it gives us space to reconnect with what matters.
I’ve been in this work for years, and I still have to return to my “why” over and over again. Especially when the world feels overwhelming and disorienting. Especially when everything around us is trying to convince us that our feelings, our experiences, our concerns—don’t matter.
But they do. They matter so much.
I’m Tired of Holding Back
Like many of you, I spend a lot of time online. I notice how people react to other people’s views, opinions, and life experiences. The backlash. The tone policing. The vitriol. The violence—especially toward folks who look like me, think like me, feel like me. Desperate for genuineness, clarity, and honesty.
And, I’m tired of thinking and overthinking about what I want to say, what I need to say, without first worrying about how others are gonna react to it.
So I’m just gonna say it—
You’re not imagining things. You’re not overreacting. And no, you’re not alone.
The gaslighting we’re experiencing—on personal and collective levels—is real. And one of the ways we can resist it is by naming what’s true. By feeling what’s true. By refusing to be numbed out or silenced. We need to accept our reality before we can change it. We need to speak truth.
Creativity Is Under Attack—And That’s Not a Coincidence
Let’s talk about what’s happening to creativity right now in this society we live in—a Western colonial society built on genocide, slavery, and the exploitation of black and indigenous bodies. A society that is in no way, a model of high moral standard.
A society that claims to value creativity and innovation, but only when it’s efficient, measurable, profitable.
We are being forced into accepting that creativity doesn’t require effort, that it should happen instantly. That art can be obtained easily and cheaply. The general consensus is that artists, art history, and creative legacies don’t matter.
Let me be clear: this is A BLATANT LIE.
True creativity is messy. It’s unpredictable. It’s emotional. It’s human.
And that’s exactly why this system is trying to strip it away from us—because real creativity can’t be controlled.
This Is a Fight for Life
What we’re up against isn’t just an attack on artists. It’s an attack on life itself.
Colonialism and capitalism are systems of death. Many indigenous people around the world have been trying to tell us this forever. These systems of oppression don’t value life, community, relationships, joy, pleasure… They want to keep us passive, consuming, and producing—until we burn out and die.
But to live is to:
Care for each other
Slow down enough to smell the flowers
Simply exist without having to do more
Being grateful for everything we already have
Because the truth is that we already have everything we could possibly ever need as human beings. Everything has already been provided to us by this beautiful planet, our mother earth. We’re just too busy numbing ourselves and consuming more and more and failing to pay attention to what truly matters.
The truth is that our world is being destroyed by a small group of greedy billionaires who don't care about working class people. These are things we have to contend with.
But true CREATIVITY and RADICAL IMAGINATION are the tools we need in the struggle to fight for life and our humanity. These are the tools that will help us create a different world beyond survival.
Creativity Is Not Optional. It’s Revolutionary.
Don’t let anyone convince you that creativity, art, and self-expression don’t matter.
We need art that helps us to create the culture and world we want to live in.
Quite literally— the books, paintings, movies, music, and stories that will move us into action and help us get our humanity and lives back.
The art and culture that we can actually be proud of and that will remind us of what it means to be human and to feel alive.
So What Now?
Start paying attention to how often you’re being pressured into accepting that creativity should be easy, fast, perfect, or profitable.
Then interrupt it.
Explore art movements, make something messy, slow down, get curious, be human!
And when it feels hard to keep going, remember: you are not alone. I see you. I hear you. I’m with you. And I believe with my whole heart that your creativity absolutely matters!
Not just for your healing—but for all of ours.
Renata is a creativity coach empowering neurodivergent and multi-passionate women of color, to use creativity as a tool for self-discovery and healing, so they can let go of feeling inadequate and insecure and start experiencing more confidence and self-acceptance. She’s currently offering a free copy of her therapeutic art making workbook when you sign up for her email list. Sign up here to get your free copy.
