Creative Heroes Linked By Diversification

As noted in the brief bio on my new Google Profile, I derive great fulfillment from creativity, both my own on a professional & personal level and in exploring the work of wonderful artists in a variety of arenas. As such, although I didn't find last night's Oscar telecast to be all that scintillating in itself, I had seen all ten Best Picture nominees and agree with The Hurt Locker and its director, Kathryn Bigelow as very deserving winners.

This past Saturday was an exploration of the new for me, as I attended the Third Coast Filmless Festival, which featured radio documentaries and emphasized the art of listening, and upon a last minute invitation, saw the great singer/songwriter John Prine for the first time at a benefit for the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Both were quite enjoyable but I want to focus here on two of my foremost creative heroes, both of whom I had the pleasure of exploring anew over the past 10 days. As detailed here, last Thursday I greatly enjoyed seeing Stephen Sondheim give a conversational overview of his career as the greatest Broadway composer & lyricist of the last 50 years. And as I described here, the previous Friday I took a tour of two Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpieces, the SC Johnson Wax Administration Building in Racine, WI, and the nearby "Wingspread" home designed for F.H. Johnson, the company CEO in 1938.

Aside from my own affinity, and generally-accepted global regard as artistic geniuses, there may not seem to be much linking Sondheim and Wright. But what heightens my--and likely public--esteem, is that they were both creators who demonstrated the ability to maintain excellence across a variety of styles throughout their careers.

As shown below, Wright initially designed homes with echoes of his boss Louis Sullivan, soon created his famed Prairie-style homes, and even with great variance within this realm left it largely behind by 1909. Over a 60+ year career, he would go on to design houses and buildings as disparate as LA's Ennis-Brown House, Fallingwater (in PA) and New York's Guggenheim Museum.




Sondheim, as he conveyed in conversation with director Gary Griffin, always felt he had the ability to be a composer and lyricist, but began his Broadway career writing just the lyrics for West Side Story, as Leonard Bernstein was already in place. Although he knew he couldn't--and gladly didn't--pass up this opportunity, Sondheim worried about being pigeonholed as merely a lyricist and was proven correct when Ethel Merman perceived him as such in insisting that composer Jule Styne partner with him on Gypsy.

On his subsequent show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and more than a dozen that followed, Sondheim amply showed that not only could he write both music and lyrics, he could do so with more dexterity than anyone who had come before or since. From his episodic compositions for Company to the waltz-infused score for A Little Night Music to the Japanese-influence on Pacific Overtures to the dark humor of Sweeney Todd, no two Sondheim shows are really alike, aside from the wit and sophistication that carries through his entire body of work.











While I certainly don't pretend to be on a level anywhere near the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright, Stephen Sondheim or other creative heroes who made major stylistic transitions while maintaining brilliance, such as the Beatles and Picasso, I do see some parallels with my career as a copywriter and creative director.

As showcased in my portfolio, I have worked in a variety of advertising & marketing arenas--recruitment, business-to-business, consumer, political, retail, real estate and more--across a range of media (print, web, direct mail, etc.) for a variety of industries, clients and messaging objectives. Proudly, my output has been highly praised by clients and employers alike, and has generated impressive results across numerous realms.

And as experienced by both Wright, who at times went years between commissions, and Sondheim, who hasn't had a newly-penned work open on Broadway since 1994, I am in the midst of a dry period, professionally speaking. In this high supply, low demand employment marketplace, translating my creative versatility into a new full-time opportunity has been challenging, as ad agencies and others with creative openings understandably desire depth of experience in their specific niche (as a resume-siphoning device if nothing else), and perhaps mine has yet to be a precise match.

Still, with the examples of my creative heroes to both inspire and sustain me, I am confident that my core talents--unique imagination, clever wordplay, the ability to synthesize dense information into powerful & persuasive messages, etc.--can readily translate to success in myriad manifestations, and that I, and my next employer, will be all the better for my multifaceted experiences and influences.

To discuss any full-time or freelance opportunities, please contact me at setharkin@msn.com