We were lucky to catch up with Charlie Rugg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Charlie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

This has been an ongoing internal battle for me. I’ve had an unusual career path to becoming an artist. At age 27 an enormous piece of my identity essentially disappeared when I stopped playing professional soccer. That destruction of self in adulthood forced me to really ask myself who I am and who I want to do in the world. For the past six years, I’ve dealt with the weight of those questions by kind of letting the things that fit me, find me. I’ve always been an artist. This was already another fairly large piece of my identity, but now it’s had the freedom to come alive. The artist career really feels like something that’s pulled me along saying “hey c’mon you know this is not a choice. You’re doing this,” while a part of me fights back arguing for the safety and security that a regular job can supposedly offer. There are also plenty of things about the art world that make me navigate with caution. How much and how often am I willing to sacrifice my authentic creative self in this world? Who knows? Maybe next year I’ll be sitting in a cubicle for the first time in my life. There are three things I do know for sure: 1 – My gut feeling about myself in a regular job is that it’s just not right for me. 2 – I will always be an artist, for the rest of my life, no matter what my job is, there will be no retirement. I will be making art till I die. 3 – I am happiest and most at peace when I’m in my studio listening to music and painting all day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was the fastest kid in first grade but I was also known to have a talent for drawing. So naturally I ended up playing soccer in College followed by five years professionally, and now I’m an artist. I continue to work in the soccer world as a coach/ mentor/ career guidance counselor. I found a passion for this player development work through the struggle of transitioning out of my own athletic career. It’s important to me to help young athletes navigate their paths in a way that they feel supported off the field and prepared for the transition into the next phase of their lives. My work as an artist represents this next phase of life – finding identity and purpose beyond competitive sport. I know first hand how important this is and it’s exciting feeling like I’m building in these spaces in a way that is uniquely me.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think when we’re talking about society and creativity we need to acknowledge that the spectrum of creativity is enormous. It’s almost like putting green tea and oxycontin in the same category because they can both be considered medicine. So I think for starters we could work to be more clear about what and who we’re referring to when we talk about the creative ecosystem. My view is that creativity is simply the act of channeling a world view through the self, out into existence. This could include someone who builds a company or organizes a holiday work party. The group of people that we tend to call artists, are usually called artists because they’re using one or more of a specific set of mediums: painting, drawing, sculpting, photography, film, music, etc. I think the greatest value to society that this group of people has to offer is that they are specialists in observing and translating society itself. They are the ones who can bring us closest to the intangible, indescribable, invisible parts of our experience. I believe there is a ton of potential value in that to the overall ecosystem and people operating in industries outside of this “creative” world could view art and artists more like collaborative peers and less like commodities.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

“Non-creative” is not a real thing and everyone should understand that. I see people creating for the companies that they work for, people creating methods for raising their kids, people creating relationships, people creating systems for teamwork. There’s nothing we do that’s not creative but the scale of creativity ranges from the self to the outside world. There’s nothing wrong with giving your creative self to some bigger creative force. I think everyone has a creative core and the life work of an artist is to make work that comes from as close to this source as possible. This is why the “creative geniuses” of the world are usually a little bit off, largely removed from the influence of society, channeling creation purely through the self.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cruggart.com
• Instagram: @goodgamecharles
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-rugg-86166795

Image Credits
All photos by Stephen Heraldo www.heraldocreativestudio.com Instagram: @Stephenheraldo