My post is late this month because I’ve hurt my back something wicked and it’s really had me down for the count. Life has been very full and I’ve not been terribly good at following the advice that is the title of this post. This month’s Summoning Creativity effort is offered to me as much as it is to you.
Until recent history, the slow growth reflected in the natural world and in the required crafts of daily living was all there was. Our bodies and minds evolved thanks to, and in support of, slow growth. Today, we live in a culture that not only makes it possible to force growth but often expects it. While we don’t have to eschew technological or human progress, we must weave the appreciation for slow growth back into the tapestry of our lives if we hope to move toward a more harmonious relationship with the natural environment that surrounds us.
This writing made me nod and exclaim out loud, “yes, thank you for this reminder”. I read it a few days before I hurt my back, and I find myself going back to it now when just sitting to weave or stitch or even read is somewhat challenging because there is no comfortable position I can be in for very long.
Applying these words to my own healing is a learning edge to me. Over the last several years, I’ve had several injuries and physical realities that have forced me to reckon with the impatience I have with my own body. While I relish slow growth, slow healing is a whole other matter. I’ve got a lot of work to do there.
And once again, I have the opportunity to reckon with this issue of mine.
How will I do it?
My current thinking is to relate to the pain I’m feeling in a visual way. I want to look at images of the muscles, nerves and vertebrae that are communicating with me. Maybe I’ll draw them, or stitch them, or at some point, weave them. I will add color and texture to impatience, to my tendency to force healing on myself (which never works), and I will try to relate to the parts of me that have some slow growing to do, namely patience with and compassion for… me.
So, here we go.
Do you have health issues that impact your making? How do you reckon with these themes?
The light is retreating where I live, noticeably. I’m into it this year, my psyche begging for a bit of slow- down. Just a moment, please, to be quiet, to process, to metabolize, and to get clear on some thinking. Something, or likely many things, have made these last couple of months feel frenetic and off-pace. I feel it, and I feel like it’s visible.
I thought I’d invite those of you who are engaged with this monthly creativity exploration to do something “easy”~ to play with your shadow. What does that mean? Well, you’d get one answer from a Jungian, and and another from a young grade schooler… maybe their ideas would meet up somewhere and skip around in tandem for a while before going off in various directions.
So, I’ll leave it at that~ Play With Your Shadow, in whatever way makes sense to you. There can be no directions for this!
But for some fun, I’ll share this classic poem.
My Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head; And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow— Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow; For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball, And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play, And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way. He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see; I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up, I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup; But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head, Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
I asked this question to people in my community: what is one thing you do that you feel supports your creativity and art making?
Of those that I asked, these are the responses I got back. Captured are the nuances, intricacies of humanness, and the fabulous varieties in the ways people think about and relate to their creative spirits. It’s clear: creativity is not only about making art. Creativity is energy in the relational field, with self, others, and the world in which we live.
From Donna LaPerle~
Joy feeds my creative sparks which encourages resiliency. Knowing I have joy inside me comes through my creativity and keeps me from sinking into what I believe is insane news on the TV. I have balance because the joy of being creative puts me in an “I can” space. If I am experiencing joy, I am healing myself and it might reflect what I am creating in my art. My depression has popped out of my so called, Jack in the box, through weaving and woodwork. Looking at my stash of yarn or smelling my wood gives me hope. Through my creativity I silently invite others to connect with their joy. Perhaps I cannot change these crazy times but maybe we can hope for a brighter day and maybe witness just one or two smiles.
Linda and Donna with some Wild WeavingDonna’s Weaving & Exploration of Color Interactions
From Linda J. ~
I seek out craft and artistic visionaries who teach, inspire and nourish the creative quest and thought. Then I reflect and gather various inspiring materials, implementing the excitement into action–realizing everything is a learning opportunity and to enjoy the process.
When possible, allot time for your creativity—creativity nurtures so much of our well-being and identity; we can’t ignore that!
From Kendra ~
I exercise my visual perception. I attentively observe my environment, forms of plants, animals, interior spaces, quality of light/colors. The more I look, the more I perceive with my eyes.
I exercise my imagination in various ways: I imagine experiencing the world from a different physical size, how would it feel to be a tree or be a particular leaf or cat or an insect. How would I experience a tree if I lived in the soil? What’s the shape of the sensation of my skin touching another surface? What’s a visual representation – color, shape, movement – associated with a feeling or emotion?
from Kendra ~ Virginia Oaks; the tree pictured in the back is 800 years old!from Kendra ~ A leaf stuck in the snow and the pattern the wind and it created together. from Kendra ~ tea ceremony
From Steve Diffenderfer ~
I reflect on a current event, historical event,a recent interaction with a person be it emotional or cerebral, or anything else that holds my interest. I will then make a series of drawings to create context & reconcile that particular subject/idea/emotional response with at least three drawings and often twenty five or more small 5 /12″ x 8 1/2″ graphite or pen & ink drawings. (30-60 minute drawings). When I am truly inspired, I will translate one of those drawings into a painting. (5 hours to 45 hours per painting). I am not concerned with generating artwork. I am not constantly drawing. I create visual art in yearly cycles. I play guitar every day :). Beginning in 2020 I started exploring foreign languages and what may be lost in translation. I read a lot of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Pushkin, Bulgakov & Pasternak novels during the pandemic. I considered Russian literature being translated into English prose, and being reliant on a translator. I also considered the Tao Teh Ching (which I consider poetry, and have read and revisited for many years) being translated into English. This led me to begin visually considering Chinese characters (hanzi) and Hebrew characters (Ktav Ashuri) and working them into a series of artwork: using them to convey ideas & feelings outside of the spoken & written language I use in daily life.
I explore other themes along the way. I’m always interested in something.
From Krista ~
I wake up early when it is still quiet. Make a cup of coffee and have time to knit or craft. It’s almost a meditative time for me. In the summer, I like to knit outside and listen to the birds and morning sounds. Winter, audiobooks.
Lately, I have moved away from visual YouTube podcasts, because my attention is drawn away from my knitting to the screen. I am more productive listening to audiobooks. I can keep working with an eye on what I am doing while listening to a story.
From Ali W. ~
One thing I do that supports my creativity is spending time outside without an agenda- just observing, walking, or collecting natural objects. Being in the moment with nature sparks ideas and often leads to unexpected creative flow. I prefer to let myself follow instinct-whether that’s taking a walk at dusk, watching how the light changes, or making something with my hands from what I find. Those little, unplanned moments feed my creative self more than anything structured (which tends to be hard for me).
from Ali
From Jonathan Silverman~
Serendipity, play, discernment- I have no idea and every idea of what I’m doing. There is joy and humility in acquiescing to both intent and discovery. Kneading, coiling, slabbing, throwing, pinching, scraping, folding, glazing… a wonderous dance. I am in partnership with clay, sometime we are in sync, sometimes we just don’t get along. We share ideas on how to end a form, pondering from the inside out and outside in.
Photo by ritesh arya
What do you think? What do you do to tend to or pay attention to your own creativity? Or if you don’t, can you imagine doing one tiny thing to turn your gaze towards the creative parts of yourself?
As August comes to a close, I’m thinking about realities from the past few weeks that made engaging in a creative endeavor every day more challenging. Whether it was working a lot, having chores to do, managing a busy schedule, being with my family, or a bump in stress, it took some extra doing to stay with my creative process. I got some insight into why it’s hard to do something creative every single day. Sometimes, the time just runs out. Sometimes the fatigue is too great. Sometimes the stress is too distracting.
What to do when these deadly horsemen arrive to mess with the best of our intentions?
I noticed that for me, it helps to have at the ready a list of things I like to do or want to do that have different time and focus commitments. For example, recently I had a lot of chores to do outside and in our garage. I needed to clean, straighten, toss, and arrange so much stuff, in part to get ready to scrape and paint our shed. Well… I was bummin’ because I can’t very well weave and sweep at the same time, and I knew that the manual labor I’d be doing would make my arthritic hands and body tired at the end of the day. BUT, I had creative things that I wanted to do that are also passive. For example, making black walnut and chokeberry dye was something I wanted to get done, as well as clean some deer antlers that a friend gave to me. I realized that the passive time required for boiling the berries, nuts and antlers could be used to do something else (like clean the garage). So, I set up my portable cooktop on a table in my driveway, got to boiling antlers and tended to my chores, periodically checking how things were going. The antlers required scraping/washing, scrubbing to get the muscle, skin, and hair off the skull part, but I did that in between other tasks.
No one can accuse me of being a one-trick-pony!
By the end of that afternoon, I had accomplished what I’d needed to chores-wise, and had some beautiful deer antlers to show for it.
On another day, I did more outdoor work and boiled the black walnuts and the chokeberries separately, making beautiful red and dark brown dyes. I also prepared a chokeberry tincture which just requires putting berries and vodka in a sealable jar and putting it in a dark spot (with a commitment to shake it every day).
And on yet another day, I washed a lot of wool while I scraped the paint off the shed, using the sun’s energy to keep the soapy water hot.
When fatigue was the main bad actor keeping me from my creative goal, I did my best to get clear on what my fatigue was about. Too little sleep? Stress? What was out of balance? There were several days when I didn’t have the bandwidth to sit with my more focus-required projects, so I continued to let passive interests save the day. I simply put fabric strips into the dyes I made and let them be. I also laid flowers between folds of dyed cloth and let them rest under weight in the sun. These were fun experiments that hit creative chords but didn’t take any energy from me. I do feel like I benefit from being a “let’s just do this and see what happens” kind of person. No one is going to find meticulously kept notes of how I do things on my bookshelves, but I always have random thing around to use in a project.
The stripes on that cloth you see below? That happened by accident when I laid the wet material on a rusty steel wire shelf. The lines appeared immediately and I was like, HEY! Look at that! As Bob Ross would say, I made a “happy accident”!
I’m also a big fan of taking pictures of things I see that I think are beautiful or interesting. I aim to keep them in a folder on my computer that is to do with inspiration I glean from the world around me.
When longer work days were the issue, I did things like spray paint dried plant stalks to prepare them for projects I’m working on. I also sanded some things and basically got my project ingredients together.
I learned that stress is the most killer of distractions for me. Stress mixed with worry is the monster that steals my creativity. On those days where that kind of stress was in the mix, I listened to people I admire. I looked for my mentors’ words and anchored myself in wisdom. On those days, that was enough.
When I actually had time to devote more than a couple of hours to my making, I took it, guilt-free and pressure-free. I chose a project to commit my attention to and went for it. That was glorious. I felt so grateful to have that time with myself, and the woven piece is done, just waiting to be mounted!
These are examples of what I do. I have my Creativity Options that suit whatever might be true for me on a given day. If I had to rely on having hours in my studio every day dedicated to my making, I would either be chronically disappointed and resentful, or I’d be neglecting other responsibilities I value. I’ve learned over the years how to excavate time and opportunity to make and tend to my making, and for me, it’s worked.
So, here’s some questions to ask yourself:
~ are there any creative things you do that have built in down-time moments? i.e., solar dyeing, cooking/baking/steeping/drying. ~ are there things you like to do that, if you have them around and easily accessible, would be easy to achieve in a short period of time? i.e., drawing/painting paper and brushes/pencils on the counter where you can play while something is cooking, or clay you can sculpt with while you listen to a lecture, or yarn you can knit/crochet/weave with while you wait in a waiting room/attend a conference/wait for water to boil? ~ are there things you like to do that you would do more if only you had a few hours to dedicate to them? i.e., working on larger pieces, sculpting, writing… if so, are there ways to take advantage of open time and claim it for yourself, rather than fill the space with a bunch of shoulds? ~ are there ways to organize your environment so that when the moment is right for any one of these things, you can act without having to think about it too much? If you have to dig out a bin from the back of the closet that has your art stuff in it, how likely are you to do it when you only have a half-hour? How can you arrange things so you can just as easily pick up a colored pencil as your phone? ~ on those days that are stressed and/or worry-filled, from what well do you draw insight, comfort, and support?
If you tried to be creative every day in August, how did it go? What did you do that supported your efforts? Where did it fall apart?
As we head into this next month, I am going to focus on keeping my environment arranged in such a way that I can continue to engage with myself creatively within my life, not as an effort separate from my day to day living. Might you join me in this?
We are ten days into this month and I wanted to share an update on how I’ve been doing with the Summoning Creativity intention, which is to engage with your creativity every day. First, I’ll just give you the run down.
August 1: I feel like this was a bit of a cheat because I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I specifically went to see the Woven Histories exhibit, which was incredible, inspiring, tear-inducing… but we also checked out a lot of the permanent collection which knocked my psyche into a great space. I was also reminded of how much I love the work of Marc Chagall. Once back at home at my family’s house, I did a quick sketch inspired by a piece from the Woven Histories exhibit entitled Composition 9 by Manolo Millares.
August 2: while on a walk in the town I spent a lot of my childhood, I gathered some leaves that caught my attention. I either was drawn to their shape or to their colors. Once back at the house, I looked them up to see what tree they belonged to and took some notes. Sassafras, Pin Oak, Big Tooth Aspen, and some kind of Hickory were of special focus.
Captured with VisionCamera by mrousavyCaptured with VisionCamera by mrousavyCaptured with VisionCamera by mrousavyCaptured with VisionCamera by mrousavyCaptured with VisionCamera by mrousavy
August 3: On this day, my daughter and I drove from my family’s home in NJ where we were visiting to Asbury Park which is on the Jersey Shore. Driving in NJ elicits a unique kind of stress in my mind and body, so just making that trip felt like a feat that involved mental creativity. BUT, once there, we made it to the beach for a bit, swam, and I let myself succumb to the relaxing and beautiful sounds of the ocean waves. Heavenly magic. I watched people and witnessed a most beautiful scene: two women helped an elderly woman down to the water. The elderly woman was wearing a long blue dress. Her hair was pinned up. She was beautiful. The two women on either side of her were holding each of her hands gently; they were in bathing suits. They stepped into the water, feet getting wet. Then a little deeper… ankles and calves… no worries about the woman’s dress getting wet. They moved slowly, patiently, lovingly. Deeper still and they were up to about mid-calf. They were getting splashed by waves, smiling. Her dress was completely wet. Other family members approached and stayed. It seemed like there were at least three, maybe four generations of family there. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The picture here is cropped in such a way to respect the privacy of those in the scene.
August 4: On a walk with my daughter to the place we went for dinner, we got turned around and ended up on a little footbridge. I took a picture of the reflection, imagining a tapestry project idea and made sure to document it in my book.
August 5: on our last night in Asbury Park, we took in the scenes around us and marveled at the art, edginess, creativity and spooky feeling that abounds there. I didn’t do any journaling- taking in the ocean and the sights was satisfying enough.
August 6: I drove home to Vermont from the Jersey Shore, about a 6.5 hour drive, and stayed mostly calm through 4 hours of heavy traffic. That’s all I could muster.
August 7: I had to, rather quickly, make a fun project for an upcoming class at the Shelburne Craft School. My goal? Show how random we can be when weaving on a frame loom, and how we can just follow an urge or a whim to create something unique.
August 8: I sat on my porch in the evening and added a little bit to my little tapestry project. There’s no plan to this. I just want to make waves an swirls and swales, capturing my feelings about this summer. I didn’t have too much time to work on it but I got one more wave in (on the left) and the yellows.
August 9: Yesterday began with me trying to sort how I was going to spend my hours… I need to repair a sculpture at my studio and am longing to be there. But home was calling to me- I wanted to tend to it and be around my family. What began as some mild chores turned into cleaning windows, mopping floors, putting things away… I listened to music (I’ve been on a Rolling Stones kick lately) and took care of my space with a lot of time to be with my people. I came across started and then left, or half-finished art projects and did the next step on one of them: a while ago I took some loosely knitted linen material from a former project and molded it around a bowl with some hardening fixative. It’s been sitting and curing for months now. Yesterday I spray painted it gold. Next step will be to paint it with nuln oil. Can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s finished.
August 10: Early this morning, I sat on my porch, listened to all the critters making their late summer sounds. I worked some more on my little tapestry, until it became too hot in the direct sun.
In these first ten days of this month’s Summoning Creativity intention, I’ve given myself a lot of space to be where I am and fully engage with whatever is happening. Sometimes I’ve actually gotten to make something or work on a project. Most times, I’ve been more of an observer/noticer of interesting, beautiful, lovely things or moments. One day, so much focus and energy went into driving safely that there was no energy left over to do anything else. What has been consistently true is that I have not had hours to spend on my own art. Life is busy with family, work, chores, and other engagements. Yet, I feel like I’ve been really tuned in to the part of myself that is creative and wants to create. I’m proving to myself that not having a lot of time in the studio doesn’t mean I can’t live in and experience my life artistically and creatively. Having this intention for the month is reminding me to tune in and do something… anything… to keep the flow going so when I do have more time, I can jump in with abandon.
Tell me about your creative practice! I love hearing how people approach their own artistry.
I’m writing to you from my porch. It’s just a few days before August 1st. I’ve been thinking about the next Summoning Creativity post for a while now. As I listen to the myriad birds engaged in their morning meetings and wonder at the frogs knocking to one another from here to there*, I can’t help but come back to the bewilderment I feel at being on Earth, doing this thing called life. Being alive. Being here as part of, and witness to, all of it. All of what is happening, all of what has been, all of what will come… here we are. Part of the story.
August in Vermont has a certain texture and moodiness to it. The sun’s height in the sky has gone through some noticeable shifts and, even with the hot days of late, there have already been moments that feel and smell like early fall. The rhythms we live in are obvious. Yet, they can pass by with little notice if attention is not paid to the shifts.
Lest this seem like a naval-examining treatise on the passing of time, let me get to it and make the link between being human in nature and creativity.
The Link
When We Notice, We Are Engaged
When We Are Engaged, We Can Create
The Prompt for August
Engage Every Day
Yes. Every day.
Don’t go yet! This isn’t bootcamp or a fad diet. It’s an invitation to harness the energy of August and give yourself the gift of engagement with your life, your surroundings, and your beautiful creativity that is boundless and waiting for attention. Here’s what I have in mind.
~ Every single day, take a moment to be fully present in your body and mind. Let your senses guide you. Do you hear something that has you wondering? Do you see something that catches your attention? Feel a sensation on your skin? Taste something that has your tongue tingling? Smell something that makes you tilt your head?
~ Let your attention rest on something that is: neutral, pleasant, interesting, or beautiful. Yes, I’m being directive about that. ** Like students in school, we learn best when we feel and are safe. Let us give our nervous systems the gift of a moment of, at minimum, calm neutrality.
~ Observe what you have chosen to rest your attention on. At least for five minutes, study what has gotten your attention.
~ Then, following this engagement, document it. You can do this in several ways. On days that are busy and there’s just no time that feels available for more, simply write what you saw.
It can be as short and sweet as: “By my front step, I saw a web that formed a circle on the grass. It looked like a tissue from a distance. But up close, it was webby and dewy.”
Or, you can take a picture of it and print it out, if possible.
Or, you draw it, paint it, sketch it.
Or, you can research it. Using this example, I might wonder, “what makes those webs?” and then study that creature.
Or, you can make something inspired by what you’ve seen.
~ And… repeat. Every day for one month.
Why every day?!
Because when we do something every day, over time, we change our habits. And yes, it is a habit to plow through a day without noticing anything. And, it’s a habit to live every day and notice many things.
It’s a practice to let those things you observe work on you and interact with the part of you that is curious, has wonder, and wants to play.
Things that might be useful to have around:
An unlined notebook where you can keep sketches/drawings/writings/clippings….
A camera. Many folks have smartphones that have one million photos on them that they forget about. I recommend for this endeavor to print out pictures and put them in your book. If you have a printer that can do this, great. I don’t have reliable printer and ink costs a forture, so I often will order prints through the Walgreens app because I can order the prints I want and pick them up quickly. If you are only ordering one print here and there, it’s remains inexpensive. Many pharmacies and grocers have photo printing these days, and there’s no minimum number of prints necessary. My daughter also has this little polaroid camera that is pretty fun. I haven’t used it for things like this, but I think it would work great!
Colored pencils or pens
Charcoal drawing pencils
Portable paints
If you have a specific medium you like to work with, have that around and easily accessible in case you have more dedicated time to play and create.
Things to consider that might help support this practice:
Setting an alarm each day (with a pleasant sound, please! – no startle responses necessary for this effort!) to remind you to take a moment to engage.
Keeping your art book around so you are visually reminded to engage.
Inviting people you live with or talk to regularly to do this, too! Sometimes it’s fun to have a partner in daily efforts.
Beware of the following:
If you forget a day or days, don’t throw in the towel! Just get back to it. My relationship with my journal changed drastically when I decided not to make it a shame and self-hate punisher if I miss a few days or months. Shit happens, man. It’s no big thing.
Judgement of what you are focusing on or on what you do with it. Reminder: this is not a project to get anything specific done. It’s an invitation to engage with what resonates with you while taking it a step further and interacting with what you noticed.
What do you think? Are you game? I am! I vibe deeply with getting practical and organized in my efforts. I also don’t want to miss any of August, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. If any part of this feels too rigid for you and your nature, adjust as needed and make it work for you. Most important is to commit.
As always, I love to hear from you whether through the comments or directly, so please let me know if you take this on! I plan on sharing my thoughts about the whole thing as we make our way through the month. We’ll see what engaging every day inspires!
Until next time,
Bradie
ps- this post came a little early so you can start on August 1 if you’re so inspired!
* I think I’m hearing mink frogs but it seems like where I am is not considered part of their Vermont territory. Not sure, but a deeper dive into frog lore is in my future.
** To be clear, I am not saying the requirement is to ignore all that is happening in the world and to just “be positive, man”. What I am saying is that we need to give our nervous systems a chance to balance out, reboot, and access a sense of safety if we are actually living in a safe circumstance. With the issues we are facing, we need to do what we can to nurture ourselves so we can stay strong and grounded.
Recently I was talking to someone in my studio about a theme he noticed in my work~ I had an image expressed several ways and he wondered at the significance of the image to me. This got me thinking about how this happens in my work sometimes and the best way I can put it is, I let my psyche guide me in what images, symbols or themes I want to follow, and then… I do.
For example, several years ago, I was looking at a picture in a book I have of an image of an elderly woman sitting on a granite sort of bench that was really maybe a retaining wall for a city garden bed, her hands resting on her pocketbook. I loved her face and found myself looking at her and going back to look at her some more. I had all kinds of feelings when I took in her details and conjured stories that might explain her look of sadness.
Then, I decided to try to draw her. (I know I didn’t get her image exactly as she looked in the picture. For one, I don’t know how to draw, but the point of all of what I’m saying here has nothing to do with perfection, and only to do with engaging.)
Then I found myself looking at the face of the woman I drew. And I kept going back and looking at her some more and I remember thinking, who are you?
A year or two after drawing her, I took a tapestry weaving class with Rebecca Mezoff, which I highly recommend. We were tasked with designing a cartoon for a weaving project, and I chose my lady. I knew I wanted to learn how to weave faces, and I wanted to spend more time with her. So, I dove into that and made the cartoon, and then I started weaving her…
And I wove her…
And kept weaving her…
And then I was like, “no really, who ARE you?!” She became ever more important to me. I started to see in her face regret, which is another theme I’ve been following, studying, and writing about for many years. That was interesting. This thread I was following was actually one I’d been engaged with in a more intellectual way for a long time. The theme suddenly dove into new, creative terrain.
Then, I was done with the weaving, but I wasn’t done with the image, so I did a block print of her.
And then, I was done.
So you see… there was an initial spark, and then an idea and another idea and another idea… I couldn’t have planned this all. I just followed the image and let it keep working on me over the course of a few years. There need not be any rush or pressure. There’s no time limit. There’s only an invitation.
Following threads of themes, symbols and images is a really fun and meaningful way to get into something and experiment with different mediums. Fun because you’re literally playing with an idea and letting it work on you. Meaningful because the threads come from your own psyche. No one is assigning them to you.
So, how does one do this?
Start with these questions: ~ What’s on your mind these days? ~ What are you drawn to? Is it a song? A color? A taste? A smell? An image? ~ This thing you are drawn to, how might you engage with it creatively? Can you draw it? Cook it? Paint it? Weave it? Sculpt it? ~ Can you start there? And see where it leads? ~ Can you write about it? What draws you to it or captures your attention?
For example… maybe the color green is really grabbing you or you know it’s your favorite color. You can:
take out some water colors play with greens; you can blend, use solid colors, or make them so subtle you can barely see them, or pair the greens with complementary colors…
you can take pictures of all the greens you see in your immediate landscape or your home
you can wear green
you can knit/crochet/weave a green-inspired project
you can read about the color green and see what themes/symbols/stories/myths are associated with it
you can follow an idea because what might happen is, with all of this attention to green, an image of a way to work with it will occur to you- listen to that and follow it.
the more you do this, the more you’ll do it – wow, that was deep.
I love seeing how people do this~ please write and share if you are so inclined! And, if you want to keep up on this monthly Creativity Summoning, sign up to receive updates to the site! We’ll keep it going as long as I have something say.
One of the things I love about teaching is that it keeps my mind fully engaged with what I’m talking about and trying to share with other people. Something that comes up often in classes is how connected or disconnected people feel from their own creativity. On occasion, people have asked if I could offer prompts to help keep momentum going and I do it for a while, but then forget over time (same thing with working out! there must be something to unpack there). This is my attempt to not let such a request fall by the wayside.
Here’s how it will work (this is my fantasy as of now- keep me honest if slack!):
On the first of each month, I’ll offer some thought, idea, inspiration that is centered on summoning energy from the bottomless creative well we all have within us. I’m thinking monthly because honestly, we need time to let ideas steep and take hold, let alone play with the ideas in an effort of making/creating.
Some months will have insights from others who tend to their creative landscape, some will be my own thoughts, some will address those pesky things that can get in the way of efforts such as these.
These will never be over-complicated or expensive suggestions.
I’ll continue this for as long as there is something useful to say.
Welcomed: if you have things you do that keep your creative life energized and flowing, and you’d like to participate in the conversation, please write, comment, share! I love co-creating efforts to lift the veil off our own artistry.
Suggestion & Request: if you are into this idea and want to make sure not to miss one, follow this here blog! My goal is to get out a new summoning each month. And, share this with others who you think might be interested! (at the bottom of each page on this site there is a place to subscribe).
Summoning Creativity #1
These are two suggestions I’ve used in my classes and I wanted to share them here. Hope you enjoy them!
1. Make a List– make a list of 25 things that you love. Leave the list in a place where you will continue to see it and let it work on you. Are there things on your list that nudge you a little? Or pull you a little bit? Just notice what happens as you spend time with your list, imagining these loved things. Don’t overcomplicate this. It could be a color. A smell. A temperature or moisture level of the air… just tune in. Then, move towards…
2. Nurture Your Inner Judge~ aka the fear-monger– most of us have a “voice” that pops up and tells us things when we are in new territory, especially when we feel vulnerable, exposed, frustrated… I read something a while ago that really resonated with me, and it was this: our inner critic is trying to protect us from harm. When it senses we are stepping out of our comfort zone, it tries to reel us back in because it doesn’t want us to experience something that is painful, scary, or embarrassing. Chances are, this fear-monger showed up for us when we were little, and it had an important job to do. The thing about this judgy fear-monger is, it doesn’t know when to stop. And I wonder if it doesn’t know what to do with itself when it sees us taking steps into new terrain. It reminds me of how I’ve felt when my kids tried new things like skateboarding, snowboarding, etc. Inside I wished they’d just stay safe and not put themselves in harm’s way. Every part of me wanted to keep yelling, “Be careful! Slow down! STOP!!!” So I had to work on dealing with my own fear while helping them know how to responsibly do the things they want to do. This is how I think about my own inner judge.
Now, when I hear my inner judge piping-up, I address it directly. I let it know, “we are safe and I’m just playing. Nothing bad will happen, even if what I’m making doesn’t turn out how I want it to.” I let it know that it can join me in the play and sometimes, if I remember, I thank it for trying to protect me, but that it doesn’t need to at the moment. It also doesn’t need to be banished. It can be reshaped into something more gentle. That’s when I find myself thinking about vulnerability and creativity, and where they intersect.
For this prompt, I just ask for you to notice your fear-monger. What does it say? How have you dealt with it so far? Can you invite it to relax and look around, and see that it’s safe to explore and play?
Healing Handcrafting 