Healing Handcrafting

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Summoning Creativity #5~ Hearing From People Who Create

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 Weaving
Donna’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?

Until next time,
bradie


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Summoning Creativity #2~ Follow Threads

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.

Until next time,

bradie