The One Thing Creatives Need...Space

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Perhaps it was the way Professor G. shut the door on me when I ventured to knock and seek advice in reference to grades that seemed to be gliding across a thin sheet of ice.  Or the way she allowed all of us to just squirm for the remainder of our assigned two minutes if we could not fill up the whole time with our Virginia Woolf insights.  In fact, it might be the way during one of those moments in class that I fancied myself witty the day Professor G. repeated a word I used out loud luring me to repeat it again.  At that point, she got up from her seat and in front of the other students, wrote the word down on the blackboard only to highlight the fact that it was not a word and therefore not welcome that day in class.   That particular day was within one of my spring semesters at Trinity College, yet the room felt like it was about 100 degrees in the middle of August.

All of these incidents may in fact be the reason why I loathed Virginia Woolf and did just enough to complete the assignments of that miserable class.  However, over the years, I've noticed fragments of what I read of Virginia Woolf's life and literature kicking around like specs of shiny glitter encouraging a level of curiosity.  A Room of One's Own and the importance of Woolf's insights in regards to nurturing artistry (specifically among women) is something that I can't deny as one who lives to create.  

The concept of having the physical space to create is one that has become increasingly important to me but arguably it is something that is key to all creatives who wish to live at all.  Think about it for a moment:

• How does current space or environment contribute to your detract from what and/or how you create?
• Imagine that you were able to have your own space if you don't already (regardless of exact size), how would it change the way you arrive at the want or need to create (either artistically, professionally, in the world, etc.)? 

Perhaps your space is a studio, a room, an apartment, or an office.  I have had different arrangements of some of these things and I noticed that whether it was a room, office, or my own apartment, the space acted as a cocoon that fed the creating.  Whether it was writing a poem, dancing, or attempts to nurture new ideas for various professional endeavors, the space played a key role in allowing creative growth.  For example, I have noticed the difficulty in producing intimate written work in the realm  of the random public versus forming the words with ease within a consciously created environment.

Thus, some of Woolf's writings did serve me well, but I would make a slight adjustment to the opening quote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”  I would say that in order for an individual to create anything, they must have a space of their own.

What are you doing to feed your wild, creative self?

Each moment and each  day is an opportunity to taste your wild self through your creative life.  What are you doing today,

Right now,
to free your wild,
creative
self?

To Boldly Go....What We Can Learn from Leonard Nimoy

Leading a creative live is fulfilling but there is a small price to pay.  The reality is that everyone around you may not understand all of the creative lives you currently lead or will ever lead.  Actually, I can promise you that this will be the case. 

"Being known in one area of the arts and wanting to move into another is complicated. In a certain way, you get attention because of who you are, but you also get a certain amount of resistance."

Leonard Nimoy in a 2004 interview with The Republican

 

Leonard Nimoy, famously known as Dr. Spock on the original series Star Trek is a perfect example.  Shortly after his death, there were many quotes, articles and commentary that exploded all over the internet and of course on social media.  Many posts with the comments, "I did not know Nimoy was a photographer." 

 

 Nimoy wasn't just any photographer, but one with great depth adding another dimension to our perception of the human form through his artistic endeavors.  As I saw some of the comments I even recalled out loud to myself,  "Oh yes, that's right, he was a photographer, I missed his exhibit that was held in Northampton.  What a life!"  Yet images of my childhood filled with remembrances of Dr. Spock easily flooded my brain.  Nimoy commented on the complications of moving from one art form to another and some of the constraints within that, especially from the public who may place you in one role.

Some of us may never be a character such as Dr. Spock or be bold enough to explore various fields of talent like Nimoy did.  However, his existence is encouragement to not only explore and adventure, but to be different creative and artistic selves regardless of the box that many may create for you.  Think about all of the different imaginings that family, friends, partners, lovers, and most around you may envision your creative life different than what you see or live?  Or can you recall a time when you shared information about a favorite hobby or a passion, and someone who thought they "knew" you was surprised and/or continued to only remember you within the narrow space that they carved crafted for you?

Here is my point and what I want all of us to draw from how Leonard Nimoy lived--be audacious and and don't feel compelled to just be or choose one thing in your professional or creative life.  Cultivate many selves in our life as opposed to forcing the premature death of your other selves (creative, professional or otherwise).  

Approach your creative life and passions with a wild adventurous spirit regardless of whether or not others around you will understand it.  And if you decide to place that creative exploratory upon a shelf in the mythical land of someday, just make sure it is not because the life of that passion imposes upon someone else's vision for you.

 

Creative Thinking... How does it all start?

Creativity is not a recipe, it's a way of being, a way of breathing life into our consciousness. Creativity is a great journey within one-self into self-discovery and self-acceptance. Everyone can make its way there but there are no two identical roads, as we are all different human beings. We each need to find our own particular path, which has nothing to do with good or bad, talented or not, succesful or not, but all to do with what we truly wish to learn, who we are, and what our full potential calls us to be. Creativity is a calling from a distant voice within, the one that is calling us back home, to our center, where we all truly belong.

When we first think about what being creative means, we usually naturally think about some Art form: writing, music, dancing drawing... Maybe we have a day job that has nothing to do with the Arts and we are looking for something to complement our lives and we start thinking "maybe I should do something creative" in an attempt to fill in this empty feeling that we have inside telling us that we are "missing out on something". But in reality, creativity starts with the way you process your thoughts and how you perceive and experience the world around you. It's a way of twisting our perceptions, thoughts and experiences to see everything in a new light, a new angle or having a different approach to situations. This is why the term "creative thinking" is so important because, really, that's what it is. In order to get something "out" of yourself, you first need to perceive the world and your life in a way that it feeds your heart and mind so that you can take things "in". This is the whole idea behind finding inspiration, which is a topic that I will adress in later posts. 

There are very simple tools that anyone can apply to unlock this switch in the brain. In this blog, I will be exploring many of these tools in later postings. Creative thinking is not a "learning" process, rather, it's something that is available to all of us which we just need to tap into. And it's something that once open will influence all aspects of your life: how you deal with issues, how you interact with others and how you perceive Life and everything that it implies. So... that's all great but what does it mean in real life? How does someone go from rational to creative thinking? 

The key to creative thinking is to understand the process of stimulating your imagination. Everyone is different so we all have different things that inspire us more than others. Anything that you will do that is out of your ordinary routine is a good place to start. It can be as easy as taking a different road to work in the morning, or discovering a new place to go out, or taking the time to watch a movie that is a bit different then what you would normally go for. The main idea behind this is that routine and reflexes are usually imagination killers. Do you know this feeling of having to go from the same point A to the same point B everyday and always taking the same road? After some time, you don't even notice the road anymore. Sometimes you might even daydream and when you get to your destination you wake up and realize that actually you are so used to this routine that you didn't notice anything at all on your way there, barely noticed if it's sunny or not outside. Why? Because after some time, and this is the whole imagination killer concept, you stop paying attention because you take for granted that everything is the same as yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. After some time of being in a routine, you stop asking yourself questions, you loose your curiosity and interest, the mind goes numb and all the little everyday miracles that could brighten up your day go unnoticed, lost in habits and lack of interest.

Most importantly, imagination is a muscle. The more you use it, the more it flows. Of course, we all have our ups and downs and even the most creative artists are sometimes faced with what we call the artist's block. But overall, you can't loose. The hardest thing in this process is usually to open the "imagination tap" in the brain again. Once it's open, the only thing left to do is to explore it and, of course, to HAVE FUN WITH IT ! Yes, fun!! This should be the whole point of our desire to explore our own creativity: because it's fun and beautiful and it gives life a completely new palette of colours to play with. 

I know that for many of you out there, even for established artists, creative thinking is sometimes more of a source of pressure then pleasure. Society teaches us that we need to be "good" at what we do or not do it. We need to "perform" and we have the fear of judgments, of what other people will think of us and how they will perceive our work.  These are very important and common problems that I will adress in later posts. But to start with I will just say this: when it comes to developing our creativity, we are our own major obstacle and our own worst enemy. This is why I've decided to start this blog: because I really believe that everyone needs a bit of magic in their lives, and anyone can access it. One of the things that fills me the most with sadness is when I hear someone say: "Oh! You're an artist! How wonderful! I wish I had some kind of artistic talent as well but really, I have none..." or worse "oh, I love music (or dancing or drawing, whatever it is) but I'm to afraid to really get out there and do it..." . It makes me wish I could help this person realize that really, it doesn't take much more other than just a willingness to grow as a human being and to be curious enough to discover, try new things and explore... everything. All situations and experiences have something to teach us, however boring and ordinary they seem, as long as we are ready to see everything with the eye of our imagination.

If you enjoyed reading this post, or if you have any questions about specific issues related to the creative process, please leave me a comment below!