Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about my creative process. My old creative habits just no longer suit me. When I was 19 years old and just discovering my love of writing and performance the process was all adrenaline and such intense focus that I could not be present with others until the work was done. It was an isolating and sometimes depressing way to be in the work. Then I discovered how valuable it is to be apart of a creative community and began to collaborate with other artists. I also discovered that I loved to facilitate artistic projects with young people supporting them in producing plays giving voice to the issues that matter most to them. For a while I found myself unable to balance my own creative process with my commitment to creating in community. I either had to travel far away from home in order to write a new work, cutting myself off from my work as a teaching-artist and cultural worker or I’d put aside my writing leaving work unfinished for months and sometimes years because I simply could not carve out the time to write. It’s only now that I realize that I need to revisit my creative process, for the me that I am now; for the woman who is an artist, healer, coach, educator, and cultural worker. What are the practices that I must put into place to allow my fullest most creative self to be present with all that now matters to me, my family, friends, my work in community, and my artistic practice?
A few weeks ago I created a diagram that I think best represents what I need to be inspired. At the center was the word “Inspiration” arrows pointed out from inspiration at “Creating with Community ” because I am inspired by the work I created with others especially young people and women; “Spirit” because my spiritual practice is essential to my ability to be present and connected; “Creating In Solitude” because yes sometimes an artist needs be alone with her musings; “Nature”, there is something that makes me feel fully alive and in the moment when in nature, “Studio time”, I need to just turn on a piece of music sometimes in an empty studio and just see what’s called forth from my body, sometimes the work comes through the body first then on to the page; “Seeing work”, as a performance artist I’m inspired by the movement and theatrical forms that other artists use and need to see as much work as possible, particularly during times when I’ve completed a project and need to replenish my own creative reserves. “Reading”anything and everything. “Classes” because I will always be on the path toward mastery as an artist, that learning never ends.; and something that just occurred to me now as I write this, fun. I need to have fun with the people I love to be inspired.
This formula may work for me today but as I evolve and grow so will the practices necessary to sustain my creativity. There is no one size fits all formula. Everyone needs something different. What’s the formula for sustaining your creative life?
As I sat down at my desk to write this morning I felt a deep need for inspiration. A reminder about the purpose of imagination and storytelling. So I went online in search of Isabelle Allende, Chimamanda Adichie, and Nawal El Saadawi, writers I trust to remind me of why I am a storyteller. There is a bridge that creativity and imagination naturally forms with stories told from the soul’s knowing. Every day I wake up, sit down at my desk, and begin the work of building that bridge again.
