Welcome to Tuesdays with Chel.
“Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.”
– Julia Cameron
Welcome to the Bliss Habits Book Club! For the next several weeks, we’ll be discussing and working our way through The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. This week, we’re talking about Week/Chapter Six.
This week’s topics (money and the “luxuries” that creativity requires) interested me for several reasons.
First of all, we’re in a funky economy. It’s been this way for a while. Money is a HUGE issue for many people and families. Dropping everything to go off and write a book, create a series of paintings, or follow a creative dream is simply NOT an option for most people, regardless of how many creative coaches and authors assure us otherwise. It’s not that it’s impossible to make a living from our creative dreams, it’s just that it’s unthinkably risky at this specific point in time.
But there are other parts of our lives that hold significant value: our time and our energy. If you can’t afford to risk your bank account on a creative dream, maybe you will feel more comfortable risking your free time and energy on a creative dream. Cameron writes:
“Most of us harbor a secret belief that work has to be work and not play, and that anything we really want to do must be considered frivolous and be placed a distant second. Many of us equate difficulty with virtue – and art with fooling around. Hard work is good. A terrible job must be building our moral fiber. Something – a talent for painting, say – that comes to us easily and seems compatible with us must be some sort of cheap trick, not to be taken seriously… When it comes time for us to choose between a cherished dream and a lousy current drudgery, we often choose to ignore the dream.”
I totally get what she is saying. When I have a chunk of free time, I often feel very strongly that what I should be doing is something of value, something that benefits the most amount of people (usually my family or the community). So my creativity gets the shaft.
This has been incredibly apparent for the last several weeks. Things have gotten very busy around here. When I found myself with any free time at all, I’d often sacrifice creativity in favor of something that felt more “practical”, like laundry or planning for the holidays or taking care of paperwork.
“Do you still think there is some moral virtue in being martyred?” – Julia Cameron
And, to be honest, the choice to devote my time and energy to “practical tasks” was a very bad one. I find myself completely drained, irritated, and unable to focus on anything. The other day I sort of FORCED myself to put the paperwork aside and do a little painting, and I was miserable. I felt like I lost my momentum for everything. It actually made me feel a bit hopeless- if painting wasn’t making me feel better, then what would?
I’ve been thinking about it a lot since then and I realized that my creativity isn’t some enjoyable hobby that I have, it’s a passion. It’s a drive. It’s necessary for my happiness and well-being. It’s something that cannot be sacrificed.
That’s all well and good, but there’s still a voice inside me that says “but art is NOT A SENSIBLE USE OF TIME!”
Cameron has several responses to this.
“It is pretty clear that the creator itself did not know when to stop. There is not one pink flower, or even fifty pink flowers, but hundreds. Snowflakes, of course, are the ultimate exercise in sheer creative glee. No two alike. This creator looks suspiciously like someone who just might send us support for our creative ventures…. Creativity is not and never has been sensible. Why should it be? Why should you be?”
This makes sense to me- I’m an avid gardener, and so I’m witness to the “sheer creative glee” of the natural world on a daily basis. I’m also a mom, and I see how creativity is an ABSOLUTE essential element to a happy childhood. Imagine taking creativity away from a child?
Just because we “grow up” doesn’t mean that creativity is any less essential to our well-being as people. And maybe no one we know has ever told us this, but if we don’t create regularly, we will suffer. So we must maintain a commitment to our creativity, no matter how much we might feel its frivolous or not sensible, no matter how few people in our lives or community supports it. It’s hard to say “I’m going to devote an hour every evening to painting” when you log onto facebook and one friend is posting about the 4,000 cupcakes they made for a community bakesale and another is texting from her car as she taxis her children to all their activities and yet another is talking about her impressive class load as she works toward her medical degree. We live in a society, especially in this economical moment, where putting others first is championed. Where does something as deeply personal as creativity fit into this?
Cameron writes:
“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful… The vulnerability of all artists, even very famous ones, [is giving into] the shaming, “I should be working” side of themselves that discourages creative pleasures.”
And then, this:
“In order to thrive as artists – and, one could argue, as people – we need to be available to the universal flow. When we put a stopper on our capacity for joy by anorectically declining the small gifts of life, we turn aside the larger gifts as well. … Those of us who have stymied the work flow completely will find ourselves in lives that feel barren and devoid of interest no matter how many things we have filled them with.”
Creativity is not a hobby, it’s not a frivolous pursuit, it’s not a shameful addiction, it’s a necessity in order for the rest of our lives- our relationships, our productivity, our health, our work in other areas- to function properly.
So what do we do? We want to make our creativity more of a priority, so where do we start, especially if we are completely depleted and frazzled?
Cameron’s response is as follows:
“The actual [creative] block is our feeling of constriction, our sense of powerlessness. Art requires us to empower ourselves with choice. If you want to make some art, make some art. [And] making art begins with making hay while the sun shines. It begins with getting into the now and enjoying your day. It begins with giving yourself some small treats and breaks.” – Julia Cameron
That was not what I was expecting, but it makes sense. Think about it… If you are physically exhausted, totally out of energy, unable to keep your eyes open etc., the only way to replenish yourself is rest. You won’t feel better if you shift to another activity or force yourself to stay awake, right? Creativity works the same way. If you are “out of juice” in an overall sense, getting out your paints or trying to work on a new chapter of your book is not going to replenish you. You need to take a break, allow some new ideas to accumulate, gather energy, and then approach your work with a fresh sense of commitment and focus.
“For those of us who have become artistically anorectic – yearning to be creative and refusing to feed that hunger in ourselves so that we become more and more focused on our deprivation – a little authentic luxury can go a long way. The key work here is authentic… What we are talking about when we discuss luxury is very often a shift in consciousness more than now – although as we acknowledge and invite what feels luxurious to us, we may indeed trigger an increased flow.”
This makes tremendous sense from a neuroscience perspective as well. When we allow ourselves to recognize that which is good, that which makes us feel better and replenishes our soul, our brain makes neural connections that allows us to more easily identify such “pleasure triggers” in the future. So the more we identify the good stuff, the stuff that replenishes our creativity and our energy, the more easily we recognize positive opportunities in the future.
The key, though, is authenticity. You gotta be honest about what works and what doesn’t for YOU. Not what works for the majority of people. For instance, a lot of people go out with their friends and grab a few drinks to relax. To me, that sounds like a completely draining activity. I don’t drink, and when I’m around a lot of people, I click into “on” mode, and my energy drains. So, while some of my friends go out on a “girl’s night” every week to blow off some steam, I know that I’d be better off at home with a good book and a nice cup of tea.
“Creative living requires the luxury of time [and] creative living requires the luxury of space for ourselves. Designating a few things special and yours alone can go a long way toward making you feel pampered.” – Julia Cameron
Finally, I leave you with this:
“Stop making [creativity] work and start making it fun again. What sound[s] like fun?
For many blocked creatives, it takes a little work to even imagine ourselves [having fun]. Much of what we do in a creative recovery may seem silly. Silly is a defense our Wet Blanket adult uses to squelch our artist child. Beware of silly as a word you toss at yourself. Yes, artist dates are silly – that’s the whole point. Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.”
So, what sounds like fun to you? My challenge for you this week is to not only think seriously about that question, but go and DO it. Make it a priority. Commit to it. And then see how you feel. It make take a few tries to find something that sparks, that brings joy, but if you can figure it out, it may change your life.
The discussion is continued on Facebook, as well. Please join us.
Chel Micheline is a mixed-media artist, curator, writer, and avid gardener/reader/swimmer who lives in Southwest Florida with her husband and daughter. When Chel’s not making art or pondering the Bliss Habits, she’s blogging at gingerblue.com (come say hi!) or posting new things in the gingerblue etsy shop.