Creativity...
Sometimes
It Really Pays Off
by
Lisa LaMonica, copyright 2016
excerpt from Feb issue of Hudson Magazine, hudsonmagazine.us
lisalamonica.com
http://www.childrenswritersguild.com/lisa-lamonica/
Someone
said at the 2010 Oscars, “If you want to be creative, get out there
and do it. It’s not a waste of time.” Julia Cameron said in her
book, The Artist's Way:“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, and the work we do feels
like play to us.”
I'm
living in a community of creativity; galleries abound, Etsy is
nearby, artists are everywhere showcasing their talents. Last
November I attended a local
Artists
+ Friends Potluck Dinner community event which not only hosted very
abundant warm tasty food, but inspired me creatively as well. I
learned what others were doing artistically, where they were on their
journeys, and I learned about classes exploring art methods new to me
to try. Connecting with other artists is especially important during
the winter. Feeling isolated is what I frequently hear from artists
and people in general during winter after the hollidays. Seeing other
artists as colleagues, not competitors also helps you stretch.
Winter
is a slower paced time and a time for me to turn indoors more on
creative projects not attended to during summer. Gardening, property
management and more social obligations take much of my time away from
creative projects during that season. While I enjoy certain aspects
of summer, I always enjoy winter as well.
After
New Year's I tend to take stock on what I did or didn't achieve
artistically during the prior year. Did I do enough? This is when I
map out my creative goals for the coming year.
Winter
is not drab to me at all; I see the different colors of snow, the
light shining through icicles hanging from my house, colors of birds
at my birdfeeders, the blue light changing at the end of an
afternoon.
Julie
Cameron pointed out: “ Snowflakes, of course are the ultimate
exercise in sheer creative glee. No two alike.” This winter has
been lenient on us. When we have snow, looking at snowflakes and snow
crystals perhaps catching them on a sheet of black paper, is a
wonderment at their design.
Creativity
paying off for you may mean many different things. Maybe it means
being accepted into a group or solo gallery show, maybe it means
sales from your writing, teaching, speaking or art, maybe it means
finding your voice or belonging to a particular group, maybe it means
being able to pay the mortgage with earnings from your creative work.
Adam
Westbrook recently posted from his video series on creativity, an
inspiring video about the process of creativity during these modern
times obsesed with popularity and social media. Westbrook uses
Vincent Van Gogh as an example of an artist who had just his brother
supportive of his work and who during his lifetime, sold very very
little of his work. Van Gogh worked through such tremendous
obstacles. In this video the concept of Autotelic is defined as a
“self contained activity done for its own sake, done for the
enjoyment of the activity itself; the experience is the reward.”
Westbrook's
point of his video was for artists to keep creating even when it
doesn't seem like anyone is noticing or cares. Westbrook asks,”What
if you knew your work was being seen by only one person. Would you
keep going? What would you do? In a world obsessed with popularity,
will we still make our art?”
One
winter evening, I was pleased to see a posting on Facebook by Spotty
Dog Books and Ale that one my books had been in the top 6 best
selling books of 2015 in their store. I was a little stunned, and had
to let it sink in for a bit. I thought of all of the books, authors
and topics of books in a bookstore. I thought of all of the visitors
to that bookstore deciding to buy my book. Undoubtably these were
local people as well as tourists. I wondered what their lives were
like, if they bought the book for themselves or as a gift to give
someone. I thought of how particularly difficult this book had been
to complete, how long it had taken,
how
isolating the work was at times, all the while thinking to myself “I
hope that one day this pays off.”
In
that moment, it had paid off beyond what I would have imagined.
For
more inspiration, visit Adam Westbrook's video:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/01/painting-in-the-dark
