Hey All,
it's been a while! I've been kind of busy with school work and other academic pursuits but I'm back with a new topic to discuss ....that being the creative life flow. What I mean is, the force in the human spirit that encourages creativity, expression and a general desire to communicate one's feelings/soul/journey. I'm writing about this now, not because this is something that is new for me to think about, but because of a conversation I had with a young artist and his poet friend the other evening.
What is it in us that directs our creative energy? Why is that we pick one route to express ourselves, and neglect others, even though we may have a talent in it? Why does that energy seem to completely dissipate at some points, and come back like with the wild rage of a hungry lion? Let's analyze these questions.
In my experience, creative energy for me is something that compels me into creative action. For example, a restlessness, a yearning for something that may result in poetry, singing, painting, playing an intrument, sewing acting etc. Some people (like myself) have a basic level of skill in these different creative mediums, while others may have a particular thing that they enjoy and are good at. The young artist that I spoke to had two talents: painting, and poetry. He told me that he hadnt done any poetry in a couple years basically because he wanted to direct all of his creative life force at his paintings. This raises an interesting question: Do we have the agency to compel our creativity into whatever medium we choose? Or is better that we just let our creative flow lead us into whatever direction we should be in? In my life, I follow the latter. Sometimes, I'll be compelled to create a poem, other times a song, other times a painting. I never know what I'm going to do in advance, it just kind of happens that way, my spirit just knows what it needs. Is it possible for a person to just pick what they want to do and compel all their creative energy in that direction (and actually excel in their chosen art form)?
The next question is one of the "creative dry spells". This is something every artist of every media I know has experienced. In Clarissa Pinkole Estes' book, Women Who Run With the Wolves (absolutely amazing, go buy it!) she talks about this phenomena, not necessarily in terms of "creativity" per se, but she addresses the times that we go through struggle for what seems no reason. On page 452 she says, "...the Self, or in our parlance, the Wild Woman, seeds the psyche with perils and challenges in order that the human in despair drives herself back down into her original nature looking for answers and strength, thereby reuniting with the great wild Self and, as much as possible thereafter, moving as one." I thought this was such an important passage, and it really relates to the creative life flow. Creativity is like a stream, bubbling a lively in summer, and completely frozen during winter only to begin its flow again in spring.
The point is, think about all of these questions, and how they pertain to you. Think of instances in your life where you may have encountered the "loss" of creativity, and then experienced the overpowering "return". Think of the time when you believe you lost your creative spirit. Think of ways to find it and nurture it again.
Peace.
