My friend and fellow artist Tara Leaver recently wrote about the idea of a life metaphor, using the different energies of an eagle and a field mouse for herself, which I thought was just so beautifully observed.
She asked what metaphor we would apply to our own lives, and it made me wonder what mine might be…
The first thing I thought of was the doll’s house and the circus tent.
I thought a doll’s house was a good metaphor for the secluded, private, absorbed bit of my life. The part where I am at home with my tiny things creating an imaginary world. I am moving pieces around, trying ideas, thinking, noticing and playing very happily in my own self-contained creative world.
The circus tent is the more visible, rowdy, rambunctious part of me. The showing up, sharing, making Instagram videos, making YouTube videos, being visible, inviting people in, and doing the more public-facing parts.
These two energies are intrinsic parts of my personality. I am both a self-contained, reticent person and a show-woman who enjoys clowning around.
The colour, the connection and the exuberant enthusiasm of the circus tent beguile me.
I like taking to the stage and making reels and YouTube videos when I have something to say. I value the community and relish the connection. I love hearing from people who have found what I share useful or encouraging. But I also find the circus tent to be bright, boisterous and overwhelming.
Right now, I am creating a new short sketchbook class, and I need more doll’s house time.
I crave more playful focus. I want to shut myself away and give one thing my full beam and undivided energy. I want to work away quietly and diligently.
I really enjoy periods of deep, focused concentration. And when I am in this doll’s house mode, I often take breaks from the more visible, public-facing parts of my work: social media, YouTube, reels, the things which involve a lot of ‘pouring-out’ energy.
I’ve worked like this for years. I go through periods of sharing, showing up, putting things out into the world, and a couple of times a year I feel the call to retreat.
It is a way of sustaining my creative energy. It’s a pattern I have carried with me since childhood, when I was little it was all either ‘drama club, jazz hands, vivacity’ or ‘quietly drawing or reading in the corner’.
I didn’t have a dolls house as a child, but I like the analogy. The doll’s house is where I can play on my own. The circus tent is where I can invite people in, share the ideas, thoughts, and knowledge I have discovered in the dolls house.
I don’t want a creative life that happens only in private, because I would miss the true connection and the conversation. I would miss the pleasure of sharing ideas.
But I also don’t want a creative life where every idea has to be paraded under bright lights before it is ready for its audience.
I think this is perhaps true of many creative endeavours. Sometimes we need to share, show, explain, invite people in, and introduce the world to the work.
And sometimes we need to let ideas take hold, close the door for a bit, move the furniture pieces about, and see what we can make without narrating the whole thing as we go.
My creative rhythm needs some solitary time. It is part of how I am able show up with something I actually want to share or say.
Perhaps your life metaphor is completely different from my doll’s house and circus tent comparison, but I wonder if you recognise that connection between the private part of making art and and the more visible part of sharing it.
Thank you Tara for posing such a thought provoking question. Metaphors are always an interesting way to frame understanding of a situation and I find the idea of life metaphors so compelling.
More to explore:
