Creativity needs oxygen

This is a question I find helpful: What are the conditions that make my creativity possible?

A creative life needs nourishing and fueling. It needs things that feed the artist and feed the making. It isn't just about the output, the outcome or the finished work is it?

It is built on the things we do to make the work more possible in the first place. The thing behind the thing.

We often talk about creativity in terms of fire: sparks of inspiration, rekindling our creativity, finding what lights us up…. And like any fire, creativity needs more than just the fuel. It requires oxygen too. The metaphorical room to breathe, the space, the air, the time to let things settle, time to let ideas connect and take hold.

I’m trying to get better at carving out this clear space, time that is not jam packed with productivity, time to let ideas take hold, time to rest, time to freewheel about in nature to see what happens. Time to draw, not for a defined reason other than for a window of quiet time with myself.

Going through, getting over and sometimes still dealing with the consequences of chronic health issues has forced me to completely reassess my life and what is possible.

Before I was rest-less and now it is an essential, I no longer have the ability to push through and always do more. For me, any action requires rest, there is the yin and then the yang.

I feel like I am newly learning to do less and be okay with that. I am realising that the space around the activity is as important as the activity.

This thinking has permeated into all aspects of my life.

I can see that my creativity needs more spaciousness to feed it. More breathing room, passages of emptiness, more blue sky, a deep exhale…restorative time before I go again.

What are the conditions that make your creativity possible?

Notes:

The book I mention in the video is 'Charles Rennie Macintosh, Textile Designs' Roger BillCliffe, Pomegranate Publishers, 1993.

The sketchbook is a Venezia Book from Fabriano.

I’m walking in the countryside, near Northiam, East Sussex.