we need your creativity
We need creativity more than ever!
We need your art!
We need you to make things with your hands!
Even if it’s not “good” or isn’t shared with anyone!
Maybe even especially if it isn’t “good”!
Fuck “good”! Fuck perfectionism! Make bad art!
We need you, yes you, to be thinking “what else is possible” and using that wild beautiful imagination of yours!
The powers that want us complacent want us to be quiet and small and scared and monotonous and conforming and looking down!
But art is expansive! It softens our hearts and strengthens our resilience! It anchors use while letting us flow!
I know you may not feel very creative or might not feel like an artist, and that’s ok! But we are all born with a spark and a desire to make a mark, to scribble with the crayons on the table, to pile up mud into a vague “pie” shape, to twirl and sway and bounce to a rhythm. I know that that spark is still deep within you.
Please do not dim your glorious light!
I know that it might be hard to access that spark these days. I really understand that. I’ve been having a hard time sewing lately, I find myself sitting in front of my sewing machine just kind of staring at the fabric and completely forgetting what I’m doing. Or going on my phone and scrolling for an hour instead. Or watching the dogs in the park outside the window. There are days where it feels just kind of pointless.
But I know deep in my soul that it is now.
That creating, making art, using our hands, accessing our imaginations…none of these things are pointless, useless or “frivolous”.
I believe they are essential.
Making something, whether it is a dress, a pie, a very organized spreadsheet, a piece of beautifully executed code, whatever it may be is an act of asking “what else is possible?”, seeing that there are multiple answers to that question and then working to create it.
Which is, in my opinion, what the world needs - all of us asking “what else is possible” and then doing whatever we can to bring about that world that we know is possible in our hearts.
And you know what? Beyond that, it is just joyful! It is fun! It allows us to play and feel like kids again. And that is also really frickin important and essential.
So it may feel like taking out a piece of paper and just doodling with markers you found at the back of the junk drawer is a “frivolous” waste of time, but I really don’t think it is. I think it’s keeping your soul alive, strengthening your creative muscles to see a better world out there and work towards it and adding a bit of color, flare and difference to a world that is dealing with a lot of systems that want conformity and blandness.
Looking for something to spark that flame?
Here are some places/things/people that I like to look to for ideas/inspiration/motivation to just make something:
Poetry - particularly the work of my pals Jacqueline Suskin and David Gate but also the classics like Mary Oliver, Rilke, and Rumi
Listening to the music that I liked when I was a kid (which honestly, often is musicals or Disney but also the angsty stuff of my teens)
Journaling - Julia Cameron really was onto something with the “morning pages”
Talking with friends - I went for a walk with a friend through Golden Gate Park this week and that did more for my creativity than hours of trying to sketch or “ideate”
Smelling roses and watching bees at work in the poppies
Scrolling through the #memademay posts on Instagram and seeing what all the amazing sewists out there are up to
Sometimes going to museums but sometimes that can feel stuffy so it depends on how I’m feeling. Often, I find the art in galleries or painted on the outside of my favorite coffee shop to be more inspiring
Reading fantasy books
Taking classes to learn something new - either online with a maker I like or at the community center or library
Pulling out paper, crayons or markers from the “junk drawer” and just doodling while watching a silly sit com or Lord of the Rings for the 14582nd time
Some books that I have found helpful in developing a creative practice and a resilient imagination:
Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens
Every Day a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Getting to Center by Cody Cook-Parrott
Thank you for reading! I hope that you keep using your imagination and your creativity, even in small acts like cutting flowers for your table or getting dressed in a fun outfit.
You are doing great
keep on keeping on
xoxox
Justice