The care and feeding of the creative soul

I’m a firm believer that artists, and by “artists” I mean that beautiful long list of creatives, are the shamans of our modern world, inasmuch that they develop an acute sensitivity through their work, both in the physical sense as well as emotional. It  isn’t unexpected that many creatives have been suffering lately, so I’d like to share a few resources for nurturing the creative soul.

From the wonderful choreographer Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, “Creativity is an act of defiance.” It’s not only an act of defiance against those that seek to restrain our freedoms, but also against those voices that do so from within. In either case, defiance is never comfortable, and Tharp writes, “Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.”

That reminds me of a quote from the wonderful Anne Truitt, who’s journals describe better than any other books I’ve seen on the theme of being an artist in the latter part of life, “For the greater the number of freely entertained different, mutually contradictory ideas, the greater the chance that their collision will strike a spark, ignite insight. & a house that is entirely secured is a prison.” There is a clarion call there against certainty — something I find over and over in the writings of many artists.

My friend Tony Fletcher (an ArteSumapaz alum) asked once if our late mutual neighbor Daido Loori, who founded a Zen monastery in the Catskill Mountains of New York, had been an influence on the creation of ArteSumapaz. And indeed he had been. And so I was excited to receive his addition to the canon of creativity, The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life.

“…one quality necessary to create art, I would say it’s trust. When you learn to trust yourself implicitly, you no longer need to prove something through your art. You simply allow it to come out, to be as it is. This is when creating art becomes effortless. It happens just as you grow your hair. It grows.”

Ellen Langer is a  Harvard Professor of Psychology who has been the source of a great deal of clinical research that demonstrates the health benefits of mindfulness. She brought that same research to bear in On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity, where she wrote, “When we passively move through our day, we set ourselves up to feel like victims. All too often people feel as though they have no choice in situations where others, although no different except in their outlook, actively create their world. It’s a powerful advantage to feel in control, especially in the face of entirely new and different situations, where uncertainty is likely to be greatest.”

There’s a thread in all of this; certainty, uncertainty, trusting in the process, trusting in your self. And in trusting in ourselves and the process, perhaps we need the reminder that our care and feeding (I’m thinking of the mind and soul!) is necessary. So often we take care of our brushes, our guitars, our notebooks – too often better than we care for ourselves. And yet our own self is the most important tool in the creation of our art. Dear creative friend, take care. And remember, in those very acts of self-care, you are being defiant.