Making Space for Creativity

A reflection on my meeting places with creativity.

A space is something that has been made room for, something that has been freed, namely, within a boundary. A boundary is not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recognized, the boundary is that from which something begins its essential unfolding.

- Martin Heidegger

This month I focused on shifting some things around, letting go of books and supplies I no longer need, rearranging furniture, and generally making space to center my writing practice.

For a long time, writing fit in around and supported my other creative endeavors. As I have been spending more time writing my book, I have been craving a bit more spaciousness for this work. Clearing my worktable was a start. It feels like I now have a place to sit down with my creativity, reflect on our relationship, explore stories to share, and work together to assemble these into a book.

The quote that opens this newsletter was one of the treasures I uncovered going through old files. It comes from a photography assignment in a class almost 30 years ago, an invitation to photograph borders and boundaries.

Reading it this time, I was struck by the way Heidegger suggests a shift from a boundary as something that keeps things out to a boundary as a starting place, a beginning of essential unfolding. This matches my own feeling that somehow the making of space supports the unfolding that is essential and already happening in my work. I met with my writing group this week and in this month’s submission they noted how I am settling into my voice.

I find this is mirrored in my relationship to my workspace too. It is often noted that outer clutter reflects inner clutter. In my experience, the shift in my space feels like the difference between meeting in a loud crowded cafe or at home around a kitchen table. In a cafe, I must really focus to hear my companion amid so many other conversations. At home, there is quiet surrounding the conversation that allows for pauses and silences as we gather our thoughts.

My work desk here was once a kitchen table in my childhood home so that feels like a good fit too.

The space I have created is probably most visible in these before and after photos.

Lessons from Leading Community Creative Practice

It has been almost a decade since the closing of the physical location of Art at the Center, a community studio. For years I hosted space for others to explore materials and meaning through creative practice.

In the intervening years, I have often reflected on how much better I was at maintaining systems and order in a shared space. It was necessary to clear tables at the end of class and have a place to put things away so that different groups could use the space in the course of a day. I also had routines for arriving to class, settling in to work, and for clean-up, sharing, and reflection at the end of a session.

I’ve been reflecting on ways to bring those same routines into my practice here at home. Part of what helps is to imagine collaborating with my creativity, hosting my creative spirit. She’s been showing up regardless, content to sit across from me, peering over the piles on my table. Now that I have cleared some space, I hope she will feel the chance to collaborate more fully; there is room to put more of her ideas on the table, to make meaning together.

Inspiration from Paulus Beherensohn and Lynda Barry

While the two artists’ practices and media are different, they share a belief in the journal as a space, a place for meeting with creativity. Paulus Beherensohn calls his journal a nest, or a soul’s kitchen table. Lynda Barry encourages those intimidated by drawing and writing to put aside the idea of “making something” with their books and to instead, focus on “making a place;” a space to explore, create, and discover.

Paulus Beherensohn was a dancer, a potter, a writer, and a dedicated teacher. You can watch a video, Soul’s Kitchen, about his journal making classes.

Lynda Barry is a cartoonist and teacher. Her books, Making Comics and Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor each take the form of a composition book, her favored visual journal for students in her class. Each book outlines lessons and activities she offers to her students.

I would love to hear about the places that support your relationship with creativity. This might include specific physical spaces as well as a journal or sketchbook practice that creates space for you.

Below are a couple photos from Art at the Center, as well as a recent one of a page in a visual journal where I am mapping out book ideas.

Thank you for reading and being a part of creative community through this newsletter.

With a grateful heart,

Kathryn