CREATIVE INSPIRATION

Unpacking My Creative Practice

Occasionally I need to address the issue of my creative routines, and this is one of those times.  After returning home from a month abroad, now I am traveling again—this time for a family event in Colorado.  During the week between travels, I noticed that I was reluctant to fall back into some previous creative habits while at the same time resistant to establishing new ones.

A Paris window display and curiously relevant to this week’s topic:

On the one hand, unpacking and resettling after a long holiday presents an opportunity to start fresh.  On the other hand, the transition time can feel diffuse, destabilizing, even confusing.

So much has already been written about effective routines and rituals.  Remember “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey?  It is still a bestseller, because many people seem to need repeated reminders and motivation.  And I am one of those people.

Apparently, no matter how much I know about being creatively productive, the problem isn’t my ignorance.  It is in transforming knowledge into activity, what I call my creative practice.

One entry into reestablishing a regular creative practice is to notice what activities or current routines feel good physically or mentally.  I made a short list:

1.     Early morning creative productivity.  I am at my creative best (i.e., attentive, focused, able to access my subconscious) in the morning.  I wake up my brain with coffee, a few word puzzles, and muscle stretches. 

2.     Afternoon outdoor physical activity.  This is a habit I got into while in France, and I really want to incorporate it into my weekly if not daily routine.  It is an enjoyable way to reset my thinking mind, let go of any emotional tangles that surfaced during the morning, and open myself to new stimuli. 

3.     Reading.  Pleasurable, important, necessary.  I list it separately because it is related to, but not exactly, productivity.

Next comes unpacking #1 above: the creative activities I want to do regularly. 

After that, I need to solve the challenge of outdoor physical activity in hot, humid Florida summer.

Finally, figure out where reading comes into my day (taking into account any low energy hours and decreased focus as bedtime nears).

In My Art Studio Lab

I am suspending work on a new painting until I return home.  Meanwhile, even my daily collages are on sabbatical for the next week.  While traveling this week, I’m focused on writing.  Writing about moments of surprise, revelation, curiosity.  One such moment happened during a “Silent Book Club” meetup.  Nearly one hundred people turned out with their current books on a Sunday morning to read in silence among others doing the same thing.  Amazing!  I wrote the beginning of a poem during that time.

Silent Book Club
Celeste Pfister

Two hundred people reserved online to sit
silently staring at screens or open books of text
for an hour in this public place in front of a
coffee café whose name I forgot as soon as I
read it where I sit with my flat white and a book 
of poetry displaying photos of my art their colors 
reproduced less vibrantly than I remember when
I painted them.  And what of the poetry: does it
reproduce the feelings of the poet accurately?
I strain to find or recognize emotional color 
between lines of words while all around our silent table
the laughter of people who are reading each other’s body
language even as they hear their words.

I made this photo montage with a short poem for a recent poetry workshop (at Lighthouse Writers).  All photos available on Pinterest.

Wishing you the best May has to offer, a chance to refresh your creative practice, and the pleasure of a good book.  See more on my website CelestialArtWorks.

If you’ve read this far, then join the conversation with your feedback. I love your questions and comments.

Something to think about: