The joy of creativity (Part One)
How I rediscovered a creative practice, and why I think it matters
I don’t remember all the creative practices I had as a kid, but I know there were plenty. I always epecially used to love anything to do with words, and I would entertain myself on long car journeys by trying to make words from passing number plates (I always was wild like that!) I took that into education where I always loved essay-writing subjects and harboured dreams of being a journalist or a novel writer. And though I followed these dreams for a while, somehow over the years life took a different journey and writing or any creative practice ceased.
Then during the first Covid lockdown, I just had a feeling - almost like an aching in my fingertips - that I needed to draw. There was a pent-up creative energy waiting to get out. I started by picking up a pencil and doing some doodling. Then I took a couple of online drawing courses and, once the lockdowns started to ease, I found a local life drawing class.
After that I realised what I really wanted to write again. First I started writing sitcoms, however after a couple of epic failures (including one particularly painful one where the pilot episode I had written got read out in a room of writers - and met with total, mirth-free silence for a full 15 minutes), I eventually realised poetry might be more my bag. I love being able to get something down with such low barrier but which can also have deep meaning, and being able to just try to get a little bit better every time I write. Now I write or draw almost every day, normally only for 15 or 20 minutes, and yet this practice gives me amazing grounding and peace and I really notice if I miss a day without my pencil in hand.
And why I am sharing all this? Look at any child playing - and whether they’re inventing new worlds, new sounds, drawing or dancing or whatever else - and it seems apparent that creativity is inherent to being human. And yet I feel that for many adults it can become forgotten or even taboo to have any kind of creative practice. Without getting too deep here but perhaps the underlying message is that in a capitalist society a creative practice with no discernable financial end my not be a good use of time. Yet I believe that there is so much to learn from any creative practice and that it can have huge benefits in so many ways. Here are some of the things my creative practice has taught me and why I am so grateful for it.
Keep showing up at any practice and you will improve!
I always felt I was a hopeless artist, but after 8 weeks at a life drawing class I could see real progression. Not saying that I will ever be a great master, but it was so joyous for me to see that just by showing up for a few weeks and practicing here and there I could improve what I was doing and develop a skill that I wasn’t sure I had in me. This seems true for all of life yet I feel many of us can be afraid to be bad at something for a while and so don’t even start.
Our unique expression brings healing both to self and others.
Another thing I realised at my life drawing class was that I had a particular style that was all my own. I didn’t need to think about it, it was just expressed in the ways my pencil hit the paper, and I felt is just a sum of all the things I am but also I things I’ve learned and tried and experienced in my life. This feels all the more obvious when I write poems, which are always an expression of where and who I am at that moment. But the real beauty comes when I share poems and realise that someone else resonates with my feelings and experiences. Of course the same happens when I experience others’ poems or books or art and to me this is what all art is about - sharing pieces of ourselves so that others may find some common ground or even healing by learning from and connecting with others.
Failure is a sign we are going in the right direction.
By the very nature of creativity, we have to be trying something new, whatever that might look like. And if we’re trying something new we have to accept that it might not work. Creative practice teaches us that it is not just OK to fail but a sign that you are going in the right direction. By welcoming more failure we welcome more life, and I inherently believe that this is something that has value in all facets of our lives. (p.s. this is not just how art works but science as well where hypothesis and experiment are inherent in the practice!)
Part two will touch on how I have refined and improved my creative practices - but for now I just want to suggest that if this is something that you feel is calling you - just start somewhere. Whether it’s daily doodling, a bathtime boogie, a pass at a poem or whatever lights you up, try to make a habit of it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel and what else might be ready to come through! And if you have any thoughts on anything in this piece, I would love to see it in the comments.
