Friday, January 25, 2008

noodling in the studio

(snapshot of my studio wall)

***

After last year’s way-too-busy insanity, and also the frenzy that was making stuff for the December Craft 2.0 Fair - my studio was an absolute wreck - I couldn’t even see the floor anymore! So, over the summer I’ve been tidying it up - little by little. It’s been a satisfying task and I’ve gotten rid of a lot of things to make room for creating and for new ideas.

I call it my ‘studio’ because all that happens out there is creative stuff, and also I think that a large part of becoming an artist/writer is NAMING yourself one, believing it - even when others are skeptical - and living it. So yes, I have a studio in the bottom of my garden - not a sleep out, or a spare room - and I don’t care if it sounds pretentious!

I was re-reading Keri Smith’s book ‘Living Out Loud’ the other day, and this jumped out at me:

“PLAY is the most important element in discovering who you are. Play will lead you right into your deepest desires. As creative individuals, we share the tendency to become easily overwhelmed by taking on too much at one time, especially when starting a new creative endeavour. We need to learn to slow down an enjoy the process. Then we are much more likely to follow our dreams and as a result, attract like-minded people who share our vision.”

So, I’ve been making time here and there to play. ‘Play’ for me at the moment means going into the studio with no particular task in mind, seeing what grabs me when I’m in there and rolling with it. It might be a bit of collage, some knitting while listening to National Radio or reading a few poems from a favourite book and then having a go at writing a new poem myself. (I’ve written more poems in January 2008, than I did in the whole of 2007!)

I forgot how to play there for a while, and life was becoming very very serious - it’s nice to find the whimsy in creativity again. 

Someone should make an exhibition titled “Stuff I made while listening to Radio NZ” - I make almost everything listening to the Arts on Sunday.

thanks for that post - I can really relate to needing more play. It’s great that you write about reading books that are food for the soul. I really enjoy doing that too - I think it’s really important to be always finding ways to feed the soul to make all the external things we do, create etc more meaningful and relevant to who we are. xxx

That’s a very inspiring post, and so true from my experience.  Isn’t it funny how much time adults encourage children to play, but forget to do it for themselves!  I try to remember to do this when my energy is a bit dull or stuck - go out somewhere etc - it’s overcoming the ‘guilty adult voice’ thing isn’t it? Cx

I, too have a studio and I find it very hard to voice that word. Often I think people will think me pretentious if I say it, so I find myself saying ‘my room’ even though I do not want to. But my ‘studio’ is a great comfort to me and to just sit in my chair and absorb the atmosphere and be at peace can be all the play I need.

your stuff looks great, nice job!

I can totally relate to this post. I’m hoping 2008 will yeild more poems than 2007 for me too!

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