Creating is one of our strongest impulses. Our need to create manifests in myriad ways — survival of our species, building and nurturing families, communities, societies and of course artistic expression.
Sex, food, words, houses, gardens, art; we’re a busy bunch. We exist, we create. Sometimes mindlessly, sometimes with such force our creations change the nature of reality and the course of history.We seem to often not really know what we’re doing when we’re doing it. The process happens…until it doesn’t.
A few years ago, I was the “blocked artist” — a songwriter failing to muster even the tiniest of melodies. It set me on a harrowing personal exploration and drove me to turn to the artists around me.
As I spoke to musicians, writers, dancers, poets, and painters about how they create with the goal of reigniting my creative work, a story emerged that breathed new life into my own way of doing things. Through these conversations, I found my way back to my creativity, and saw that sharing about my struggles inspired others to get real about how they did (or didn’t) support their own creativity.
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A few months ago, I was three days into a stalled self-imposed writing residency. I was brooding in the bath, having returned from an icy, early morning walk. As the steam rose, my despair rose with it, and then it hit me.
Pairing a walk and a bath was a part of my artistic practice. Creating a relaxed and comforting space prepared me to create. I found an answer to my question; how do I create? By making space.
Performance artist, comedian, and activist Adora Nwofor agrees. They support their creative process by designing a particular kind of space around them every time they step on stage, enveloping themselves in visually arresting and meticulously planned stage attire that creates a striking and beautiful haven with which their body can joyfully and comfortably perform.
“Ease and comfort are helpful,” Nwofor says. “But honestly, I write the funniest jokes in the shower.” It’s nice to not be alone in my creativity’s need for comfort and hot water. Nwofor makes space around them, and their creativity emerges.
Calgary’s busiest hip-hop funk queen, Sinzere, is a prolific and thoughtful musician. The number of shows Sinzere does in a year might have you thinking there’s no time for making space, but in truth, it’s essential to her creative process.
“For me, it’s disconnecting from the world as a whole and entering a space of complete stillness, quietness, and solitude,” Sinzere says. “This often takes place outdoors, preferably by water. I find I create the purest work from spaces like this.”
Sinzere highlights something called “soft fascination,” a neural process science writer Annie Murphy Paul unpacks in her book, The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. When we disengage from focused thinking and gaze at natural scenes, we activate our “default mode network.” This network is where the good stuff happens; free association, divergent thinking, insight and innovative connections imperative to the creative process.
Closely related to soft fascination is meditation. Composer and bassist jacqs walker has a detailed engagement with their practice. As the artistic director of Calgary Without Patriarchy Collective, walker’s creative output is at the intersection of music and activism, focusing on trans rights and protecting trans youth. It requires a balance of advocacy and rigorous self-care. “Before I start writing, I try to meditate one to two hours per day,” walker says. “During a composing phase, I do my best not to multitask, and if I can, I just uni-task or ‘zero task.’”
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Making space can take any form. For these artists, it means meditation, a hot bath, and sitting in nature, and these actions have become part of their artistic practice. For you, maybe it means something else, but I believe if we consistently engage in a practice that supports our creativity, we are more likely to create with consistency, freedom and authenticity.
Kenna Burima is a musician, songwriter, educator and writer in Calgary.
