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A Circle of Creativity
By Sandra Lee Schubert | May 6, 2008
Creating is a solitary act. It is just you and that darn blank canvas, paper or camera. Many hours are spent alone figuring out what do with an evolving creation. If you are lucky, the art is all consuming and the time passes and you feel exhausted but happy. On the other hand, you could be pacing the room in turmoil because you can’t figure out what to do next. It sucks. Really it does. Those all encompassing moments don’t come like Santa down the chimney. You have to be in the presence of creation despite anxiety, panic, fear, excitement, manic joy or depression. Exhaustion and boredom haunt you. How do you handle it?
First, put aside all the excuses. Stop the negative internal dialogue. Get a grip on you mental state and create. Like losing ten pounds or taking a test, it won’t come easy. The rewards can be great. Twyla Tharp a leading choreographer gets up before the sun to go work out. When she is in the midst of a project she puts aside all distractions and focuses solely on her creation.
I can’t begin to conceive of living my life with that kind of dedication to my art. But I can imagine shifting and changing priorities and bad habits to more positive and constructive ones. I like working alone. I get lost in what I am doing most of the time. There are days when I am in that wonderful place of creation. There are other days when I am in the pit of desperation. In his book, Coaching the Artist Within, Eric Maisel speaks about the holistic creator, as “someone who has learned not to arbitrarily and defensively exclude options.” He goes on to say when confronted with the decisions of what should you create instead to simply ask, “What will I create?”
© 2008 Sandra Lee Schubert www.writing-for-life.com
Technorati Tags: Vision, Focus. Dedication
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