Creative Energy

I’ve been thinking a lot these past few weeks about what gives me creative energy and what generates it for me and how I go about creating it for myself. I noticed in my blog last week, I say the words “Creative Energy” kindof a lot. So I wanted to spend a bit of time unpacking that for myself.

In this context, I’m not talking about my internal creative energy or “drive” for a lack of a better word, but rather the spark I get from objects, usually yarn or paper. Something happens creatively for me when I see connections between disparate materials. This happens a lot when I’m digging through my paper bins. I’ve had this long back and forth with my friend Katie about my bins. She thinks they should be more organized. I’ve discovered that this level of *not organized* actually works for me. The mild disorganization actually works to generate some of that creative energy I’m always looking for.

External creative energy

This week I’ve also been working on a book-onna-stick. It’s a dumb name but it’s exactly as advertised. Years ago I bought Christmas twine on a wooden spool. The stick/spool has a metal cap on one end and came with a hole pre drilled. When the twine ran out this past Christmas, I chunked the spool in my bin and promptly forgot about it. Of course I ran across it this past week when I was sorting my bins. This spool had a lot of creative energy for me when I found it nestled in among my paper scraps. Once I decided to work on it and started pulling papers out of the bin, it came together relatively quickly. Once I had it put together, it went into a bath of tea because whatever is good is better once it’s been tea stained.

So creative energy is something that a few pieces might spark and then generate enough energy to actually make me do something with it. I’ve tried very hard to make myself a student of this energy because I’ve learned if I follow through on the energy that’s already there, I have a much better chance of finishing the work. I can, and have many times, finished projects from internal drive alone but I’ve found over the years that when I let the materials guide me, then the finished work is much more satisfying.

In my hands

I’ve also learned another thing that gives me that creative energy is when the finished object fits in my hands. If I can cradle it, sandwich it between my flattened hands, wrap my hands around it, then it is deeply satisfying.

It’s why I love making books and crocheting animals. It’s why I make crocheted things to hang on the wall and then invite people to handle it. It’s why tiny shrines make me so happy. These tiny assemblages in boxes or tins are like whole little worlds that you can open and close as you like. Being able to hold something in my hands that I’ve made gives me a little zing every single time.

Tiny lets you experiment quickly = big energy

I’ve also been working on some tiny paintings. Denise Love got me started on these. She takes a sheet of watercolor paper and grids it off with tape and then uses them as tiny squares to run experiments. I’ve done a few rounds of these this week too. The absolute beauty of this is: there’s very little pressure, you can get some quick wins, it creates a lot of fodder for future work, and they create their own energy.

Some of these have marks on them already and since this picture, I’ve added more marks. These build a lot of the energy I enjoy because they are so low pressure. If one sucks, no big deal, there are five more in the set. If they all are terrible, it’s still only one sheet of watercolor paper. I can’t actually think of much that is lower stakes than this.

A little preview into my brain

Last week’s blog post and in this week I’ve been working through some of what gives me the juice to keep making things. I feel like this is a good warm up for Art Retreat Week, which I have scheduled for next week. You can read about my two previous Art Retreat Weeks here and here. This is an annual retreat I put on for myself as a treat/creative practice energizer. I’m looking forward to it and these two blog posts have only made me more excited. If you are interested in following along, I’ll be posting some on Bluesky during the week so you can see what’s happening AS IT HAPPENS. Otherwise, I’ll have a post about my week shortly after the week is over. Stay tuned!!

What about you? Are you about to embark on a new project (big or small)? I’d love to hear about it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.