Yet another new medium…
Yesterday I picked up the very first bronze sculptures I ever made. The creative process is truly amazing. I made sculptures from wax, and now, I hold them in my hands, 10 times heavier, and they are no longer wax, but metal, bronze. Really neat. Had always enjoyed the process of seeing something develop, whether a picture in a dark room, or a piece of stone waiting to set free a sculpture, or a canvas begging to be caressed with paint. But for the first time I created something, and had it cast. Feel like an architect, who drew plans and now sees the completed building for the first time. Really cool. Never had this particular creative sensation before (and of course I want more already). It is so exciting, how life keeps offering new opportunities to be creative.
Just this morning I was answering a client inquiry for liveartfully. A woman contacted me because she felt the need to be creative, she felt unhappy with the available templates on “how to be”, and wanted to “do” something to feel alive. Alienated by television, popular music, the bar scene, she was looking to do something to feel more creative and had tried a variety of media to do so, but could not find a good valve to let off her creative steam. It seems that this is a common problem these days. We appear to be in the midst of a major cultural transition toward conscious creativity and more conscious living. Following is roughly what I wrote her back…
We live in interesting times. The old paradigms are wearing off, people are beginning to wake up as if from a bad dream and are starting to demand to participate in this world, demand to be alive, and not exist merely as shadows of television drama or clichés in pop music, who want meaningful relationships and not just stupid small talk dating games; who want to feel alive in their daily activities without having to throw themselves off a cliff on a little rubber cord.
It surely sounds like you are one of them. One of the confusing things about this situation is that in this world we grew up in (and received our current believes in), “creative” means that you have to be an “artist” of some sort. There exists the belief that you have to be a poet, a writer, a singer, a painter, etc. in order to be creative.
Try this: get up right now, put on some loud music and dance around your room, shake your body, jump up and down, get wild…. Afterwards, sit down, let your breath catch up, feel your body vibrating, tingling, feel the sensation of being ALIVE.
Dancing around is a creative act. Moving around is a creative act. Deciding to write to me was a creative act. Speaking a single word is a creative act. In reality, you are being “creative” in every moment.
The misunderstanding in this world is that there has to be a medium first, a well defined category, some pigeon hole, a template, and THEN you can be creative in that medium.
You are creative in every moment of your live. Being consciously creative simply means that you don’t want to just live a template someone is prescribing, but that you want to make your own, be your own person, be an individual. An individual who has a will to “do”.
You are alive and every breath you take is your creative act. You have decided to be creative. You have decided you want to live and not just wait until you die.
Look at this world. Think about the billions of people, thousands of cultures, the hundreds of countries, the vastness of possibility, places to be, things to do. Think maybe about all the issues we face. Is there anything you feel you want to tackle?
I said at the beginning that the old paradigms are wearing off. That requires new ones. Creatives are the ones who provide them, whether through stories, through imagery, or even through new products or businesses, through new ideas.
What are some of the ideas, thoughts, dreams you hold? How can you let people know about them?
One good exercise is to imagine your funeral. Write your own eulogy. Write several. What do people say about how you have lived? Your life is your ultimate creation, your ultimate piece of art.
Another aspect to all this is the concept of a sacred contract. You are on this planet for a reason. There are things you came here to do, things you meant to learn. It is fairly accepted in most religions (and even so to some extent in at least evolving science) that we are a body with a soul. But turn that around: Think of yourself as a soul with a body. You came here into this life, into this body, came to be who you are right now for a reason. Learn as much as you can about that.
One way is to examine the archetypes, the roles you have always resonnated with. Think about books and movies you have read, think about which characters you related (a good book to support this process is Carolyn Myss: Sacred Contracts).
Remember, creativity does not necessarily mean that you are an “artist” in the traditional (template) sense. You can be creative in many ways. I have met business people who were far more creative than many painters or writers. You were right in your email, being alive, being creative, “being” has more to do with “doing” than anything.
Looking at your life as a whole, as an artwork as such, allows you to ease off yourself a bit and not beat yourself up about not having a “medium”. You said you don’t like to follow someone else’s template. Then allow yourself to let go of the “template” of what it means to be creative.
Accept that you are creative in every moment, that the years of your life are your canvas. Accept that every single thing you do can be done either following a template, or can be done creatively, as an expression of who you truly are.
Begin to shake up things in your life (a good book for that is Hyatt’s “Undoing yourself with energized meditation”).
Go somewhere you have never gone. Spend some time in nature. Think about the big picture, what you really want to do in your life and then worry about finding a medium to communicate it with. And every time you think “I am not creative”, or you feel like a dork because you are putting yourself out there, let go, smile at yourself and remember that you are being creative at all times and that your thoughts are the most powerful paint on the canvas of your life 
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