Creativity

Creativity is a seed in each of us that needs nourishment, enough space to breathe and plenty of care. Some express it easily, while some need more toiling of love so that their seed develops roots, branches, foliage, maybe flowers and fruits.

“Oh, I am not so creative,” say some as they lower their eyes towards the ground. The body language speaks of outside, societal pressures – the defoliant of sorts – dividing, artificially, our innate creativity from most aspects of our daily life. Many of us are seduced into the idea that we need to carve time out of our day if we wish to dedicate it to creativity, as if it is a luxury, something external or less important than other daily chores and tasks.  

In days past, humans performed most tasks as a spiritual activity. Those who made bows and arrows mediated communication between the spirit of the animal and the spirit of the arrow so that the animal would surrender to it and feed the community. Those who made rafts mediated communication between the spirits of the wood, the vessel and the river if they wanted to navigate its waters and fish. Daily labor was spiritual, creativity was spiritual, life was spiritual –  Living was art. 

So, in our Živi Atelje DK, as we get together to understand, interpret, and explore the phenomena of creativity, we are inevitably affected by the space, the spirit or energy of the space. After all, it was a place of open, creative, artistic expression by Vera for more than 60 years – walls still celebrate her reliefs, the wood creaks with layers of her clay dust.  

Here, for most of us, this creative journey begins with a hug, or other form of greeting. Whatever follows, liquid or solid, a coffee, a tea, lunch or sweets, preparing food or cleaning the space – all equally important and creative – is part of the ritual of coming together, of opening ourselves, creating relationships within our community; creating community within our space. 

The day might be dedicated to ceramics yet, individually, we often engage in a melange: learning computers or languages; getting involved in each other’s life, helping with a chore; calling a school, a potential employer, filling out a form. Perhaps one of us has a good day and will dance; another complains bogged down in the muck of bureaucracy. 

For the day of ceramics, the gathering is often around a large working table, with a shared idea or each in our own thoughts, pinching clay, giving form to the well of creativity. The energy varies but we are together. Aware, present and lost simultaneously, allowing ourselves, to various degrees, into the unknown. Each of us, and together, open to being inspired or prompted by the past, developing potentials of the imminent future. This is our creative, artistic daily practice. It is the care for ourselves and each other, our bond, our community, nourishing that seed of creativity of life within.