Inspirations - The Creative Well
There is a fire trail a block away from my house. A stretch of sand bordered by spindly casuarina, beds of bracken, sandstone hunks that squat weathering on the hillside. It is my ‘go to’ walk. A place where I stretch my legs and release my mind. Where birds flute from the feathered fringes of wattle trees. Where I fill my creative well.
We all need such a place. Somewhere that is Us. Nature is my place. Where I reconnect. Realigning to my truth. It is the bedrock of my writing and art.
In her book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron calls this an ‘artist date’ (artist pertaining to those pursuing any creative avenue). A date with ourselves. A time we gift to ourselves to recharge. Doing what we feel inclined to do. For me it is reading, walking in nature, watching movies, becoming mesmerised by the inward surge and outward exhalation of the sea. Whatever brings us joy. Essentially what brings Us back to Us.
I think of this as like a wellspring of pure water. I draw from this source to create. It is when I deplete this reserve of inspiration that I am fatigued, flat, without that internal spark and focus. I need time to replenish. To draw away from using this source. Not because there is a finite supply, but because as a vessel I must give myself the space to be filled.
It seems counterintuitive to take a break from creating to be inspired to create. But it is at these times that the subconscious ponders, unknotting where we may have been stymied, wreathing brilliant solutions, presenting illumination. It is at such times that we relax. And in relaxing we allow creativity to trickle in. Opening ourselves to a wider stream. Embracing an artistic flood. We allow ourselves to be bathed in imagination. By surrendering.
Instead of working through what blocks us. Instead of tackling the problem. We simply let it go. I rise from my chair, computer screen still glaring, leave my studio. I walk the fire trail. A block from my house, I step from suburbia to fairy wrens. I gift these moments to myself to do what inspires me. And from that place I can let the images and the words flow.
‘Superb Fairy Wren Portrait’
Drawn in Faber Castel polychromos pencil on Canson Mi-Tientes pastel card