Category: The Creative Habit

Back to Twyla

Solitude ©2009 Dora Sislian Themelis

There hasn’t been much time for reading lately. Painting during the day when I can, and knitting at night takes up my time. I really enjoy reading a good book, too. (And a “real” book at that!)

The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp is a quick read though, and I’d prefer to take my time with it to savor her thoughts of making one’s art a habit. I have read ahead almost to the end, but I haven’t taken notes. When I read The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, I took plenty of notes, did the exercises and tried to be a good student. This time around I’m not being quite as good. I’m just reading.

However, I am taking away some very helpful points and ideas. There are things I already know about myself that Tharp discusses in her book, one idea is to build up a tolerance for solitude. Well, I’ve got that one down well. I know I need it and can do it very well, thanks.

I can imagine that there are some people to whom quietness and solitude could not be a good thing. Not for a long stretch anyway.

Tharp says: “Some people are autophobic. They’re afraid to be alone. The thought of going into a room to work all by themselves pains them in a way that is, at first, paralyzing within the room, and then keeps them from entering the room altogether. It’s not the solitude that slays a creative person. It’s all that solitude without a purpose. You’re alone, you’re suffering, and you don’t have a good reason for putting yourself through that misery…you need a goal.”

It’s impossible to me to be miserable in a room all by myself. No suffering here. I’m a person who enjoys my own company. I have many things around me that keep me busy and give me inspiration. My goal is the solitude itself within which I can then create.

Some people, for the life of them, cannot be alone for any stretch of time. There is no goal. They are lonely and sick without interaction with other individuals.

“Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that.”

What is your Creative Code?

Seeing that I’ve been having a bit of resistance fun with the master, Mr. Resistance, I kicked it up a notch. How? Oh no, not by painting, mind you. By going back to reading my kick-me-in-the-butt creativity books. Well, yes, I finished Artist’s Way and it helped immensely. Now it’s Twyla Tharp and her book The Creative Habit.

I left it off for a while, having beat Mr. Resistance at his game. Notice I said for a while? Well, art, as life, is a roller coaster with ups and downs. So it is that I’m on the downward slope right now. Painting in fits and starts, as is my habit when it begins. Some days are freer than others and I can get to paint, but only if I’m prepared. Other days who feels like doing anything?

So it’s back to the book for me right now. Need a little fire lit under me. Maybe it’s the weather?

Chapter 3 is entitled Your Creative DNA. Tharp suggests we all have a “creative code”, a kind of creative hard wiring, our own distinct creative personality. Some how we have to tap into that and find what works for us creatively. Are we working hard to be a photographer, but we are really a dancer deep down? It’s like that.

“Rare is the painter who is equally adept at miniatures and epic series, or the writer who is at home in both historical sagas and finely observed short stores” writes Tharp. How we artists need to work is inside each of us. Some painters need to see paintings from a distance, others need to see the brush strokes a nose away. Tharp calls this focal length. Each of us “focus best at some specific spot along the spectrum.”

Some artists see the big picture. Others like specificity. Tharp explains this by the ancient Greek words Zoe and Bios, both of which mean life, but not the same state of life. She says zoe “is like seeing Earth from space”, bios “distinguishes one life from another.”

I guess it’s a matter of expansive vision or minute detail. How do we see ourselves, our art?

Getting a “handle on that creative identity” is key. Finding out who we really are in terms of our view is how we can channel our artistic drive. Why do we do things the way we do? What story are we telling? What is our weak or strong points? The answers to these questions help us to know who we are, and who we are not.

Tharp points to a lecture she gave where she invited various art students to assemble on the dais. A music student, a painting student, a writer, a dancer. She asked the art student to describe his impressions of the colors the other students expressed by their improvisation skit. He talked about feelings, himself, stories, no colors. Finally she heard him say one color. Suddenly, she stopped the student to tell him she was unconvinced he wanted to paint. He was in “DNA denial”, he needed to be a writer!

Well, it’s interesting isn’t it? We might be really good at painting, but we’re really wired to dance, or some other thing.

Sometimes I think I’m not a painter, I should really be a chef or a baker. Then I like to assemble jewelry with beads and other things, and think maybe I am a sculptor. I really like the colors of the beads, arranging them in a pleasing manner, and think I’m still a painter who just needs these other things as a distraction. It’s Artist Attention Deficit Disorder. That’s what my resistance is all about.

Doing Nothing with Mr. Resistance

What is it about time flying by that makes some of us want to just sit back and watch it? Just having that feeling to hang out, sit back, let the clock tick on without a care to do much of anything beyond the necessary is de rigour around here lately.

The to-do list grows faster than the grass in my yard. All I can do is watch and wait. The adage that says “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”? Not around here. My say is “when the going gets tough, do nothing”. Some people say “go shopping”. Me? I do nothing.

You can read all the books you want about fighting down resistance to creating and sometimes that nasty guy gets the better of us anyway. I know what to do but Mr. Resistance has me by my throat, that bum. I have many ideas running through my head and none of them appeal to me at the moment. The last painting I finished is sitting there waiting for me to free it from the watercolor block. I just don’t. And knitting? Blahh. Maybe jewelry? Ugh.

Something clicked on the off switch and I’m out. That beach day we had that earthquake I fully intended to paint. Just twenty minutes of work. The ball started rolling downhill after I realized I ate my still life painting subject! And it was a nice peach too. Then the hurricane happened and didn’t help things move along any better.

I spent today trying to make calls to repair people who are all tied up with hurricane damages of their current customers. My roof leak will have to wait. But while I do that, the sun is out and it’s still hot, the dryness of the air reminds me that August is at it’s end. Bummer.

I wouldn’t call it a full fledged blockage, just a minor hiccup in the creativity area. This might be the second hiccup though, so measures might have to be taken to keep Mr. Resistance busy while I sneak out the back door to hide.

Who’s with me?

What is Your Pencil?

Self Portrait in pen and ink (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

With the excitement of the spring holidays dying down I was finally able to get back to reading some of the latest resistance beating books for artists. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp is an easy read, if only I could sit and read it.

Still in the second chapter and I think I understand the ideas she’s trying to convey. Trying to make art-making a habit by finding the right switch to flip is a valid point. Some artists’ brains click on with certain actions or stimuli. Blasting rock music, lighting a candle, cleaning the studio might do the trick for some. I have yet to figure out what mine is.

Tharp suggests avoiding certain things as part of the creative ritual. Things like not multitasking, watching movies, adding up numbers (Right brain/left brain?), and playing background music. I guess these can be distractions to creativity. There are things that could keep me from painting for sure. I am easily distracted by a great number of things.

Living without some kind of distraction though is too monastic. I like a good distraction now and then. But keeping a comfortable environment helps. Clean, with loved items, surrounded by comfortable colors helps to keep my brain in my head.

Being prepared is the big one for me, and it seems, for most artists. That’s where the question came in: Where is your pencil? Better yet: What is your pencil?

What is your tool to keep creating? Figure that out and don’t be caught without it! Tharp relays a story of someone who, as a kid, wanted a famous person’s signature, but when asked for his pencil, didn’t have one. No tickey, no shirtey! After that this guy was never without a pencil. You just never know when you will need one.

“Pick your pencil and never leave home without it” says Tharp. Be prepared! Make something be a part of the ritual to create, whether it is a pencil and pad in my purse, or a camera in your pocket.

Ideas fly by my brain so much of the time. If and when I get a good one, and I’m not prepared- it’s bye bye. While I was waiting in the doctor’s office I whipped out my rapidograph and sketchpad to doodle my shoe.

I knew where my pencil was.

Prepare to be Creative

Where did I find the time to even read this week? With everything that goes on around here, I’ve been hard pressed to find time to paint, much less read anything beyond the daily newspaper. Yes, I still read a real paper.

I love to read. I will read anything, books being my favorite. The heftier the better. When I was doing the Artists Way course we were not allowed to read. The idea was that reading takes away creative time and could be used as an excuse not to paint. I get that, but I’m sorry, somewhere in the day I need reading time.

On with The Creative Habit. I’m still on the first chapter and it’s a good read so far. The author, Twyla Tharp, suggests creative people need to work at it to develop artistic habits. Makes sense. It’s our job, our work, our being. So why is it so hard to keep in the creative loop? Well, she points to Mozart as an example. Boy genius or workaholic?

His father Leopold had massive influence as he was famous himself, but Wolfgang worked harder than no one else on his music. He had a fierce focus and was constantly at work. Nobody had to tell him to go practice as it was his passion. If he could do it, what’s up with the rest of us?

We’re not prepared, for one thing, so we lose our focus. Tharp notes:”In order to be creative you have to know how to prepare to be creative.” We need our subject matter, our content and we can learn to make it habit, and that is a skill. Routines feed into creativity. “Everything is relevant. Everything is useable. Everything is raw material. But without preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it. Without the time and effort invested in getting ready to create, you can be hit by the thunderbolt and it’ll just leave you stunned.”

Routine is the first step to ritual. Automatic, divisive patterns of behavior are vital to establishing a habit. Something that makes your brain click in, just before you plan to chicken out. The ritual “eliminates the question, Why am I doing this?” It also teases the notion of whether or not you feel like doing anything. We need to decide what daily ritual helps the brain click in and say Now I’m ready.

So, is it the daily sketch, the music we chose for painting time, lighting a candle, or the moment of quiet thought before we begin that signals the start of the ritual? As I face the blank, white canvas, alone in my solitude I need to think to myself “What’s in it for me?”

Stay tuned..

The Creative Habit

As I was saying, I bought this book a while ago and haven’t had much time to read it. The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp, was recommended by some other artists as a great way to fight resistance and develop a routine for creativity.

I read The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, about a year ago and really enjoyed it. Most of the tasks were doable and a couple of them have become things I can’t do without now. One of the tasks was to write three pages of free thought, in pen on paper, every morning. I have kept at that one and filled quite a few marble notebooks. The other task which I haven’t kept up is the weekly Artist Date. Finding time to keep a date with myself to do a small fun thing was a great idea which I have neglected.

I don’t think you can call a walk with my granddaughter in the carriage an Artist Date, but it was wonderful anyway! I’m almost all alone, she is only six months old, but she does have a personality and makes little noises. So it’s not really the idea. Some of the other tasks were annoying and I didn’t bother doing them. Some I would like to try to do the next free day I have.

Anyway, I started reading this book and from the first page I was hooked. The first chapter begins with this “I walk into a white room”. Immediately thoughts of sitting in front of a blank canvas flash through my mind. I know how it feels to face the canvas or the paper, and think: now what?

Twyla Tharp is a world class dancer and choreographer. For her to admit it’s terrifying to start something new is unsettling. What’s it like for the rest of us if she has doubts?

She writes:

“Some people find this moment-the moment before creativity begins-so painful that they simply cannot deal with it. They get up and walk away from the computer, the canvas, the keyboard; they take a nap or go shopping or fix lunch or do chores around the house. They procrastinate. In its most extreme form, this terror totally paralyzes people.”

I can relate to that. The idea that creativity can be something we can make a habit of is interesting to me. I could use a good kick of “habit.” I can blame everything around me and procrastinate all day, but in the end it’s only me here. I am working art in as best I can.

We can always learn a new trick to keep it fresh. If routine is the thing, and I could always use a new way to keep it up, I am there. Being ready with the materials I’m happy to use will be the other half of the battle. New paints are in the plan. Next up, a new routine.

I will let you know how it goes once I get rolling. Be sure of that.

Finished for Friday

The Dark Apple Hides Shells (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×12 Watercolor on Arches paper

A finished work for Friday is here. I am done! I can’t touch this another time. I think I will keep at this apple until all that paint is used up. I have no choice. How many times can I complain about these paints? I guess an awful lot by the looks of the posts about this apple! Have you all had it with me yet? I’ve had it with my constant whining. The next time I decide to throw caution to the wind and by paints I know nothing about, kick me please?

Besides that, I fooled around with my camera and for some reason my photos in my last post came up like a widescreen TV. I don’t know what button I pushed. I was hunting for something that would take a decent photo and not be huge when I uploaded it to the computer. There’s just alot of steps to get the photos the right size so that they upload in seconds rather than long minutes. I mean long. Looks like there are no short cuts here, or in life in general.

I will be posting this to the 100 Paintings Challenge, too. Slowly, but surely, I’m working my way to 100. Oh I’ll do it, too. No doubt. But it’s going to be slow.

A while back I purchased another book on creativity and resistance titled The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp. I know she’s a great dancer and choreographer, but from what I’ve heard this is a really good book for breaking through blocks to creativity. I finally started reading yesterday and I think it’s going to be interesting.

I want to read it slowly for the words to really go into my head. Most times when I read, I more or less scan and read too quickly. Oh I’ve read big books in a couple of days, but don’t ask me what I read, I couldn’t tell you. While I’m reading I am in the moment. After I’m done, forget it. Talking with a friend about a book I had just finished, which she read in college, she remembered characters and plots. Me? I could barely remember the main character and some sketchy details. Not good. I need to take time to read this, and not while I’m having lunch. No. Multi tasking is not my forte.

The first page of The Creative Habit began with this: The White Room. Just imagine a large, empty, white rehearsal room for dancers. Immediately I thought of a blank, white canvas or paper. I knew then that this was going to be a good read. I will let you know next week.