No matter who you are or what your vocation, you need to find a way to insert creativity into your life. It could mean coming up with a new application for technology or a solution for a medical problem or a way to creatively apply your accounting skills. But many people work in one of the arts to enhance their lives. That usually means doing your art alone.
Creating art is a solitary journey. Writers sit alone at their laptops, painters stand alone in front of their easels, musicians practice scales and rehearse compositions alone. Even actors, who by necessity must personally share their work with the public, spend time alone…learning their lines, practicing their movements, and thinking about the meaning of the words they speak. My last article emphasized the need for silence and alone time to encourage creativity, but there is also a need for contact with others who have a desire to grow their creativity. The development of a creative community to support your efforts is as essential to the creative process as the need for isolation. We are social animals and need to associate with other like-minded individuals to bounce ideas and get feedback.
Where does one find this community? If you are new to the creative world, the easiest way to make a connection with other artists is to take a class. Adult education or community college classes are filled with people who aspire to learn and grow in a creative area. There are workshops and classes for writers, dancers, actors, painters, and musicians. You can find a class that fits your level of expertise or find a beginning class in any of these areas of artistic expression.
Art organizations at the local, state, and national levels are great places to learn about workshops, presentations, and showings. The Internet is a great source to find an organization in your area. Meetings are usually monthly and open the possibilities of introducing you to smaller groups that meet more often. My recommendation is to meet weekly with other artists to keep the momentum of creation going. I will give two examples from my own life of groups that are helpful.
One of the groups I have joined is a plein air painting group. The group is loosely organized, meeting at a prearranged location once a week to paint. All that is required to be a part of such a group is a willingness to go where the group decides and bring paints, canvas and a sack lunch. The alone time is honored, with each artist working independently in a chosen spot, and the camaraderie is accomplished in the after painting lunch and sharing of the work done. This is not meant to be a critique of the work. Each artist can informally show what he has done to supportive fellow artists. The joy and challenges of painting and being outdoors is shared by the group and gives the artists a boost to creativity for the rest of the week. Whether or not you paint outdoors the rest of the week does not matter. This experience can bring a freshness to the other work you do.
Another weekly group I belong to is a critique group. We meet at a local coffee place to talk about our work. The requirement for this group is to bring a current work in progress and be prepared to discuss it. I especially like this group because I am committed to working on something during the week in between meetings. It keeps me focused and on task so that I will have some progress to show at the meeting. While critiquing is essential to the artistic process, it is also the most difficult part of artistic work to deal with. For those doing the critiquing, it is far easier to come up with what is wrong with a painting than to emphasize what is good about it. One of the necessities of this type of group is for the members to be supportive and not overly critical. It is important to have an agreement among the members on how to approach the critiquing of the work.
I have friends who are writers and have joined writers’ groups to share their work. I also have musician friends who meet weekly with other musicians to “jam”. Weekly contact with fellow artists is essential to keeping your creativity alive and growing. These groups are different than classes in that they are informal and peer oriented. They are intended to encourage the process of the creative act not necessarily teach new skills. Creativity is like breathing-we do the process ourselves. However, we can use the support of others to develop our strength to do the work.
