Experiencing Creative Friction
Mint Parfait green, y'all.
Last week I opened my show, Daughters and Saints at Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, North Carolina. The show is up through early April -- check it out if you're in town!
You may be thinking, how does this crazy woman juggle all the creative projects she's doing? And it's true -- I do a lot. I have an art practice, a coaching practice, write a newsletter, and run a program in Italy. But this is not unusual for most working artists. Most artists are balancing too many things at once.
But what I try not to do in my work is multi-task. When I'm writing, I'm writing. When I'm coaching, I'm coaching. When I'm painting a bunch of walls 'mint parfait,' I am painting those mother-effing walls MINT PARFAIT. Focusing on one thing at a time helps me use my time intentionally and avoid distractions (i.e. the News).
But in the studio, distractions are a very different story.
When you're making things, there are 'good distractions' and 'bad distractions.' A good distraction is something that ignites an idea, clarifies a question, or opens up a pathway. A good distraction could be researching a new artist, reading a book, or listening to a podcast. In the studio you want to create space for good distractions (i.e. inspiration).
A bad distraction is something that slows you down, makes your wheels spin, or curtails an expression. I call these types of distractions 'creative friction.'
Creative friction is the stuff that slows you down, and prevents you from expressing your ideas at their fullest.
Using the wrong material = creative friction.
Not having protected time = creative friction.
Having a messy studio space = creative friction.
Judging your work pre-maturely = creative friction.
Engaging too much with the News = creative friction (+ panic!)
I experienced a lot of creative friction when putting this show together. I was deeply distracted by the coronavirus, election season, and the general sense of panic in the air. I was also distracted by a disorganized work-space, another project, and some self-doubt.
There is some creative friction that you cannot control (bureaucracy is a good example) but there is a lot that you can. You can choose how you engage with the News, you can choose to carve out dedicated time for your art, you can choose to set aside other projects while you focus on the one at hand.
The idea is to recognize the habits you are cultivating that make your creative process less effective and change them.
What are you currently doing that creates unnecessary friction in your creative life?
In the case of my show, I was testing out too many ideas (i.e spinning my wheels). I needed to pick one idea and just GO. The way I decided what idea was the right one had to do with where I felt the least amount of friction - where it was easy, fluid, and exciting to communicate. In this case, that was in my drawings. My drawings became a place where I could most freely express my ideas about beauty, agency, power, and ruin. Daughters and Saints became an installation that focused on amplifying my images, and came together as a kind of colorful Renaissance temple. Find out more about what inspired this drawing series here.
So, do one thing at a time, engage intentionally, notice where you experience friction *and ask yourself why* and when in doubt, breatheeeeee.
Psst: if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter, A Mighty Practice:
