The dance of creation

Hi Friends,

As you know, I’ve spent the last 1.5 yrs in hermit mode, retreating into recalibration and stillness. It was necessary work of chrysalis building and now when I look at my older paintings I see that stillness in them too. But as I’ve integrating my previously repressed creative energy into my day to day, nursed myself back to health, and built new foundations, I’ve reached a point where I once again feel the need to expand.

I finally have the energy to explore other pursuits, travel, take on a new part-time role, all things which has allowed me to reconfigure my days in new ways.

As someone who has a hard time staying embodied. I am loving how this movement in the rest of my life forces me to move and use my body in an embodied way while painting also. My hair, soles, wrist are all involved in the making. I know a lot of artists use gloves and other protective materials but for me, the feedback of the paint on my skin, the splatters on unlikely corners, the washing of the paint from my feet after a session, are all a part of the ritual.

Entering and exiting flow is now even more sacred. Being engaged in the external world again after taking time away has also made me notice how easily and unconsciously I have the tendency to move in and out of states of dissociation. Fuelled by an infinite amount of on my attention and time, there’s always the danger of not leaving room for creativity to thrive.

I’m starting this new phase, with radical honesty — about my limits and my boundaries, with those around me and with myself. I’m setting rituals in place to transition in and out of my creative space, and I’m giving myself the grace to learn and adjust along the way.

How do you create boundaries that allow for your creative practice to thrive in the midst of a busy life? What rituals do you use to signal that shift in your day and week?

x

sana

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