After a few days of house arrest due to a polar express of cold weather, the temperature finally inched up to near freezing. My well pump pipe thawed and I turned the hot water heater breaker back on so that when I returned from walking, I’d finally have a hot shower. I needed to be outside. I needed to move in the world.
When I reached the creek, I stood and took in the sight—beautiful ice sculptures on rocks, on the water’s surface and hanging on branches, rocks and anything wet. A smile erupted, lit up from awe, as I slowly walked to the edge whispering words of gratitude for the beauty.
There were swirls, round marbles, intricate patterns on smooth surfaces, layers reaching into the air…all frozen in artistic display. How? How was it possible to have such amazing patterns and formations? My mind loves to create; but, there’s no way I could ever dream up the variety of ice art the creek produced just from moving in the world. Just from being itself.
Each step led to another unique form of ice…jagged-edged fingers sticking out from the creek bank, flowing water frozen mid-flow, and even the open spaces of flowing water created new lines and circles and geometries for which there is no name.
What would our lives be like if we used our innate beingness and showed up in the world fully present? What could we create if we surrendered to our gifts that so badly want to be expressed? Could we dare be like the creek….creating beauty as it moves through the world just by being itself?
I’ve often wondered why I am so drawn to fly fishing here in the Smokies. Of course, I am a Nature-lover, tree-hugger, half-faerie and half-water sprite, so that explains part of the reason. But wandering beside the creek, moving up in elevation, I realized the deep appreciation I have for water as artist in the creeks and rivers here, on seashores, or in bays. When I wade fly fishing, I am literally immersed in the art of Nature, and specifically, the artist that is water.
Water takes raw materials of light, sand, rock, and itself and creates something new each moment. I hope that I might take the emotions I experience because of Nature’s artistry, the passionate urge to capture those moments in words and images, and birth beauty in the world. If I do that, I think I will be living my purpose.
As John O’Donohue wrote, “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”
He was working twelve to fourteen hour days in a creative surge to build a recording studio. But not just any recording studio…one where Anthony and his wife Savana can create their dream.
As I stood listening to him share his vision, I felt myself resonating with the impulse that grabs hold of artists and pushes us forward in a rush of energy that helps manifest that which is in our hearts and minds. Time becomes irrelevant and we can work for hours without a break. Such is this mad creative process.
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant–there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing,” Georgia O’Keefe
Photograph by Simone Lipscomb
When a person feels called to live a creative life it isn’t easy. The pressure to conform to the schedule and life others live is significant. If you dare live outside the box it can be a constant struggle to stay there as our society doesn’t deal well with those of us who dare to follow and dance to our own inner voice. Whether we photograph, paint, write books or songs or poetry, dance…life lead by creativity is challenging. And many times artists are seen as weird, outcast, strange because we bring forth new ideas and new ways of seeing things.
If creative efforts yield success in the world, it makes it a bit easier for the artist to continue in his or her efforts as the opinion is…time is well-spent. But for those of us whose work isn’t well-known, we keep at it, swimming at times against a current of negative opinion and judgment….’why doesn’t she get a real job?’….’why doesn’t he volunteer and make better use of his time?’……’how come she doesn’t do ________? Many times the negative messages come from within ourselves.
Self-portrait by Simone Lipscomb
“Accomplishments are constantly being measured externally, where forms are always read from the outside, where comfort and lifestyle are often mistaken for success, or even happiness. Don’t be fooled. Our ideas regarding success should be our own,” Teresita Fernandez
Over a year ago my friend Jen and I talked about the dilemma and pressure of feeling called to create and not knowing where it will lead or what difference it will make in the world. Of having the resources to devote to the creative process, the inner desire to fully commit our lives to it and serving the greater good but feeling at a loss for how to get the work out into the world.
Several years ago an independent publishing company opted to publish a book I had been writing for years. Sharks On My Fin Tips: A Wild Woman’s Adventures With Nature* was born out of my desire….no, my passion…to help people connect with nature and care about our planet. It contains stories of my personal relationship with animals, oceans, rivers, lakes and how nature is a healing force in my life. After several years of writing and saving stories, the process of putting it all together and seeing it in a book was amazing…finally.
But then came the reality of the publishing world: marketing is vital. And I’d rather just tap into inspiration and use my skills to create a work of beauty. Marketing? Really? Sales? Ugh.
And so it goes. The creative process is maddening. It’s wonderful. It drives many of us crazy. And we continue because we truly have no choice but to do so.
“If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living….I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be,” Joseph Campbell
Photograph by Simone Lipscomb
The energy of building something from nothing inspires us and gives us life, helps us breathe completely, fully…it makes us feel at home in our skin even when people around us might criticize or ignore our work or us.
Savana Lee Crawford and Anthony Crawford…Sugarcane Jane. Photograph by Simone Lipscomb
Anthony’s in the grip of a creative whirlwind. As we chatted in his evolving studio he expressed a desire to see his kids off to school, to have a family life and be able to do what he and his wife love to do–create music. Rather than give up family or music they are creating the life they want, building their dream.
Thomas Rain Crowe’s translations of Hafiz and Simone Lipscomb’s photography.
Thomas said this to a class he was teaching: The difference between writers and someone who writes is that writers have to write. They cannot not write. And so it goes with those of us called by some mysterious, inner voice to create. We cannot ignore the urge to paint, write stories, photograph, write songs, draw, play music, write poetry, dance. We must surrender to this creative madness that calls us. There are no guarantees or promises that our efforts will pay off, make a difference or change the world for the better but we really have no choice. To ignore the inner voice, the creative spark that ignites us with inspiration is to die while breathing.
*Sharks On My Fin Tips, Grateful Steps Publishing House, 2008.
I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes the value of art eludes me and I struggle to ‘understand’ it or find meaning in it. That doesn’t diminish my appreciation of it though as I admire anyone who has the courage to bring into the physical realm an idea, a spark of inspiration. But today it was pretty easy to find meaning in LEGO, an exhibit at the Pensacola Museum of Art.
“Where does my art fall in the art world? I leave that to art critics and art students. I just have fun. It’s art made out of a toy. Hopefully it inspires kids and maybe grown-ups too, to go home and make art themselves.” Nathan Sawaya.
The artist left a promising career as an attorney nearly 10 years ago to play, to have fun. Perhaps a good lesson for all of us. Even if we don’t dedicate ourselves to it full-time, we can carve out an hour here or there to let our creative impulses find expression.
Nathan’s exhibit was hailed as one of the top twelve “must-see” exhibitions in the world by CNN. And it started from play and continues as play. His fun in childhood with LEGO has continued through his life and his imagination has carried him around the world with his sculptures.
What if each of us followed our passion and allowed the sense of play to fuel creativity. There would probably be a lot less violence, a lot less anti-depressants prescribed and a lot more joy. Can LEGO art change the world? Perhaps not but your art could change your life…and therefore change the world for you.
The exhibit is on display until August 10th. If you have a chance check it out and spend some time in the building room to create your own LEGO fun.
The audience sat transfixed as these magicians created a work of beauty, of art, from scraps of glass–bits left over from other projects. Recycling at its best.
Adam Burgess
Adam Burgess and Kerry Parks took us through their process of glass making beginning with a flat sheet of bits of different colored glass. With careful heating, molding and blowing, these artists wove a spell of magic as they demonstrated the art of creation.
Fire of creation
As I watched the intense heat necessary it reminded me of the heat present when this planet was formed….magma, lava, hot gases spewing and the end result was this blue planet…this ocean planet.
Kerry Parks
And our lives too are created from the stress of intense events or heat and pressure that cause us to evolve into higher expressions of ourselves…or break into pieces if we choose not to grow. It seems so simple writing it here but the process of self-transformation is truly a journey of creation, of becoming.
I’m grateful for Kerry and Adam and their art that reminds me to allow the fire of purification to consume me, burn off the dross and create within myself something really, truly beautiful. We’re all works of art going through alchemical changes that help us become, in essence, who we already are.
