Sedona2
6.5" x 10" ink and watercolor
on Arches 100% cotton hot press paper
I don’t know how anyone
can develop as a writer or artist without learning how to channel their inner
hermit. Learning and practicing these crafts requires a considerable amount of
solitude, which can be tough to come by with life’s other commitments.
It can be a mad dance to finally
eke out the time and space to settle into a piece of writing or a painting.
Even then, the creative process does not necessarily switch on easily. There
are decisions to make: Do I want to write or draw or paint? What is my subject
matter? What tools will I use? It can take a while to finally find a groove.
Yet there’s also the
matter of staying open to the life in front of us. After all, we do have day
jobs and families and friends and commitments to our communities. And if we’re
lucky, occasional travels, even though there may be no time for creating except
to snap photos or make quick sketches or write short journal entries.
Thank goodness. Because while
it’s true that creating gives us fuel, it’s also true that living gives us
fuel, too, in the form of deep connections to others and material to paint
and write about. Life’s other commitments also give us hunger for creative time,
a hunger which drives us to dig deep and find creative ways to channel our
inner hermit.
The sphere of living
helps complete the sphere of creating, and vice versa. It’s all a dance worth
learning and practicing—for life.
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