Making Creativity Accessible
There was a time in my life when I painted a lot. I loved it. It was how I relaxed and had fun. I did little projects and a few big mural projects. I had, and still have, a collection of paints, brushes, books and many supplies I inherited from my grandmother when she passed.
Having these supplies didn’t guarantee that I would paint though. At one point I realized I needed my paints accessible in order to use them well. So instead of keeping them boxed up where I needed to unpack them each time I wanted to paint, I set up a corner in my room as a paint studio. My dads old drafting table, water pots, jars of brushes. Everything at the ready. And it worked because it made me paint way more often.
Now as I’ve focused on photography these last few years, the concept is no different. I quickly realized that it’s much “simpler” to swipe up on my iPhone, open the camera app and snap a basic picture of what was happening around me than it was to run down to my studio, grab my camera, run back upstairs and document whatever it was. By the time I was ready to take the shot, the moment had usually passed and I had to make some lame attempt to recreate whatever I’d seen in the first place. Operating like this I surely wasn’t developing my skill at all.
Let me tell you, that's a horrible feeling.
So I knew that if I was serious about truly building skill I needed to put the camera front and center. It needed to live in my space. So if you spend any amount of time in my house today you’ll realize my camera is an almost constant fixture in our kitchen.
Could it get shoved off the counter? Yep.
Does it get dirtier than it should? Oh probably.
Is it banged around a lot? Sure.
But does having it within arms reach mean I am way more likely to play with it? Absolutely.
As nerve wracking as it is to have such an expensive piece of equipment around sticky, curious boy hands all the time, it’s way better than never using it.
I experiment more with settings and exposure types and angles because it’s almost constantly with me.
But of course with the constant threat of breaking my camera, I’ve invested in gear that makes me feel safe having it around. My favourites are my hike backpack from Lowepro. I deliberately chose this one because it can hold the camera, water bottles and lunch for kids so I don't have any excuse to not bring my camera when I go out with the kids. A hand strap so I don’t have to deal with a long neck strap that will most certainly get yanked on, and my favourite, a hip holster that saves my shoulders and arms from being dragged down by the 5lbs of camera I lug everywhere.
I challenge you - is your art form accessible? Is your journal of writing prompts present? Is your sketchbook and pencils in your backpack? Do you have a small dedicated space that allows you to dabble in your chosen art form?
If you would like to be more intentional about this yourself, I can suggest a resource I’ve loved well.
During Covid I started buying a magazine called In Her Studio. At $17 a pop it was a splurge for sure. Thankfully it only comes out quarterly. But that one little magazine gives so much inspiration of how everyday artists have carved out pockets of spaces to be intentionally inspired. It was, and still continues to be, such a fascinating way for me to feel inspired by other artists and to challenge me to keep my art accessible. I usually buy mine at Shoppers because it’s close to my house, but you can also find them at Chapters or Indigo as well. The publisher even sells back issues for big discounts.
Since photography is my main creative outlet (and of course writing too since I produce this blog), a lot of my examples for inspiration are centered around images and the power of capture. But really I think these musings can apply to most creatives in all different kinds of creative disciplines. If you’re in the creative industry and struggle with inspiration or deliberately seek it out, I’d love to have a conversation with you about what you do to stay inspired, so please shoot me a reply and tell me what your practices are.
In the meantime I encourage you to get ready for a reflective summer of learning, practice and simple questions about what inspires you to be creative.
