Being a Creative in Covid

During my time on this planet, I’ve moved through a range of ‘favorite’ creative expressions.

First was visual art. I suppose this is ‘first’ for most kids, although this type of expression definitely became a part of my self identity when I was younger. While I was attending public school, I even ended up pulled into special art classes and won a few awards. Up through college when I was having strong emotions, I would often blare Tori Amos or Loreena McKennitt, burn incense and work it out with charcoal drawings.  

I think I was bummed about only getting third place here.

At around fourth grade, I added music. We had a piano at home and my favorite teacher was going to begin teaching. Honestly, I believe that I asked for lessons to begin with because I wanted to hang out with her more, but when summer ended and she stopped teaching, I moved on to a new teacher. I had three overall. I learned that I could play by ear. I loved playing. I didn’t like reading music. Although I was adept enough at it that I wrote a score and entered it along with a recording of myself playing the composition and won another art show. 

Theatre came later. I think around age twelve. My sister was going to do a kids theatre camp so I wanted to do it too. But when theatre came, it took over for a long while. I got a degree in it. I moved to Chicago for it. Art and music fell by the wayside because theatre took up all of my spare time. Although I did stop in to say hi from time to time.

I took a few dance classes when I was very little, but I hated the shoes and got bored of the rules. I took a few more when I was in my twenties to benefit my theatre. I loved dancing, but I would never have called myself a dancer. However, I did excel in martial arts. And eventually transformed into a group fitness instructor. Cardio kickboxing is basically martial arts dancing. So in a way, I dance for a living. 

I like conventional dancing too, but this is more my speed.

Through it all, I’ve always written. I wrote my first ‘novel’ when I was thirteen. It was 363 pages long, handwritten. It’s a historical fiction. I tried to move it onto a computer a few times when I was a little older, but could never stop editing it as I went long enough to get it into typed form. So it lingers. I still have it. I was on the yearbook staff in high school. I loved getting stories and taking photos. Mostly I loved the ‘press pass’ of being able to go around the school and even off campus if I needed to get photos developed, but I enjoyed putting that together. So much so that my other degree was in Mass Communication. 

All of this to say, I’ve managed to accrue a great deal of incredibly creative people during my jumping around Earth. Many of them are having a difficult time right now. Not just because they’re having a difficult time making money or no one is buying art, but because some of them just don’t feel like creating. Some do, and some are putting together some awesome pressure cooker work and that’s great. But from my general observations through the window of social media, many are struggling to find that spark.

Several years ago, writing articles while on vacation.

We’re living in a society that values productivity and most of us have internalized that value. I know I have! Now, who’s to say it wasn’t something intrinsic within our characters to begin with? There’s really no way to tell, but see if any of these recent sales pitches sound familiar.

Now you’ve got time to work on that book/screenplay/website you’ve been wanting to do!

If you’re not using this time at home to hone your craft and become better, then you’ve just wasted a year.

Think of something you can produce and sell online!

Can you write/sing about what you’re experiencing now and make it into something?

I could go on, but chances are you’ve already developed a tooth grinding problem. I don’t want to exacerbate it. 

I’m one of those who’s been trying, and in some ways succeeding, to use this time or at least to adapt to it. There are ebbs and flows. Sometimes I think I’m learning great things, sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the amount of ‘free online content’ that I can consume (which incidentally, I’m also competing against when I try to make money off of my own online content). And sometimes I’m just not feeling it. I’m burnt out on all of it and I just want to cuddle my kittens.

I’ve entered a couple of writing contests this year and actually won one of them. It was a small one and the prize was a book called “Boundless Creativity.” It’s supposed to help you work through your own creative blocks. “Well, gosh, I could sure use that!” I thought. And I’ve begun working through it. 

Cooking is one of my favorite forms of creative expression lately! (Obviously this is a few years ago. I was really proud of that pizza.)

One of the things that I’ve learned is that there are many different ways to express creativity beyond the ones we conventionally think of. Making a meal from scratch and deciding to play with the recipe is an expression of creativity. Repurposing an area of your home so that you can use it more effectively and efficiently (perhaps creating a work space) is an expression of creativity. Planting and organizing a garden is creative. Coming up with games to get children (or adults) to learn something is creative. You are creating something monumental when you turn your live and schedule on its head so that you and yours can survive and continue to eat, love and learn together while everything on the outside is going crazy. 

I would like to offer this to all of my talented, creative friends who feel guilty for not ‘using this time’ to produce. Perhaps you’re exhausted because you’re already producing so much. In this year you’ve had to learn new skills and reinvent yourself, your business, your family life and the way you socialize. Probably more than once. This has taken creativity.

It probably doesn’t feel like it because it’s been stressful and difficult and you haven’t wanted to do it. But, I will challenge that as well. How many of your traditionally creative projects have come with no strife or stress attached? There probably have been the golden one or two that were a joy from beginning to end, but those are a rare gift and you know it. Theatre friends, two words; tech week.

It’s easier to be creative when just living life doesn’t pull so much from those resources. It’s easier to deal with the stress created by a creation when you’ve chosen to create it. But you will still have something to show for it at the end, if all goes well. You’ll be here, your family will be together, you’ll all be alive to create again.