What Art Form Do You Turn To?

(Diana+; Kodak GC400)

I wrote a little blurb for someone tonight about why I like dabbling in other art forms. I thought I'd share it here as a way to generate some thought or discussion in this community about how secondary creative endeavors interact with your primary art form. Please share in the comments!

As much as I adore words, as much as I'm writing even when I'm not sitting down to write, there are times when I need a break from words. Sometimes I need the break, but more often it's the words themselves that break from me. Sometimes the words leave me, or go silent, or do whatever it is they do when they don't show up in any coherent manner for awhile. To get me through those times, I'm learning to engage in the visual world of the right-brain. After a lifetime of believing I had no ability in the visual arts, I find myself playing with paint, mixed media, and analogue photography. Writing is my passion and my life's work, and sometimes everything gels and it feels like play. But I play with paint and photography as pastimes, something fun to do as a distraction. If I happen to make art in the process of having fun, so much the better! But mostly I like these other media because I can be a beginner, and because they give me another way to create. I like cooking for much the same reason. These non-verbal creative acts are good for the writer's soul, and good for the writing itself, even though I don't exactly know why that is. I just know that it is.

Comments

[vivienne]

yes!
i feel like my non-primary art forms are vital to feeling balanced.
photography is constant, an every day, a way of life even. but i need to write (more and more i need this), i need to dance, and i fiercely need music in my life.

i've always felt like there is a creative muse and what ever way we connect with it, it doesn't matter...what matters is that we make that connection.

[Katie @ cakes, tea and dreams]

Writing is also my passion and my life's work, but I love to cook and I love to knit. I can create in different ways, with almost no words and with LOTS of color and texture and shapes - and I can use my hands in a different way. I need these things, too, to feel balanced.

[Square-Peg Karen]

Ohmyword! Thanks for putting into words what I have in my head (but couldn't get pried out of there to share) -- you articulated it perfectly. And I swear it's the BEGINNER thing that makes it work for me!

A huge YES to: "These non-verbal creative acts are good for the writer's soul, and good for the writing itself..."

[Jenna McGuiggan]

Viv ~ Yes, music is another thing I need. Singing brings me alive.

Katie ~ I keep saying I'm going to learn how to knit. And I keep putting it off because it feels so overwhelming and difficult to me. But I think it would be a great nonverbal way to seek balance.

Karen ~ Allowing ourselves to be beginners is so powerful, isn't it? This is a lesson I learn again and again.

[Helen (Dixon Hill Girl)]

I love that 'beginner' thing. Once I decide I'm 'good' at something, I begin to heap all kinds of expectations and pressure on my head - and all enjoyment of the creative process goes out the window. It's only when I'm beginning with a new art form - when I have no pretensions or expectations whatsoever - that I rediscover the joy in creating.

Here's to being perpetual beginners!

[Jamye]

Sometimes I'm surprised by the fact that I'm a writer because I so much love to create with my hands...I knit something each winter, sew myself or a little girl a dress once a year, make pies, refinish furniture, photograph my kids...I love working with my hands and creating something new. But writing is still my first art. And the only one I'd ever be happy doing full time for the rest of my life. Still, the others are important to me.
I've been enjoying watching you experiment with photography. Keep posting the photos!