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| Maya Angelou lived an incredibly creative life, so she would know. |
I'm kind of late in replying to this, but several weeks ago I saw an article whose title didn't sit right with me:
Why being stuck at home drains your creativity
Now I'll admit I don't care for overly pretentious and stilted-sounding writing, and using "one" instead of "you" is a good example of that, but in this case, I would have preferred it because I really don't like being told that my creativity is being drained because I'm social distancing. Also, I know that in my case, it's simply not true. I suppose it must have been true for the 3 people who wrote this short article, though, primarily because it took 3 people to write it!
They wrote this article as if the internet doesn't exist. All those serendipitous encounters I may have had while navigating daily city life can still happen via social media, as the torrent of posts of everyone I follow washes over me every time I look at certain sites and apps. I feel very sad that I don't get to go to the art shows and trade shows that I love, but at least I still get to see things I haven't seen before when I get emails from the artists, galleries, and manufacturers I've subscribed to, or when I visit sites like Booooooom, Colossal, and The Jealous Curator.
The tagline beneath the title states that "creativity is social," but that's not always true, either. And I say this in spite of doing a presentation about creative collaboration in graduate school. Of course it's true that interacting with others can give me ideas that wouldn't have occurred to me otherwise, but that doesn't mean that a decrease in creativity is the inevitable outcome of doing the right thing by staying away from coffee shops during a pandemic spread by an airborne virus. And honestly, my creative process was never a laptop in a coffee shop affair to begin with. If that sort of social interaction was the only key to creative output, then artists' residencies wouldn't exist.
There is something to be said for the role of solitude in the creative process. Sometimes it helps to be alone with my thoughts. Being alone usually helps me to get in touch with my feelings. I can reflect, reminisce, and imagine more easily when I am not distracted by the presence of other people. Sometimes being creative means mining the depths within myself. And sometimes other people, though they may be well-intentioned, can be a real hindrance. How many of us have shared our ideas with others only for them to rain on our parades and extinguish the fires of enthusiasm for a new project just when they started kindling? It's happened to me so many times that I've learned to protect my ideas and only share them when the time is right.
Perhaps the real creative drain of the current era isn't the result of closed Starbucks and co-working spaces, but the current of despair and anxiety that courses through every aspect of our lives. Creativity still resides, but it's much harder to access when everything feels so hopeless. There are so many opportunities lost. There are so many deaths not yet fully mourned. There is so much grief still unacknowledged. We still don't know how much has been lost. We have endured this ongoing disaster for nearly a year now. We can't survey the wreckage until it's over. I don't blame anyone for feeling overwhelmed at the thought of doing thumbnail sketches for new artwork or blueprints for a new building or an outline for a new book when the future still seems so uncertain.
Also, there is a particular type of creativity the article is referring to, creativity in the service of corporate America. Aesthetically pleasing infographics, pretty PowerPoint backgrounds, apps that are easy on the eyes, beautiful business plans. Not the creativity born of necessity, the make a way out of no way ingenuity that led my ancestors to create soul food or pandemic era home cooks to learn to bake their own bread from scratch and re-grow green onions from scraps. Not creativity in service of personal growth, like the people who are rediscovering their living spaces and making them more liveable. Not the creativity born from boredom, leading people to take up new hobbies just for fun. Creativity is still happening, but often in ways that are not intended to be monetized.
The article's authors have
failed to consider that creativity is often a response to constraints.
Consider the inventive space planning of tiny houses, ships' cabins, and
RVs, for example. Some of the most ingenious solutions have been made
when people have limited space, time, materials, or money. Those of us
who have taken courses in design have completed projects where
constraints were part of the assignment, and have expanded our capacity for creative thought as a result.
Another problem with the article's defeatist attitude about creativity is that it reflects the larger mindset in response to the pandemic. There has been a profound lack of imagination at the institutional level. The combination of a stubborn adherence to irrelevant traditions, unrealistic expectations, and persisting in sticking to business as usual has produced so many stale ideas that don't meet the moment. This started last year when our leaders decided not to pay everyone to stay home for a few weeks to prevent things from getting this bad. And now that we are in a continued crisis, this could have been an opportunity to rethink and restructure the way we do so many things, especially teaching and working, but instead, the lack of creativity and over-reliance on video calling has resulted in meetings that could have been emails and "Zoom fatigue" for students of all ages.
This could have been a chance to enact the reforms so many experts wanted, like ending high-stakes standardized testing, and maybe even homework. Wouldn't it have been cool to let older students do some independent study projects and check in with their teachers periodically? Wouldn't it have been great if talented out of work performers had been hired to make entertaining educational programming, and if it were broadcast on TV so that students could watch it even if they don't have internet access? This could have been our chance to make sure that students all over the country had access to the same caliber of education. This could have been an opportunity to make workers' jobs better. But instead, we've gotten terrible non-solutions like restaurants creating "outdoor dining" areas with four walls and a roof, and gyms staying open even though they've been proven venues for spreading the virus because some people can't find the middle ground between being a gym rat and being a couch potato.
And isn't it curious that the rugged individualism that stirs up the desire to assert one's right not to wear a mask somehow disappears when it comes to making sensible decisions about reopening, leaving the same people too helpless to eat without being in a restaurant or drink without being in a bar? These rugged individuals are somehow not individualistic enough to be alone with their thoughts for extended periods of time. No, they need to have big parties with other rugged individuals without masks in the middle of a pandemic because they are so dependent on social interaction. They're incapable of imagining anything else.
In spite of this, there are still signs that not everyone's creativity has been drained. Late night comedy show hosts found ways to entertain us from their homes. Restaurants are selling meal kits and ingredients for delivery and carryout. Musicians are still making music together and dancers are still performing. And I do know some fellow creatives who are using this time as a sort of residency period where they can focus more attention on making new work. I think there will be a lot of new books, plays, films, and artwork for everyone to enjoy once this era has finally ended.
As for me, I've been trying to change my perspective by looking at all the things I can still do. Surprisingly, thanks to technology, there are plenty of creative things I can do without going outside. I don't want to oversimplify how difficult the adjustment was for me at first. It was only after letting go of a goal-oriented mindset and taking things one day at a time that I was able to move forward in any meaningful way. I haven't been to my studio in months, so I haven't been painting. But I have worked on a lot of things at home. I plan to post more about what I've been working on once I've finished what I've started. For now, here are some previews:
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