Rethink Your Surroundings to Drive Creative Action
As I closed my laptop one evening after finishing up work, I quickly headed to the garage to continue working on a large painting easel that I had started building a couple of weeks prior. That evening I planned to do the most time-consuming task of woodworking…sanding. Sanding, being a very important step with any build, can become pretty monotonous and boring. As I was working my way up grits a thought came across my mind, “Why am I making an easel right now?!” I knew why, to use for painting, but knowing that I haven’t painted since college I was curious about what spurred the desire to build an easel for painting. Naturally, I spend a lot of my free time working on creative projects but typically it has been through other creative outlets like; writing, illustrating, and printmaking. So why painting, and why now?
As I continued to sand, now at 150 grit, I steadily kept with the same train of thought. As I learn more and more about who I am as a person and a creative, I am certain about one thing. I want to dip my toes in all of the different forms and techniques of creativity. Because of this, I often find myself going through phases of creative outlets and later finding that they provide me with different ways of thinking and problem-solving when diving into other outlets. It has become a constant cross-pollination cycle of learning. So now back working on the easel, what tipped the scale towards painting and not another outlet?
Short Chapters
A couple of months ago my wife and I went through a major shift in life. In August of 2022, we made the move to Denver, Colorado to allow her to pursue a master’s program in biomedical sciences. For the past several years we have been living in Lincoln, Nebraska, and super enjoying it. Making the move came with a lot of questions, considerations, excitement, and anxiety. After deciding this was our next chapter, our day-to-day and month-to-month looked very different in order to slowly work towards moving. Our living arrangements and daily routines became spontaneous and were determined by whatever step we were at in the moment. Life started to feel chaotic and unplanned but at the same time, strategic and constant hustle. First, we were living in Lincoln, then we sold our house. Second, we moved in with the in-laws, then made several trips to Colorado to look at houses. Third, found a house, but my wife’s program started before we would have access to the house. Fourth, we had to rent a long-term Airbnb, then after a month we finally received keys to our Colorado home. These arrangements felt like short chapters of a story and after getting through each of them we were getting closer to being able to re-establish a daily routine and allow life to feel a little less hectic.
Being a person who is constantly dealing with FOMO, particularly creative FOMO, I find myself going through bursts of inspiration wanting to learn a new skill or craft. Could be welding, bookbinding, furniture design, film photography, etc. At these moments, I have always thought them to be spontaneous and random, but I don’t think that is the case anymore. After going through the experience of moving to Colorado and having “short chapters” of living arrangements, I got to witness first-hand how my creative habits adapted to each chapter throughout the moving process. When we were living in Lincoln, my outlets were woodworking and printmaking. When living with the in-laws on their farm, my outlet was helping build out my brother-in-law’s tiny home. When we were in the long-term Airbnb, my outlet was writing. Now that we’re in our Colorado house, where our garage has big windows and great natural light, I am motivated to dabble with painting. Each of the “short chapters” we went through came with its own “creative chapters.”
The Realization
After realizing the adaptability of creativity, a common phrase I have heard before significantly resonated with me more now. “We are a product of our environment.” This maybe was something you heard as a kid; whether from a parent, teacher, or pastor; but this definitely correlates with the way creativity behaves. Just like how we may change and adapt to the environment we subject ourselves to, creativity evolves alongside us. I think that is why people cling to creativity as they move throughout life. No matter if they change or evolve, creativity is also sitting right next to them doing the same thing. This last year has been one of the most hectic times in my life but also one of the best opportunities to become aware of how I operate. Being creative is a place where I retreat, recharge, and reestablish myself during smooth and chaotic times. As someone who bounces from outlet to outlet, I can see how my environment influences my motives but rather than having this environmental influence overpower my actions and habits, I start to think of ways to best leverage it as a tool to better curate my space for more productive actions and habits.
How to Leverage Our Environment
Many people want to have a place that makes them feel inspired. This could be being surrounded by artworks produced by people they admire, the music they listen to, or what houseplants they decorate with. Other than just our physical environment, we need to recognize what other obstacles affect us. Obstacles like phone usage, time restraints, the amount of sleep we are getting, and even our reasoning for wanting to do the activity in the first place. The list of what creates our environment is endless and specific to each of our situations but if we don’t have that visibility over these obstacles that stand in our way we may be over-exerting efforts towards something that could be simplified.
To start auditing our environment is as simple as making a list and trying to define every characteristic and obstacle that we can recognize. Think about the physical attributes of the space. Think about what your senses experience within the space. What things do you have access to, what time of day do you spend there, and what things hold you back from starting a project? List out ANYTHING that you are aware of. After writing this list, you may start to notice things are not necessary to the environment and introduce more friction to your creative process rather than empowering it. For me, a big one is putting my phone in another room or at least a desk drawer. Having a physical separation stalls my muscle memory to reach for it when I get an ounce of boredom. This list is not only to recognize places of unnecessary aspects but also things that push you to be more creatively productive. This may be good lighting, a certain genre of music, or working in the early morning. Whatever it is, finding those things to lean into allows us to start designing an environment that pushes you to be creative. Auditing your environment can also allow you to design your space(s) to push you to try new things. What environment would push you to write poetry? What environmental aspects would you need to allow you to make a stop-motion short film? Keep in mind this list isn’t a shopping list but rather things that allow you to be productive.
This is just another opportunity for creative people to use their ability to think differently to identify the parameters of a problem and find a unique solution to overcome it. Being creative can be a very personal thing for so many people, which in turn can introduce many points of friction keeping us from doing the work that we are naturally drawn to do. Don’t let a poorly designed environment stop you from creating work that enriches communities close, far, and wide. Recognize how you may improve your creative space and don’t stop trying new things until it feels seamless to get started on projects.
