Insights on 21 Days of Creative Practice
Being a new mama has been one of the most challenging adventures of my life. In longing for creative community to help me write during fragmented bits of time (baby naps!), I recently joined a friend’s invitation to complete 21 days of creative practice (we just wrapped up yesterday).
After about a week of exploring various visual and poetic forms, I landed on a creative practice I wanted to deepen for the remaining days: Writing a short poem in response to a visual piece of art from a female artist. I ended up with a small collection of 12 ekphrastic poems (“ekphrastic” poetry is a type of poetry that responds to visual art).
Below are my top three insights about the journey, especially as a new and first-time mama. And if you’d like to read a few of the poems, head to my Instagram stories.
Insight #1: Choose the right amount of constraint.
During the exploration phase (deciding what my project would be), I touched upon moments of too much constraint (e.g., attempting a poem with only palindromes [words that read the same way forward and backward]) and too little constraint (e.g., a blank page). A balance is truly best. I decided that a short poetic structure would give me the walls of the poem, and then I could fill it up with what I wanted. A tanka is a Japanese form – like a haiku but slightly longer (five lines with a syllabic constraint of 5-7-5-7-7). Long story short: choose a constraint that enables you to create.
Insight #2: Make it very easy to begin.
I chose a medium with little to no set up or materials (e.g., poetry and already-made art) to reduce the barrier and be able to create on the go (via my phone). I also only spent 10-20 minutes a day (as the program encouraged) sprinkled in during “stolen moments” when the baby napped. I didn’t want to have to think when I approached the page, so having decided on two constraints ahead of time (tanka + visual piece) helped me get into creative flow immediately. I got a bunch of art books from the library and would sift through them to see what images would catch my eye. If I got too caught up in decision analysis paralysis, I would randomly open to a page and choose the art piece I landed on. This helped me not get too precious!
Insight #3: Creative practice is a form of deep self-care.
As a new mama, setting and communicating boundaries with my partner was key, in addition to internalizing that my creative practice is a form of deep self-care (in the same way that exercise and nutrition are forms of self-care). Creativity nourishes my soul, helps build my confidence and identity outside of my time mothering, so I can’t skip out on it!
Bonus insight:
Art is call-and-response, not only between artist and viewer, but between artist and artist. Choosing a visual piece to base my tanka on was not simply about having a constraint, but also a dialogue with that artist, the piece, or the theme(s) in the piece. For me, art is about being in conversation with past artists and a lineage of creators. This connection helps me stay plugged into something greater and stay inspired.
Want to peek?
Check out my Instagram (stories) to see and experience five of the poems paired with their artworks.
Special thanks to my friend Benjamin Henretig and the Forma Forma team for holding a beautiful space for me to deepen into my creativity.
If you could devote 20 minutes/day to a specific creative practice, what would it be right now? Feel free to reply and share if you’d like. Would love to hear from you!
xx
Majo
