There are many books on Creativity, I know because I own at least 50% of the current editions. From Julia Cameron to The Work of Art to The Creative Act to Big Magic. Why another one? Like all art, we create through our own lens and our own personality. Take Up Space is written in the voice of that good friend who compulsively delivers helpful unsolicited advice. She will tell you to begin doing instead of consuming. She will suggest that you use your art practice to take up space . And she will cheer you on every step of the way.
I have found that most advice about art and creativity is sincere and quite serious. As the sincere book chapters unfold, the advice begins to teeter precariously on the edge of a didactic cliff littered with sharp pontifications and good intentions which you can later use to make a road.
Except for the book – Trickster Makes the World, few creativity books admit that art is not only fun but also subversive. Art is the Trickster best illustrated by our own Wile E Coyote, a trickster who only accepts the reality of his ACME trampoline/rocket shoes after it’s too late. But what a ride.
Is it too late? In our second act, there are a few activities and accomplishments that do not qualify as do-overs: we can’t make a set of new improved children, it’s too late to meet the right Freshman dorm-mate who will later become amazingly influential and lend you a hand in gratitude for all those nights you held her hair. It’s possibly too late for a bikini. But it’s not too late to take up space.
How can we use art to Take Up Space? In life’s second act – opening after the successful career and successful children in that they are not living in the house with you, who are you and how are you spending your days? Morning Pickleball? Afternoons scrolling through endless social media posts by boys the same age as your granddaughter? Are you watching the news so you can blame “them” for the current messy, violent world? Or would you like to be a bigger, bolder version of yourself, highlighting accomplishments as well as following long ago dreams? At this point you will learn you can be thinner and gain back hair follicles but we both know that’s just silly.
Creativity is a large, popular category. We can approach any activity with a creative mind-set from origami cranes to field dressing a moose. But are all those activities art? As important as they are, no.
Hobbies are goal oriented – a paper crane is successful when it looks like a paper crane. The moose dressing is successful when the whole of the moose has been moved off the train tracks. But art, like life, doesn’t follow a set pattern or outcome. Hobbies are great and they keep us off other people’s lawns, but while ball games are played to win – a hobby, Art is drinking from the garden hose – you will never know the outcome of that activity (although out of all the choices I don’t think drinking from a non-food grade hose will be the hill our generation will die on) .
Art is the surprise ending you only discover because you began. Art can be abandoned, worthy of public display or rejected in favor of a fresh start. Which THEN begs the question if there are no billable hours, why do it?
Doing is the whole point. As I wrote poetry and published books, I found that people were far more interested in HOW I did a project than the finished product itself. Second act art is about the process – life giving, life enhancing flow. Our days can be spent in complete joy, in the zone, in flow. We can be happy all day. Every day.
Once you start creating, once you fall into the zone of doing your art, the whole world looks different – better. Just doing your art will take up space and expand the universe – for all of us.
