How Creative Writing is impacting my art journey

I have spoken before about how I got back into creative writing in 2022 and about how it has influenced my visual arts practice.

I thought I’d dive a little deeper here because writing really helped me turn some dark experiences into acceptance and positivity and deeper meaning in the things that are important to me. And I think that sharing my story, will help other people to do the same.

The struggle

In 2022, I was really struggling with my place in the world. I had no plan of “what came next”. I wrote, and didn’t publish, a blog called “I’m so mad”. Basically it was about how my sense of self had been turned into turmoil – our life plans had been turned on their heads and I didn’t know what was next. For the first time in quite a while, I didn’t know what was next.

Between August 2020 and April 2021, I had had three miscarriages. In October 2021, I met with a consultant and basically the plan would be that any future pregnancy would require weekly hospital appointments, medication etc to get me through the first trimester. We sat on that information for a while and in January 2022, decided that our family was complete with one kiddo and we were going to live our best lives.

From a personal point of view it left me wondering WTF do I do now?! Going through that was hard, mentally preparing yourself for another kid and then not having one, was hard and although the choice we made was the right one for us, I still felt more than a little adrift because my expectation of what would happen over the next year or two had suddenly vanished. So I turned back to the things I enjoyed doing when I was younger and writing was one of them. It was, and still is, a way of working through my thoughts.

Once I began writing more often, a funny thing happened – I began seeing my experiences of motherhood in the form of poems and prose. And from there, emerged a new sense that I had to transfer these written pieces to canvas. Pictures emerged that linked my words and emotions to shapes and ideas in paint. And a whole new connection to my art has come from that.

Giving myself permission to write and to blog in turn gave me permission to trust my instinct with my visual art practice. For me, creative writing was the key to un locking something deeper in myself. It also allows me to work through blocks and ideas. I also think it can help my audience better relate to my work.

I find random spurts of creativity hitting me – I have on various occasions, had to pull in to the side of the footpath when out walking the dogs to collect Conor, and open up the notes app on my phone to take down my notes. And sometimes I make a concerted effort to sit down and focus on what I need to write – so topics for the blog, little paragraphs for Instagram posts, or maybe I’m focusing on one area of my art and trying to understand it better so I write about it. I don’t have a set daily practice – my creativity doesn’t respond well to too much scheduling (not sure anyone can just switch on the creative lightbulb at the drop of a hat though!!). However, I do write something most days.

My words sometimes spill out, other times it’s an idea that needs to be padded out, but regular writing has led me to a much better understanding of my work and the meaning of it. It’s been pretty special to be honest and while I know everyone doesn’t like writing (or thinks that they “can’t” write, and therefore shouldn’t), but here are some reasons why creative writing or journalling might help you:

• Gets your thoughts out of your head and down on paper

• You can expand on/ follow up on anything interesting

• Provides new ways of looking at things

• If you’re forced to articulate your thoughts, it can bring greater clarity

• Stream of consciousness writing is just as valid – it gets everything down on the paper and it’s not about making it look “pretty” or coherent even, it’s about getting it out there

• You can focus on different things – maybe taking a piece of art that you like and identifying why you like it – is it the colour palette? The texture? The mark making? How the artist makes the light dance?

Start simple. Start now. It doesn’t have to be set or structured – it can be as simple as noticing what you notice – the birds singing, the zingy lemon in your salad at lunch, the feel of the wind and sound it makes in the trees, the laughter from your kid as they play… You will be surprised where that can lead you, and your art practice.

So the journey so far has been successful in opening myself up to my art and how it’s about sharing that.

Do you write or journal?

I do try to keep an art journal – a place where I sketch out and talk about some of the paint sins that I’ve enjoyed doing and the inspiration behind them (if any), I’m not vigilant with it though so I probably need to get better at that!!