Oh hey, I forgot that Ms. Starry Art had a blog that one time (10 years ago). Anyways, I have been meditating on my creativity today and feel it would be good to write about my creative process again (because nothing busts through a creative block like writing about creativity, right?)
Since college I have, on a regular basis, gone through a period of creativity followed by doing other things important to living life, then feeling bad about not creating (which does not help), and finally having an emo process around it, blah blah blah. I have learned I have to admit I'm not where I want to be, feel sad about it, and move on by CREATING. Something, anything. A blog post on my blog from 10 years ago. Sure.
Two weeks ago I was at my sister Maria's housewarming party at their new home in Western NC (in a super-cute town where if I were smart I'd buy a house and start hoarding survivalist supplies -- you know, planning for the future). Anyway. Aunt Cindy sent my 5-year-old niece a very sweet housewarming gift - a bath bomb making kit. (Bath bombs are things you put in a bath to make it smell good. This one involved a starfish mould, a plastic mermaid and glitter. Does Aunt Cindy get 5-year-old girls or WHAT?)
After the housewarming, I was lucky enough to get to make the bath bombs with two five-year-old nieces (one from a nearby city was spending the night). Side note: as you can see in the photo, the girls' ensembles for the party included a tiara, a mermaid dress and a sequin dress, and tons of jewelry. Because PARTY.
The bath bombs involved mixing, measuring, pouring, choosing a color -- pink and purple of course -- adding coconut oil, and more mixing. I read the directions and the girls took turns pouring and mixing. The most fun part seemed to be squishing the mixture into the starfish mould and hiding the plastic mermaid in it. We didn't exaaaaactly follow the directions - one person was upset that she didn't get to pour in the water, so we poured in more so it was fair. So it goes sometimes on group projects.
As instructed, we left it to sit on the bathroom counter to dry out for 20 minutes, and went to do another craft (they discovered a typewriter Maria just got - they loved typing nonsense, and laughed with delight when Maria read it out loud to them). Then we went in the bathroom to find that the bath bomb had gooshed out of the mould onto the counter and was basically a gooey pink blob. "Uh oh," I thought to myself, "They are going to be upset about this."
NOPE.
The girls were completely unfazed and hopped in the tub, where Maria poured in the gooey mess. They were excited to play with the starfish and mermaid, and the bath bomb / goo did still turn the bath pink and sparkly as promised.
So yeah, after all these years of creating, I KNOW that it's process versus product. Focus on the enjoying the process and the final result will take care of itself. But it's easy to get focused on the outcome of a creative project I'm working on then get discouraged.
Part of what's going on right now is that I'm learning filmmaking. YAY, right? Of course I know that learning a new skill / art / craft is hard and I feel like a failure sometimes. Will I ever actually learn to use my new camera or just keep faking it? Will video editing get any easier? I don't know. But what if I just bath bomb it: dig my hands in and mix away, enjoying the sparkles, not worrying about the end result.
I want to experience the JOY of creating again. Even if it's a sticky, gooey mess that oozes all over, it's still learning, and and maybe somewhere in it there is a hidden mermaid, if I just relax and enjoy.
Thanks, nieces!
