Welcome to Creativity Wide Open

A community and a space to build our practice

At a recent professional event, I sat around a conference table with a dozen colleagues, and we were asked to swap facts with a neighbor — to reveal something people might not know about us, a ritual we try to keep, or a routine we hold sacred.

I mentioned, with a little trepidation that doing so might label me as woo woo amidst this brainy group, that I try to cultivate an active creative practice.

“Huh,” my partner replied, sounding a mix of perplexed but intrigued. “I’d like to hear more about that.”

We never did get to speak more on the subject at that busy event, and I don’t know where the conversation would have gone. Perhaps my word choice obscured something she would call by more simple terms. Like, writing. Or making art. Or perhaps the idea really was outside of the box for her.

The box. Where does that phrase come from? And how often do we examine those boxes, the ones we fit ourselves into? Or the boxes others file us away into?

There’s the work box — our job title, our function within a company or organization, the lingo we attach to our skills in our LinkedIn bios.

There’s the personal box — how many children we parent (or not), who else we care for, our wellness or hobby pursuits, whether we are partnered or single, where we live, what kind of politics we follow. Many boxes there, really.

Then there’s our creativity. For me, my creative practice has existed in a box that’s somewhat separate from those other boxes. A bit of a secret, this box. A bit of a side project. It feels like it has to be that way, to a degree. But when I let myself be honest, it also feels a little like I’ve scalpeled my identity into shreds. And it feels like that creative box, where I wish I could spend more of my time, shouldn’t be kept in the dark.

I’m hoping this space allows me — and you, reader — to find ways to break down borders of the boxes we settle into and to expand the one where we build our creative home. To let our creative practice be about abundance, optimism, joy and internal validation.

What is a creative practice?

It’s the sitting in the seat, intentionally, to make something. That’s it. It’s not about whether anything gets published or performed or previewed. It’s about consistently showing up to honor that tug inside to bring something to life.

When I say “creative practice,” what can feel false is this: I can’t say I’m a “working artist.” I have a day job and a family. So who am I to have a “creative practice?” I’m a writer who has published in literary magazines and who has attended a few workshops, but I don’t have an agent or a book deal. This part of my identity is always there below the surface, simmering, asking to come to the top and to count as much as anything else. It’s the backstage standard operating procedure of my life.

But if I was asked to introduce myself at a party, I’d say I’m a mom of two teens, plus a cat and a dog. And I do communications work for a nonprofit to pay the bills. I would never say I’m a “creative.”

There’s surely some imposter syndrome at play in that self-refusal, a dose of that age-old question of who gets to call themselves a “writer” and therefore gladly display a label like “creative.” Also, I guess, there’s in me a strong Midwestern disdain for pretension or haughtiness, and “creative” brings strong flavors from that palette, doesn’t it.

Even so, that’s the box I want to be in. Even at work, I’m also my best when I’m bringing my creativity into play. There, I get to produce audio, compose and conceptualize newsletters, plan and produce websites and more. I think deeply about messaging and narratives, communications work that will bridge divides and repair harms.

But these things rarely mingle. These work projects aren’t art so they feel out of bounds for most creativity talk.

I know there are many others out there like this. Who keep their boxes and identities separated and then get lost when thinking of themselves as a creative person. Here, I’d like to provide an expansive space, where creative practice means many things and is celebrated in all its forms.

A place to crack creativity wide open.

I’ll write when the mood strikes and expect to start with a few regular offerings:

From the trenches — writings on my own creative life: what I’m drafting, submitting, struggling with, learning. This might come to include live writing times, when we can be online together to practice our art.

Craft spotlight — book reviews, interviews with writers/artists, close reads of storytelling across forms.

Love letters — short essays from others on how they protect their creative practice and what that practice looks like.

Prompts or provocations — sparks to take into your own practice space with the opportunity to share back, if so desired.

I hope you'll stick around and share what you're making, too. Thanks for being here, and please drop me a note anytime if you have thoughts or suggestions or something to offer.

In creative solidarity,

Krista