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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Creativity in the Time of Covid

August 15, 2020 1:46 pm

Creativity. Creation. Creators.

Growing up, I was taught that I was called into being by a Creator and that I had the ability and the responsibility to become a co-creator. It seemed like a very daunting future. What was I to create? What could I offer the world?

I started with trying to discover what I might be good at. I majored in Music/Voice Performance in college, and I married my High School sweetheart in my senior year. By graduation, I was pregnant. I had a talent for producing children, turns out. I had four children by the time I was 28.

I met a celibate priest and author, Rev. Martin Smith, at a church event. He spoke of how people would always wonder at his sacrifice of creativity and fatherhood. He assured them that while he was not making babies, he was making meaning.

“Making meaning” became a phrase that stuck with me. When I was 30, I began to write poetry. I self-published a book of poems and parables and sold 50 copies in our church bookstore.

When I turned 50, I bought myself a digital camera and started blogging. I had been using the Canon AE-1 that my high school sweetheart and late husband had bought me as a teenager to develop a photographer’s eye. Having the ability to see the frames instantly fed my appetite to produce images.

All this time, though, I wasn’t sure if I was really “good” at creating anything. I felt like I dabbled. I thought that I might not have earned that co-creator status that I was supposedly destined for.

During “the Time of Covid”, I clicked through a lot of psychology videos while sorting out some major life transitions. That is how I came across the very affirming words of Brené Brown, who maintains that we are inherently creative and that shame is the major obstacle to our living out that creative purpose. She and Scott Barry Kaufman (co-author of Wired to Create) did a podcast in which she shares this quote from one of her books:

“Unused creativity is not benign. It metastisizes. It turns into grief, rage, judgment, sorrow, shame.” -Brené Brown

Wow. So, on top of all the grief and rage of “the time of Covid”, not using your creativity will cause another layer of unhealthy detriment to your soul.

Must. Create.

I had re-entered the community theater scene last year after 14 years. I was in a musical last summer and a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in February. In March, I played Irish fiddle (badly – having first picked up the violin only two years ago) in an improv comedy act, but the last performance, on St. Patrick’s Day, was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Via the magic of Zoom and Discord, I have been able to connect with folks to do reader’s theater versions of plays by Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Thornton Wilder, and others. I do voices – English accents, Russian accents, old people, young people, men, women, and storms.

I started trying to learn to speak Spanish yesterday. My youngest daughter is teaching herself Russian. Together we are also addressing income insecurity and racism and politics in our precious face-to-face discussions. For me, making meaning in this “time of Covid” and after a cross-country move is about affirming life, affirming values, creating community, and living wholeheartedly into an uncertain future while braving the vulnerability and shame that always hovers around my humanity.

Creativity in the Time of Covid is essential for all of us. It is a practice for our individual mental health and the health of our shared humanity. We need to see ourselves as beings called to make meaning together and hard-wired to connect around our vulnerability. We are navigating in treacherous, uncertain waters. If we can make ourselves into a human life raft, we might just stay afloat.

Thank you, Tina, for inspiring creativity and self-reflection with this challenge, and for the very kind “shout out” to my previous post, Under the Sun.

Posted by scillagrace

Categories: Philosophy, Photography, Progressive society, Psychology

Tags: covid, creating, creativity, creativity in the time of covid, Lens-Artists, mental health, pandemic, Wired to Create

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18 Responses to “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Creativity in the Time of Covid”

Beautiful post Shelley. I admire your courage moving cross-country at this stage of life, as well as your commitment to continued growth and positivity. Your thoughts this week are very inspirational, especially your analogy about forming a “human lifeboat” to stay afloat. Your images brought your spirit to light for the reader! Well done.

By Tina Schell on August 15, 2020 at 1:56 pm
1. Thanks, Tina! I am grateful for the opportunities and the awareness of being a model for my kids. What a bonus to be able to model something useful for others as well! Priscilla
  
  By scillagrace on August 15, 2020 at 2:14 pm
Wow. Great photos, great story. Love the first family photo. Great looking kids.

By JohnRH on August 15, 2020 at 7:41 pm
1. Thanks, John. Yeah, they look real good. 🙂
  
  By scillagrace on August 15, 2020 at 11:38 pm
Amazing story 👏👏👏

By Teresa on August 16, 2020 at 4:50 am
1. Thanks, Teresa. I appreciate the encouragement!
  
  By scillagrace on August 16, 2020 at 10:02 am
My, I love that quote from Brené Brown! Thanks for sharing it.
One of the real disappointments in 2020 is the loss of theater experiences. I look forward to the day when we can again visit a theater for a live performance.

By photobyjohnbo on August 16, 2020 at 6:59 am
1. Yes, there’s just no substitute for live theater. I do hope that community support helps them to rebound and thrive.
  
  By scillagrace on August 16, 2020 at 10:05 am
Thank you for the wonderful stories and precious photos, Priscilla!

By Amy on August 16, 2020 at 5:48 pm
1. Always a delight to join this creative community. I enjoyed learning the story of Lens-Artists, too, in the interview!
  
  By scillagrace on August 16, 2020 at 6:19 pm
  1. Thank you for reading, Priscilla. 🙂
    
    By Amy on August 16, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Great story and thoughts, Priscilla. I admire you. Well done.

By Leya on August 17, 2020 at 3:47 pm
1. Thank you, Ann-Christine! I appreciate the encouragement. This has been a tough time, and it’s nice to feel that my story is sane and heard. 🙂
  
  By scillagrace on August 17, 2020 at 3:51 pm
  1. ♥
    
    By Leya on August 17, 2020 at 4:13 pm
Great post, Priscilla.
And I love that you’re learning Spanish! ¡Un gran idea! 🙂

By Ana on August 20, 2020 at 2:19 am
1. Thanks, Ana. I wish I’d started Spanish a long time ago!
  
  By scillagrace on August 20, 2020 at 9:27 am
I don’t agree with Brené Brown on shame, I think it is more to do with fear – of rejection, of not being good enough, of failure coupled with Western societies that do not encourage adult humans to keep a childlike nature; rather “educating” that out of them in a very censorious way.
IA childlike nature lends itself to creativiity.
I love your human life raft statement.

By Helen Cherry on August 27, 2020 at 9:02 am
1. Well, shame and the fear of failure seem quite similar in my experience. When that childlike enthusiasm for something is squashed by more “mature” critics, it feels devastating. But maybe shame is a deeper thing, connected to a judgment of morals.
  
  By scillagrace on August 27, 2020 at 9:29 am

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Creativity in the Time of Covid

Creativity. Creation. Creators.

Growing up, I was taught that I was called into being by a Creator and that I had the ability and the responsibility to become a co-creator. It seemed like a very daunting future. What was I to create? What could I offer the world?

I started with trying to discover what I might be good at. I majored in Music/Voice Performance in college, and I married my High School sweetheart in my senior year. By graduation, I was pregnant. I had a talent for producing children, turns out. I had four children by the time I was 28.

I met a celibate priest and author, Rev. Martin Smith, at a church event. He spoke of how people would always wonder at his sacrifice of creativity and fatherhood. He assured them that while he was not making babies, he was making meaning.

“Making meaning” became a phrase that stuck with me. When I was 30, I began to write poetry. I self-published a book of poems and parables and sold 50 copies in our church bookstore.

When I turned 50, I bought myself a digital camera and started blogging. I had been using the Canon AE-1 that my high school sweetheart and late husband had bought me as a teenager to develop a photographer’s eye. Having the ability to see the frames instantly fed my appetite to produce images.

All this time, though, I wasn’t sure if I was really “good” at creating anything. I felt like I dabbled. I thought that I might not have earned that co-creator status that I was supposedly destined for.

“Unused creativity is not benign. It metastisizes. It turns into grief, rage, judgment, sorrow, shame.” -Brené Brown

Wow. So, on top of all the grief and rage of “the time of Covid”, not using your creativity will cause another layer of unhealthy detriment to your soul.

Must. Create.

Via the magic of Zoom and Discord, I have been able to connect with folks to do reader’s theater versions of plays by Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Thornton Wilder, and others. I do voices – English accents, Russian accents, old people, young people, men, women, and storms.

Thank you, Tina, for inspiring creativity and self-reflection with this challenge, and for the very kind “shout out” to my previous post, Under the Sun.

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18 Responses to “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Creativity in the Time of Covid”

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