S2E1: Childlike Beginnings

4/5/22
Growing Creative Podcast
S2E1: Childlike Beginnings


"There is a humility and a child-likeness that's necessary for being an artist and letting your creativity grow. A certain willingness to be foolish is inherent in the work of seeing the flicker of a half-formed idea of something new & giving it the respect, the belief, the credence . . .  to honor it and nourish it— to suspend disbelief long enough for it to become something believable."  Join Jane in a discussion of embracing the childlike, early stages of small beginnings.  

Jane Boutwell is an artist & creative coach based in Atlanta, Georgia. She loves to nurture and empower others to pursue their creative callings.

"I am an artist with an inquisitive mind, a heart connected to nature and a soul yearning towards God…a child of dirt and dance…a beauty bringing blessing writer… a poetic painter and potter.

Starting with mud pies as a child in the backyard, my creativity includes tactile, intuitive, and deeply-in-touch-with-nature ways of being in the world. I see myself as an apprentice in God’s art studio of the natural world that is full of metaphor, imprinted with the character of the Maker.

It is my passion to share the shimmering beauty and deep truths I find in the creative medium that seems most fitting. Those creative expressions include gardening, quilting, writing, painting, sketching, ceramics, dancing, creative coaching, podcasting, and family life with my husband and four children in Tucker/Atlanta, Georgia."

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Transcript

You're listening to the growing creative podcast. And I'm your host Jane Boutwell, I'm an artist and a creative coach. This is a space that will nurture your heart and empower you to pursue your creative calling, whatever that I'm sitting on my porch. It's a spring warning, not officially spring, but it's definitely the weather for it here in Atlanta. I hear the birds.

I don't know if you can hear them, but I just wanted to share the playfulness of the beginnings of spring with you. As I talk to you a little bit about child likeness and the imagination, and the willingness to suspend disbelief like a child at the beginning of things, the beginnings of a project, the beginnings of an art career journey, we find ourselves there in that space again.

And again, if we're willing to continue making and creating things from, from nowhere, from, from a place that nobody else can see those ideas that just pop in your head, you don't know where they came from. Nobody else knows what you're talking about. They can't see it yet. This is the kind of a process that is inherent to being a creative,

whether it's an inventor of technology or a painter. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about that today and just felt right to be sitting on my porch. I'm having sips of hot tea from a mug that has the art of Julio, Alonzo, an art friend of mine. I made online. She titled the piece that is printed on this mug adventure within,

and there's so much whimsy and beauty in her paintings. And I think the thing that draws me so much to her abstract playful paintings is the sense of, of wonder and imagination and a willingness to just be childlike as she approaches her process of painting. So I'm looking at that. And then off to the side, I can see the play house that we built with our kids.

We painted it white to have a charming cottage feel. And yet I can see Georgia red mud hand prints decorating it because about a year or so ago, I came outside to find my youngest Lucy with her hands coded in red mud, up to her elbows. And she was lost and transfixed in the moment, you know, that place, that flow state,

where you don't even know the rest of the world is going on. And I came over to her, you know, half like in horror with the mess of it. And you know, the destruction of my vision of a pretty white little cottage Playhouse, but the childlike part of me pretty delighted. I mean, I am a ceramic artist as well as a painter.

So painting with mud is right up my alley. And I asked Lucy what she was doing. And she said, well, it was just boring white. It was just plain white. So it needed to be decorated. I'm decorating it. And boy did she and I, I joined her. What else do you do when it's your fourth child? And she's playing with mud.

I joined her in her hand. Prints are still up there. Some of them have been faded and washed away by rain, but I love that reminder of how important it is to put ourselves back in the mindset of a child and seeing the world that way. And just letting, letting that playfulness happen. I want to read you a little bit of something that I wrote and thinking about this topic I wrote,

there is a humility and a child likeness that's necessary for being an artist and letting your creativity grow a certain willingness to be foolish is inherent in the work of seeing the flicker of a half formed idea of something new and giving it the respect, the belief, the credence to honor it enough and nourish it to suspend disbelief long enough for it to become something believable for it,

to become giving the idea of enough of your own belief to support it. Well, no one else can even see it much less believe it takes take some days to write about here is where I started kind of that rambling about trying to kind of find my way to the next level of completion on this idea, which is something we call the messy middle and every creative reaches this point.

If they're willing to go past the fun delight of beginning something and push it all the way to completion and maturity. So as I was thinking on this and giving it time, which is a very important part of the messy middle ruminating, I realized that while this episode was supposed to be about the childlike, bold, wild abandon of the early stages and not despising the day of small beginnings,

I can't talk about that without touching on the rest of the life cycle of creativity. And I was a parent of children of different ages. It really struck me how it really goes along with some of the aspects of growing up. So we've got Lucy with wild abandon giving herself and her whole heart to the love of her messy creativity or imagination, giving it her faith and pier sheer pigheaded stubbornness,

a willingness to walk into something unknown that nobody else believes in or can see. But then to, to bring something to, to its fullest self, you have to go through that messy middle. And I don't know about y'all, but adolescents is kind of that awkward stage, right, where you're just feeling, you know, it's not, anybody's really favorite place to be,

but it's a vital part of growing up. You simply can't go from a child to an adult without passing through it. And as I was thinking of some of the comparisons of adolescents to the creative process, I thought about how that second stage, the messy middle, the adolescents there's this hyper self-awareness that comes. And while that's not anywhere we want to stay for the rest of our lives,

maybe that self-awareness, and the kind of, some of that inner critic that comes up, we don't need to let that be the boss and run the show, but it can certainly guide us to how to edit things down because in order to bring a project and let it become its greatest creative self, you have to give it wild, free rein to get as wide as it needs to in that early stage.

But in order to reach completion and maturity, you really have to hone it in and then bring in the editing phase where you pair back to what's essential. You find the point of it. You get really clear on the message and that requires, that requires editing. It requires making choices between some of the things that you were playing with and experimented with in that first stage.

And, and that requires a self-awareness. So as we're embracing that childlike beginning, we also have to realize that part of the process is that messy, middle adolescents, and maybe coming into maturity, we gain a deeper appreciation and a willingness to honor the whole cycle. Each of the stages of growth necessary instead of our tendency to kind of disdain childishness and try to stay away from it.

As we get older, we learn that there's a beauty to it. There's a power in it. And we embrace that again. And we have a compassion on that awkward, messy, middle adolescence, and it realization that it took a lot of it. It re we were that stages and necessary part of growing up. We have to push away from the,

you know, beginnings. We have to edit and pair down and refine our sense of self and our sense of purpose. And a lot of that happens in that messy, middle self-aware hyper self-aware adolescent stage. And just as we're talking about this topic, I think it's always important to remember when we're in the midst of the creative process or creative journey as a whole,

we have to avoid comparing our beginning stages or our messy middle stages to someone else who's further along in the process or to a project that's further along in the process. You simply cannot. If you were writing a book, for instance, you simply cannot begin writing a book and read over the first draft while comparing it in your mind to a completed, fully published book.

That's had an entire team of editors, refining and clarifying for years. I remember Ann Lamott talking in her book, bird by bird about how she would go to sleep terrified that she might die in the night. And someone discover her rough draft that she had been working on because of how terrible it was. She would be mortified for anyone to read it.

And Ann Lamont has written some of the greatest treasures we have. So we know that if Anne Lamont, you know, her published works that we love. They went through that early wild, messy, rough draft stage too. So we can't compare, are we getting to someone else's middle or end? We can't compare our messy middle to someone else's end.

So anyway, I hope today that you just are willing to gain a greater appreciation, a willingness to not despise the day of small beginnings. And as I thought about this episode, I just couldn't help, but want to share one of our family's favorite poems with you. That is a good reminder for children. My youngest ones really love it. In fact,

I'm going to let them share the poem because they've memorized it. Whenever we have poetry teas, Lucy always wants to say her poem that she has memorized. So I'll let them share it with you, but well, it's great for children to remember. It's also great to remember when you are at the seed stage of a creative process or your own creative journey.

It's not something to despise, but to see that it has to be little, has to be in the messy dirt to do what it's made to do and to give it a chance to grow and to its biggest fullest self. So here is Lucy and Salter sharing, sharing our poem. If you're small or your rewards are few All right, you heard him,

don't worry. If you feel like your job is small, you're not getting much reward. Let the first stages be what they are. Small childish, a little nut because every mighty Oak tree once started that way. There's no other way. So get in the dirt and let each stage be what it's meant to be embrace the childlike beginnings of the art and creative journey.

I want to tell you about something very special called the growing creative fellowship. It's a community that I began that is to support women who want to connect their hearts and their creativity and make sure that they make space in their lives. For that to grow. I have designed this to meet so many of the needs that we have as people who are busy and wanting to make sure that our creativity stays alive.

I send a box quarterly with supplies, inspiration to experiment in a new medium. I think that keeping playfulness and experimenting outside our comfort zone is so important for keeping vital creativity. So each quarter we try out a new medium, and I send tutorials. We have a guest artist who uses the supplies in the box, and then each month we also have gatherings on zoom,

where we are spending time connecting creatively. And we also have a monthly co-working session. And these have become such a sweet time of focusing on our creativity at home, but then connecting in, in between work sessions to, to stay on track and stay connected with what each person's up to. I also offer a one-on-one coaching call. And the second month of your membership,

this monthly membership called the green creative fellowship is only open for new members to join a few times a year that we'll be preparing our next quarterly box that will go out in April. So at the end of March, it will be open. And I wanted to let you know about it in case it's something you'd be interested in becoming a part of. You can find out more through the link in the show notes,

the best way to be aware of when to sign up would be through our newsletter. You can sign up at my website. I also will definitely be talking more about it on Instagram. If you want to follow along there as always, please share the podcast. If you have enjoyed this time together, I hope that you'll send a link to a friend and let them know about it.

I would like to thank shepherd Martin for being the sound editor and the music is by sad. Moses. I'm trying to think if there's anything else to tell you about, but I think that covers the basis until next time, keep growing creative.