Art As Evidence
A creative nourishment note for your practice
Lovely friend, I’ve decided to start making these little weekly “creative nourishment notes.” Notes to myself (and to you) about the things I feel are important for those of us interested in pursuing acts of beauty and living a creative life. I hope they offer something useful to you, in some small way.
I think a lot about beauty as a human need. I wonder about its role — in making us feel all the good things that come with being human. Maybe beauty hunting should be prescribed more often.
"Please, take yourself off," the doctor will say, "in pursuit of something beautiful."
And we will nod in reply, sensing the truth of it in our bones.
This week, I wrote about modern life and how so much of our technology is stealing our focus. That when we operate from a place of splintered attention, it costs us something: the creative, mental space we need. The inner places we wander through, the landscapes of daydreaming where ideas are free to find us.
I think - at least for me - that in order to keep reaffirming what matters, to loosen myself from the lure of my computer or my phone, I have to understand what it’s costing me.
What I’m giving up in exchange. And when I really feel that weight, I realise: this isn’t a cost I’m willing to bear.
I will not sacrifice my forest for the ding-ding of my phone.
I will not fill all the open spaces inside me - the places where ideas and inspiration are meant to land - with the futile and the inane.
And if I do forget, if I do busy myself with distraction (which, let’s be honest, is part of being human), knowing what it costs me gives me an endless right of return.
Back to beauty.
Back to creating.
Back to what is the best of us.
xx Jane
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Oh this is great, giving ourself unplanned time...why is it such a discomfort? The other day I was on a hike with no time frame for return, although clouds were building and maybe it would rain. There was a spot on a gravel bar in the creek I hiked to. The spot was beckoning me to come and get a new perspective. Carfeully I stepped from rock to rock, only slightly soaking one foot. The view there was different. I marveled how just 20 feet to the right could change things so much.
As I crossed the creek to return, suddenly I felt like I was in a new world. That moment changed me, filling me with the wonder of the moment, just as you describe Jane.
I'm loving this conversation, thank you, I'm catching myself more often when I'm caught up in the scrolling, redirecting myself to something more useful, making choices about what I don't want to watch, like the news. I'm grateful that my life allows for loads of time outside, that my walks, with my dog, to feed the horses twice a day, "forces" me, allows me to notice the beautiful, wonderful nature around us, to splash through the puddles and slop through the mud 🤣 joys of winter in Auckland. ❤️