We recently connected with Rachel Weaver and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
Community, continued learning, and seeking inspiration are the main ways I keep my creativity alive. Spending time with my community and friends gives me a huge boost in creativity. I have found a really amazing creative community in North Texas that knows the importance of supporting each other and creating spaces where we can share our creativity and art. Watching live music from local bands, going to art shows, galleries, and performances, and attending curated events provide a lot of inspiration and opportunities to explore my imagination. Continued learning is also very important for keeping my creativity flowing. I’m always interested in finding articles on niche topics I’m exploring, finding inspiration in a new book or documentary, attending educational workshops or webinars that help me learn more about a topic I’m interested in, and connecting with others interested in those topics. Sharing inspiration and continued learning opportunities with the community are all interconnected in sparking my creativity.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I call myself a creative collaborator because of the various community projects I participate in and volunteer with, all with their own growing communities working towards goals I value. To name some of the main projects I collaborate with, there’s The PETAL Project environmental education initiative I co-founded with fellow artists and environmentalists, KUZU Community Free-form Radio, and the Denton Zine & Art Party events where I contribute to leadership and administrative roles in these organizations. I am a member and volunteer with various other organizations such as Texas Master Naturalists (Elm Fork Chapter), Native Plant Society (Trinity Forks Chapter), Spiderweb Salon, and Denton Music & Arts Collaborative providing healthcare subsidies to artists. My job managing the Coppell Farmers Market keeps me connected with local food advocates and farmers market community members, and my side gig with Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios keeps me connected with my favorite local music venue. For me, all of these organizations and projects give me opportunities to share my skills in working towards missions, goals, and values I want to help support. I’m always learning something new, growing my knowledge, and gaining new experiences by sharing in the work with these communities.
This community work fuels inspiration for my personal creative practice, which I consider to be an environmental-social-creative practice. My personal works include sound art, performances, essays, mixed media works, zines and collages, music, philosophy, radio shows, poetry, and educational workshops. For me, all these endeavors are interconnected, weaving through each other, blending and extending connections between communities and collaborators.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Show Up, and Follow Through – If you want to be a part of something bigger than yourself and learn more about how you can be involved in your community, just show up. Go to their public meeting or workshop, volunteer for an event, reach out and see what they need help with. Participating in your community and following through with what you say you’ll do can make a world of difference to help the small but passionate organizations you want to help. It’s also good to make sure it is the right fit for you, too, and knowing when to step away/take a break/transition from a role is just as important to prevent burnout.
2. Slow Down – One of the harder lessons learned that I often have to remind myself of. We can feel a sense of immediacy and urgency in today’s fast-paced, instant-everything society, but if we don’t slow down and allow ourselves to rest, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts every once in a while, then we will burnout and lose that creative spark. Slowing down can mean a lot of different things for all of us – it’s just a reminder to do something that makes you happy and that it’s good to take breaks.
3. Persistence is All – Maintaining a steady and lifelong practice is what this is all about. I want to feel creative inspiration, continue learning, and contribute to my community for as long as I can, but that will mean experiencing a lot of changes and shifts throughout a lifetime. Being persistent in environmental-social-creative practices is more important than calling it done once one goal is reached or mission accomplished – there is always something else out there to help change for the better, inspire others, and provide experience and wisdom for the community.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I spent 2023 focusing on building up my environmental educator qualifications. I received my certification from the Texas Association for Environmental Education, and completed my initial training, advanced training, and service hours requirements to become a certified Texas Master Naturalist. These certifications helped inform programs and projects for The PETAL Project and our local environmental education efforts. We received a grant from the Native Plant Society of Texas – Trinity Forks Chapter and will be contributing to prairie restoration efforts in North Texas in 2024. In all the organizations, projects, and events I’m a part of, I’m seeing positive growth and new opportunities arise as we continue to work together toward expanding our impacts and communities.
In my personal creative practices, I performed and released music with multiple projects within creative communities such as: Speedbump lil d, flame keepers sonic art installation, Memory Terminal Records, and live performances around Texas. Looking ahead, I have plans to share work at a conference in May, continue writing and recording new music, and perform at various venues around North Texas (and beyond).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.weaverswriting.com/
- Other: https://linktr.ee/raxhelw
Image Credits
Ellie Alonzo Peter Salisbury
