Keeping your creativity alive has always been a challenge, but in the era of work from home, where the lines between work life and home life have blurred and where burnout and social disconnection are rising, creativity is at risk. We’ve asked some of the most creative folks we know for advice on how to keep one’s creativity alive.
Emma & Rebecca
Collaboration! There is nothing that sparks our creativity like working with other vendors in our industry. From the first meetings where ideas are flying and slowly getting distilled down to a clear vision of the day, we love working with creative people who push us to think in a new way. Read more>>
malavika rao
I tend to experience long creative blocks after completing a large project. I like to think of creative blocks as periods of gestation. Gestation takes time. So, when I feel blocked, I do non-art things. I read, cook, make vision boards, play, spend time with friends, meet new people, and teach. I live my life. Read more>>
Iesha Rowan
I keep my creativity alive by submerging myself around different personalities everyday, watching movies, documentaries, and looking at other content creators and wonder or try to re-create what I’ve seen with my own spin on it. Read more>>
Carmynn Bradley
I’d like to define creativity as the sum of all parts of the creative process, rather than just the act of creating something like a song. This is because when I first read this question, I was struggling with it. My songwriting has been on hold for a few months, and so I felt that I couldn’t answer how I was keeping it alive. Read more>>
King Ant McCray
Keeping creativity alive is a very challenging thing to do in a world that serves to overstimulate the senses with short-form content and “reality” shows that are scripted to death. As a solopreneur, I have full creative control over my brand, my products, and my content. Read more>>
Empress Giddings
I have a passion for modeling and I keep my passion alive by participating in fashion shows every year. Read more>>
Kathy S. WhiteBear Copsey
Many of my current pieces come from visions or animals that visit me in person. While the animals that visit me in person can typically become simple pieces, the pieces coming from animals or Natives visiting me in my visions can range from simple to complex. The way visions are presented are not always straight forwards, and I have to find a way to take that vision and put it into a painting in a way that’s easy to understand. Read more>>
Highfalutin Hags
We believe that an active and supportive creative community can be consistently inspiring. Hearing and seeing what our peers are doing keeps things fresh. It’s also important to have a consistent creative routine and to engage in fulfilling projects. Read more>>
Andrew Edwards
Creativity is a muscle I have to continue to flex! You’d think juggling social media marketing, storyboarding, and comics would make it easier to switch gears and keep things fresh but they all draw from a similar reservoir of energy. So, I’ve deliberately restructured my time this past six months to accommodate keeping my creativity alive. Read more>>
Michelle Mathison
Keeping creativity alive for me is all about embracing downtime, seriously. I’ve found that going for walks, diving into a Netflix binge, or just allowing myself to relax isn’t just leisure; it’s essential to my creative process. Read more>>
Benjamin Steeper
If I’m ever feeling a creative lull, I like to surround myself with good art. Art is a whole community with everyone inspiring each other, and to ignore that is deadly. But you really have to work at it. You have to seek out the art that you think is good and understand why you like it, and then, that builds up a need in you to express yourself too. Read more>>
Akemi Hogan
My creativity comes from my passion’s! Which usually boils down to whatever I am currently obsessed with at the moment. Pop culture has always been a huge part of my life, and a lot of my work is inspired by whatever holds my interested currently. Read more>>
Parvathi Kumar
The short answer is: keep creating, without any judgement, internally or externally! If one has been doing the same art form or activity for many years, one can try something new in that genre. Or if one wants to pick up a new medium, never be afraid to start and even fail at something new! Read more>>
richard williams
Creativity is what keeps me moving. When I need a boost, I turn to my skating friends and family who share my same goals of widening the audience for our sports through community engagement, and event planning. Read more>>
Tyanna Watts
Creativity is one of those things that many people think you either have or don’t have. A skill that can only come in one type of package or look one way. On the other hand, I think there’s creativity in all of us. Still, some aren’t sure how to express it, they may not understand what that looks like for them, or they find themselves so consumed in the day-to-day minutiae of things that they forget they ever had creativity at all. Read more>>
Elina Lukas
I find that the only way to keep my creativity alive is to never stop creating. Making art has become a daily practice, whether I have 5 minutes and or 5 hours. You have to keep the fire burning to avoid slumps and the dreaded blank page syndrome. Read more>>
Josh & Kristan Lepik
Creativity is a mindset. You stop being creative when you feel like you have nothing else to learn. For us, creativity happens because we continually push ourselves to never stop growing. We study the work of other photographers and we draw inspiration from them. We then dive in fully to develop our own technique or learn how to put our own spin on it. Read more>>
Anthony Kabiity
My creativity thrives on real-life experiences. In my photography, while ideas may sometimes feel recycled, human interactions always bring freshness. Whether it’s a conversation with a friend, the complexities of a relationship, or just exploring a new street, these encounters shape my work. Read more>>
Alfred Gabidullin
Honestly, I strive to diversify my creative endeavors. While my main roles are as an actor and cinematographer, I’ve recently delved into video game development. This exploration allows me to tap into different creative outlets and tell stories in new ways, opening up a whole new realm of narrative possibilities. Read more>>
jennifer thomson
I remember as a young girl my afternoons were spent sitting under the Willow tree writing poetry. I dreamt of being a dancer, but as life changes us when we are older my interest became the visual arts. In art school one of my teachers talked about art and spirituality. Read more>>
Lincoln Parish
When working in any industry that is based in creativity, it can often be challenging to keep the inspiration fresh. For me personally I try and draw inspiration from all aspects of life whether it be something personal I’ve experienced or something I’ve seen and or felt. Read more>>
Kim Wilson
I hope this answers some of your questions! I wasn’t sure which category it fits into. Every morning starts out with an hour or two of painting and drawing and creating visual art. My “paying” job is voice acting from my home studio, voicing commercials, corporate narrations, promos and eLearning. Read more>>
Paxson Woelber
Ermine Skate manufactures Nordic skates (a type of fast, stable skate oriented around outdoor ice skating) in Alaska. As everyone in manufacturing will tell you, economies of scale are extremely important for producing a physical product cost-effectively. Of course, this is never truer than when you first launch a business, and your quantities are relatively small. Read more>>
Carly Webster
I really try to remember what exactly I’m doing the work for. With the pandemic unfortunately still raging, I’ve had to get creative about the ways in which my organization can support disabled music fans. Given that disabled people already use the internet quite a lot to connect, there has been a little bit of ease in that regard, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t encountered difficulty. Read more>>
Tanya Paris
I try to engage in creative thinking every day. When I’m tired after a long day of teaching 5 and 6 year olds, I truly find it energizing to work on projects that stimulate my creativity. Whether that be writing stories or poems or creating new literacy resources for my students, spending time on these types of projects every afternoon is really important to strengthen my creative brain cells. I call this my “fun work.” Read more>>
Gabriel Scott
You have to find the things that speak to you and resonate with you. There is always going to be a lot of pressure for your creativity to look a certain way or to match the creative thinking of others. As a queer filmmaker with a preference for horror, I definitely had to learn to stick to my creative guns. Read more>>
Dr. Jessica Martin
To nurture my creativity, I consistently engage in my lifelong passion: dance. Since the tender age of 3, I’ve immersed myself in the art of movement, and it remains an integral part of my life. Dance serves as my sanctuary, where I merge seamlessly with the rhythm and melody. Read more>>
McKinley Smith
‘Curiosity killed the cat’ has always been one of my least favorite sayings. For me, the adage should read more like ‘curiosity made the cat creative’.These two forces—creativity and curiosity—are so interwoven I’m not sure I can take credit for the habit of refilling my well of creativity through curious exploration. Read more>>
