Meet Marcia Harvey

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marcia Harvey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Marcia, 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?

Keeping my creativity alive is sometimes as easy as pie; at other times, I find it much easier to keep creativity alive in others! Let me explain what I mean: During the Pandemic I discovered that my creativity was very closely tied to feelings of joy- now that I see it, I find it kind of funny that in 50 years of making things this was the first time I realized it! The impulse for me to make art, to want to ‘make something,’ comes from a place of play, of open space and time. What do I do when there is no joy, open space, or time? I give myself permission to be ‘not-making.’

In the Pandemic, I was moonlighting (as I am now) as a part-time art instructor, and it was easier for me to try to help my students keep their creativity alive than it was for me to keep my own creative practice going. And when a student would explain that they could not keep their creativity going during the crisis; I understood, and I re-assured them that their creativity did not need to be ‘on’ at all times; that like Ruth Asawa said, making art is doing, and doing is living. Making art, at sometimes, is just being with your sadness, or feeling your emotions. We are not just automated pasta machines of artists, continually churning out art noodles! We feel, we observe, we reflect; we have an idea, a notion, to try to make something. Creativity is not governed by a regular schedule.

I confess that my approach to times of relative fallowness has REALLY changed over my lifetime! I used to really beat myself up for not attending to my ‘art practice’ as my first priority. When I think of it now, I see how impossible it is for any single thing to be a first priority at all times.

To encourage joy to flourish in my life, I have two strategies: avoid the things I don’t like doing (under this category you might put ‘housecleaning!’) and, try to eliminate hurry; I try to have enough time for everything I am doing to unfold at its own pace. Creative ideas often come to me in the pauses between things- for example, driving in to town to do some errands, or watering the houseplants, I want enough time between events and chores that I can pull over and make a few notes. I do not enjoy deadlines! I like to putter around and mess about; to loaf, even.

To foster an ‘open space’ to be creative, I also work to clear away a lot of the negative life scripts that we tell ourselves. For example, there is a myth out there that true artists are obsessed and single-minded in their pursuit of their work- I believe this very damaging idea comes out of a huge heap of limiting notions that I refer to as “The Patriarchy.” This same huge open pit mine of toxic stuff also fuels the inner Voice of the Critic we all have to work so hard to silence. Here are a few other things that come from the pit: Perfectionism. Fear of failure. Progress; the notion that we have to ‘get’ somewhere with our work. Evaluating our work through external validation. Can you imagine how easy it would be to make art without these things getting in our way?

How do I work to clear all that massive baggage away? Interrogating these falsehoods, and actively looking for better scripts! I have been on a project to read the memoirs of women this last few years, and it has been such a affirming experience for my creative self!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I work in lots of different media: sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking. The stuff I make that I call art includes textiles, recycled & found materials, and written words.

I just completed a soft sculpture for an invitational group exhibit that will open next week: High Tide, at the Miossi Gallery at Cuesta College. The piece is made of a rose vine, nail polish, an old silk robe, wool mattress stuffing, yarn, fabric, and thread: It is ultra-femme, pink, and even a little rococo, in a funky way!

I post visual images of my work and things that inspire me on Instagram (marciaclaireharvey), and I tend a blog of my writing on a lot of topics; music, art, culture; even recipes! It’s a good place to go to see what I am currently thinking about and making: www.wayofthedodo.org. I have a website of my visual work, too, but it is not up to date! www.marcia.harvey.name

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Permission, approval, and curiosity.

In graduate school, a mentor asked me about who had ‘given me permission’ to make art. At the time, I thought this was a confusing question: didn’t I just give myself permission? I have come to see that was not so; we are constantly seeking permission, and we very often do not find it nor do we give ourselves permission! My parents are who gave me permission to be an artist, and it was a Very Big Thing to give. I grew up believing (erroneously!) that every kid had permission to be what they wanted to- especially to be an artist. Even though I had been given permission and wasn’t aware of it always, it is possible to give yourself permission! You do not need to wait until someone tells you it is okay- you can tell it to yourself! But, you had better believe it!

Do not seek approval. Wait times for approval are absurdly long; worse even than waiting for permission! Approve of your own work yourself; don’t let a lack of approval or validation keep you from making something.

The thing that keeps me making art, and that actually keeps me living, is being curious about things. I want to learn more about nearly everything; I want to engage as much as I can with the world.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I once joked that I learned to dance by watching cartoons! In a similar way, I have been so supported by the works of other artists working in words! The courage to be creative is a serious undertaking- filling that blank page/sheet of paper/canvas takes superhuman strength and unconditionally supportive friends. You can find these understanding, helpful friends in books! If I gave a list of how many writers had helped me it would be a 56 year long list. From Frederick (Leo Lionni) and George and Martha (James Marshall) on up to Some Trick (Helen DeWitt) and I Love Your but I’ve Chosen Darkness (Claire Vaye Watkins). Three books on the creative process that I particularly love are painter Amy Sillman’s Faux Pas, writer Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, and an anthology of writers on writing: Great Writers on the Art of Fiction.

The Writing Life https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-writing-life-annie-dillard?variant=41224246132770

Faux Pas https://www.artbook.com/9782492650048.html

Great Writers on the Art of Fiction https://store.doverpublications.com/products/9780486451282

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wayofthedodo.org, www.marcia.harvey.name
• Instagram: @marciaclaireharvey
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-harvey-58073728/
• Youtube: A film on how to make art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Kpz0tmqh0 An experiential, inventory film of my art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtYZvc1imT0

Image Credits

Marcia Harvey