I’m a Painter, Photographer, & Filmmaker traveling the world searching for beauty. My full story can be found on my website www.diediker.com.

Easiest way to message me is via Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sean.diediker

Creative Spaces & Mom's Middle Finger
by Sean Diediker

Years ago when I was living in Florence I decided to invite my parents out for a visit. They were on the fence about it so I just bought the tickets and said, "you're coming." And they did.

My Mother is a classy church going lady and I had never seen her give anyone the finger. I was curious to know what that would look like. So after a wonderful day of new sights and sounds in a remote Italian village we stopped to take a few photographs on top of an old tower. I asked Mom and Dad give me big smiles as I snapped away stating, "OK now give me the finger"...mom shook her head in disgust, "I'm not doing that." I took a few more snaps, "OK now give me the finger"..."Just take the picture Sean," she grimaced.

And then just as I snapped the last photo, there it was in all its majesty. My Mother with her arm around my Dad biting her bottom lip in full F-Face giving me the finger atop the Italian countryside! It was glorious. (I still cherish that photo.)

But why that day? Why not any of the other days in the past when I had provoked for such a display?

Was it because we were in Italy and people can't talk without using their hands? Or was it the weak in the knees mint gelato we had earlier? Perhaps the cobblestone streets beneath her feet had rattled something loose?

I believe it was all of the above.

Everything was new and unfamiliar. Her daily routine and environment were completely different and somehow her mind was finally open to letting "the bird" out of its cage.

I believe there's a lesson to be learned here, (aside from discovering mom's inner badass.) A lesson pertaining to environment and creative spaces.

As I have wandered and set up shop in various corners of the globe something happens to my creative sphere as I adapt to my new environment. I catch creative fire. Ideas and possibilities fall from the sky at such velocity I have a hard time containing them. I then ask myself, "Why wasn't it like this back in the old studio?"

My conclusion is this: Conditioned repetition kills creative possibilities.

As one adapts to a new environment something happens in the subconscious brain. It blooms. It opens to possibilities and ideas that otherwise remain buried beneath the crushing weight of habitual routine. By simply changing ones routine or environment it can burst loose those pearly gates to whatever muse you seek.

I'm not a psychologist and I don't know why it works. But it does.

I’ve found that this not only applies to creative endeavors but in all decisions.

I look to works by other creatives who's adaptations to a new environment were the seeds to pivotal artistry.

Hemingway. Dylan. Picasso.

Perhaps consider what affect the gardens of the Saint-Paul Asylum had on Van Gogh's approach to color. Or Bob Seger's experience "on that long and lonesome highway east of Omaha."

If you look a little closer at "the good stuff" you may discover more often than not they are the creative expressions rooted in the observed emotional or physical changes in the artist’s environment.

The muse rarely lives in the studio, she is out there among humanity. The studio is where we apply the discipline and describe the observed.

Changing ones routine or environment can be painful. Just take your cat for a ride in the car and you'll know what I mean.

Dramatic changes can often be involuntary and unwanted, but still yield the same result forcing the mind to open and adapt. Why can't we abandon what is comfortable and become the architects of our own adaptations?

Over the years as I dropped myself into places I've never been, surrounded by people and cultures I don't know. I've learned to enjoy the challenge of colossal adaptation and discovered that massive change ignites my most creative self.

One can't always jump on a plane and set up shop in some exotic location. But changing routine can also be done in modest increments. Drive a different way to work. Or after a shower try drying off differently. Do you realize that you've been drying yourself off the exact same way your entire life? (Mine is always left leg first.) Same thing when I tie my shoes.

But guess what. Eventually even those adaptations will become routine and the creative mind will once again frost over and await a new season.

Once you have consumed a new environment is it a tragedy to return to an old one? I say no, because you are entering back into the old sphere carrying the creative muses of the new. So it can't be the same. You have already opened the creative mind to those possibilities and they can now be applied to the older creative sphere and you reinvent the familiar.

In my experience inspiration isn't free. It must be earned. Mind and body require an environment that will allow you to actually see the muse standing right in front of you.

Tags

See All Tags (4)