Creating from a new place
The Heroine’s Journey, Anna Lee 2022
When I first saw the work of Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim in January of 2019, I was moved to tears in the museum and felt a surge of new information flowing into my psyche. I felt a conversation with information I did not understand. Serendipitously, I received an invitation to speak at Creative Mornings a few days later on the theme of Surreal. I have written about this to you before, so it may sound familiar to you, but it was pretty moving to me as I then had imagery present itself to me about what I should talk about, yet the words did not show up until the NIGHT BEFORE the presentation.
Dang! Not stressful at all, right?
To me, it created a path forward, but one I could not fully comprehend. I have resigned myself over the years to the fact that I tend to spend a lot of time in the liminal spaces between seeing and understanding, dreaming and realizing. I have been weaving back and forth with these concepts ever since, and have been given so many opportunities to build depth in my understanding of a new way of relating to our creativity and working in partnership with others from this place.
These are words that make easy sense, but the true shifts within it are far more different than we initially perceive. I am going to do my best moving forward to bring a better understanding of these nuances that help us work together in new ways.
If you have ever wondered why you can’t figure out how to operate effectively or feel supported as a creative individual within our current world, this next chapter of my work is for you.
It breaks down to this: the way we are meant to create moving forward will bring a different sense of success and fulfillment than what we are expecting or currently experiencing. To work from a place of grounded embodiment and presence will give us the creative expression and answers we seek, but will have non-capitalist non-hierarchical modes of support and results. This does not mean that we will not make money from our creativity, but that we will operate in new ways and find support for our work outside of current structures. This may sound cryptic, but stick with me for a while as I work through this with you over the coming months.
A few days ago, I went to see The Winding Sheet Outfit’s The Spirit Moves You To Color The Unseen at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. It was a moving piece inspired by the work and life of Hilma af Klint, and included the four other women who created with her as part of De Fem, a group of five spiritualist women committed to greater meaning. The show was magnificent, and if you live in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, I highly recommend seeing it on August 6th or 9th.
What moved me in particular was I could feel a similar stirring of information being shared as when I first saw Hilma’s work in person. There was something truly remarkable in the show and how it was created. I am still processing and will undoubtedly continue to write about this, but was filled with the emotion of being part of something larger than myself. My worries about finding “success” as an artist in a patriarchal, late stage capitalist world faded away as I realized the true wealth of what has happened to bring me to this unique moment to be able to share a sense of a vision I see for us as I wait for the words to fully show up in my mouth.
More to come.
xoxoMsAnnaLee
