This past weekend, I had fun working with some of my artist friends to transport shipped artwork from one location to the other, unpack them and get them ready for an upcoming exhibition.
I saw so much artwork that I got a good sense of the latest trends. I saw artworks shipped from all around the country and it was such nice camaraderie and an amazing experience. And the time just flew by. I had brought a bowl of fresh fruit with me for something to eat but I hardly found the time to grab a bite.
It was a lot of fun and a great creativity boost to be with other artists. The fact is, I’ve found this to be a benefit of most art group events I attend. You often leave feeling like you need to go straight into your studio and start creating something.
It used to be that people believed creative people were loners who sat quietly in a room by themselves till creative ideas came to them. But this myth has been debunked over and over again.
Author Eric Weiner studied the lives of many people whom we’ve come to know as geniuses and he found something interesting about them. They seemed to be clustered around specific locations. They didn’t create in isolation.
In his book, “The Geography of Genius”, he writes a sort of travel journal. In it he examined the different places that have created some of history’s most remarkable people, artists, inventors et cetera.
Weiner travels to 7 of these places which are hubs of creativity (or were that in their time). And the places are Edinburgh- Scotland, Silicon Valley- CA, Ancient Athens-Greece, Florence – Italy, Vienna- Austria, Hangzhou-China, and Calcutta-India
In response to why he wrote the book, Weiner says, I looked around the world and noticed that over time, geniuses don’t appear randomly. One in Chicago, Bolivia, Siberia. They appear at certain places at certain times in these clusters, these genius clusters.
Common Elements of Creative Places
So, what is it about these places which seem to spur on creativity? According to Weiner, they have three (3) things in common:
- Diversity, (Both ethnic & intellectual diversity – an openness to experience other ideas. You need to be able to see things as an outsider)
- Discernment (You need to be able to separate good ideas from bad ideas)
- Disorder (churning of world ideas)
This is how I see it,
Creativity + Community = Exponential Growth
But wait a minute here, what if I can’t just up and leave where I live right now to go live in a creative hub or genius cluster somewhere? What do I do? Of course, the prospect of relocating only for creative purposes is not possible for the majority of us.
So, what do you do? Get involved!! And that is exactly what I was doing last weekend. You should get involved in a local group. But even that is easier said than done. You may live in an area which is not quite bustling with creative activity for you to find a community to join.
In that case, the current advancements in technology provide us with a solution. Join an internet group and get involved. Facebook is bustling with groups for this very reason. Because we all want to belong. It’s a natural desire of all humans to belong to something.
A New Facebook Group – Finally
I’ve been wanting to create a Facebook group for a long time but I never got around to it. This past week, one of my readers sent me an email in response to the FREE Time-Saving Book (17 Smart Ways to Make Time for Your Creativity) I’d sent to her.
She says, “Thank you for this … Didn’t realize it was a good strategy until I actually put it in place and you confirmed it today. Thank you! Is there a group sharing place? Or just these emails coming to me directly?”
To be honest with you, I was not happy to read her “thank you” note. I felt guilt and shame. I knew I’d failed her. I’d been planning to create a Facebook Community for this purpose for way too long. I even talk about it on my Free Resources Page.
I should have done it by now. It’s been long overdue. An online community is important for us creatives not only for all the good reasons, Eric Weiner found in his travels and writes about in his book. But it also serves as a 24-hour/365-day source of community, unlike any other.
Whether you’re sick or well, or the weather is nice or bad or you can travel to meetings or not, you always have the ability to participate in an online group and get the support you need and deserve.
An Invitation to Join A Private Community
So finally, I’ve created a Facebook Group for my blog readers and all creatives who use textiles to create art – mixed-media artist, fiber artists, art quilters, quilt artists etc. Simply put, it’s an online community for Textile Art Creators and Biz Owners.
In this group, we’re going to focus on the motions, emotions, and business of creating textile art. Topics for discussion will include boosting creativity, finding time to create, inspiration, motivation, fear, strategies for completing projects and the like. And for the business topics, we’ll discuss the 7 aspects of Textile Art businesses.
We’ll not be discussing techniques, or using the group as a gallery for WIP, UFOs or finished textile or art quilt pieces. There are many Facebook groups for that. I want to provide you with a community where you can get support for topics we face as textile artists or business owners, which we don’t get to discuss in the other Facebook groups out there.
UPDATE So, if you’re a textile art creator, fiber artist, art quilter, quilt artist etc. our new community is the place for you. I would like to invite you to join our new Facebook group – Textile Art Creative Friends. Textile Art Creative Friends is a community for textile art creators to lend support, ask questions, share advice, give feedback, and share their love for textile art & the biz of art, in a lively and friendly environment.
It’s a place where I seek to bring people together and create a community that feels positive and uplifting for its creative members to share our creative journeys.
Click here to join our brand new private Facebook Community. Look for the big, green “Join Group” button. Once I confirm your request, pop into the discussion and leave a comment and introduce yourself. I love hearing from you! 🙂
See you inside. Can’t wait to connect with you.
Your Turn
What do you think about the name of our PRIVATE community? Do you have a different idea for a name? Post your suggestions in the comments below and see you inside the community.
Warmest Regards,
Get behind the scenes and learn more about my art practice, events, exhibitions and release of new artworks
Also published on Medium.
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