Midlife Creative

I grew up thinking artists were a little weird, but it was a good weird. While visiting an art gallery as a child, I saw an abstract piece of art for the first time. It was a canvas with dozens of objects glued to it. There were fish hooks, rope, scraps of paper, and my favorite object – an orange rubber worm. It left quite an impression on me. At age 10, I mostly liked drawing. It felt natural and a paper and pencil were easy supplies to come by, but every once in awhile, I remember wishing I had more materials to work with. After reading a book about a boy who made robots out of cardboard boxes and tin cans, I attempted to make my own robots. As an eager 4-H member who enjoyed coming up with projects, I remember looking in the fridge and trying to invent a recipe with the ingredients I had in front of me. I also wrote and photo-copied a monthly magazine and mailed it to my ‘subscribers’ for about a year in elementary school.

Fast forward to now, and I’m wondering where that inventive child went?

Is the creative artist in me hibernating or is she trapped somehow and not able to get out?

There is a part of me that is not fully living out the creative life I’ve been born to live. I feel stuck in a never-ending cycle of laundry, dishes, and an honest attempt to pay the rent. It is really easy to ignore this creative artist that is being starved most of the time and hiding out in the back of the closet. I’ve told myself for too long that nobody really cares.

A big motivator for my desire to start writing is as a way to stir up the sleeping artist. My biggest inspiration in the past year has been seeing the creative overflow in my children and wishing to be more childlike.

I want to give you a couple snapshots of this. My older daughters go to an arts high school and every year they look forward to the formal dance, Finale. This year was Tabby’s freshman year and I assumed she would want to go shopping for a dress. When I asked her, she said “No, I think I want to MAKE a dress”. I was skeptical. A few days later I asked again if she wanted to go shopping for a dress. She assured me that she had it under control. She ended up finding a rainbow umbrella, cutting it into strips, and hot gluing it into a dress. Can you believe it? I sure couldn’t!

Another day this year, I found Tabby on the living room floor at about 10:30pm painting a pair of jeans. She had found a black hat with white spots and wanted to make some “cow pants” to match the “cow hat”.

Creative people like my Tabby stand out in a crowd of others who are blending in. Creativity is play and learning to allow yourself to play as an adult can be hard work. Fear, shame, and a scarcity mindset are all barriers to creativity. I am determined to break out of my comfortable and safe routines and discover new ways of thinking in my second half of life.

Richard Rohr says: “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”

I have quickly realized that artists need other artists. We can be strong supporters of each other as we birth new ideas and new art. I have decided to form a group called “Midlife Creative”. If you feel a tug to explore this idea, I would love to have your company on this journey to a more creative life.

This is for everyone. We were all made to create. It’s not too late to awaken your sleeping artist.