Places to be Creative
George Orwell chose to write Nineteen Eighty-Four while living in Barnhill [photo], an abandoned farmhouse on the isle of Jura in the Inner Hebrides. He noted in 1947, “The weather here is as disgusting as in England, but it isn’t quite so cold and a little easier to get fuel… These islands are one of the most beautiful parts of the British Isles and largely uninhabited.”
In her essay A Room of One’s Own in 1929, Virginia Woolf said that for women artists “a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself” and to develop the “habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think.”
But solitude is not the only sort of place to nourish creative expression. Many artists acknowedge the value of academies such as Idyllwild and Juilliard, and less formal artist retreats and workshops.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is still acclaimed as a creator of major works of theology and visionary writings, a naturopathic healer, and one of the first composers. She also founded a convent, where her musical plays were performed.
Speaking of monastic places, Heather Blakey - in an interview by Chris Dunmire of Creativity Portal - talks about her appreciation of monastic buildings as “full of fine arts and craft, which reveal the benefits of developing a rich interior life [like] St Theresa’s interior castle… I imagine a virtual monastery, like the Monastery at Iona off the coast of Scotland.. filled with tiny, Spartan cells where votaries of the muse could come, retreat behind walls and observe time differently.”
With her site the Soul Food Cafe, Heather has created such a virtual place - a “safe haven where creativity flourishes” as Chris Dunmire notes.
In a related article by Heather: Zen and the Art of Team Blogging, one of the “team” writers Luna Eternally enthuses: “I can run though the fields of my mind, open to the new. Heather brings me confidence to go forward and discover what lies beneath. She gives me a place to be heard and it means everything to me… We journey together in a virtual world that allows us freedom to dream.”
Along with so much else, the web has allowed virtual places like the Soul Food Cafe we can visit and gain creative inspiration and nourishment.
February 19th, 2006 at 6:40 am
hi………you have an interesting and inspiring blog…..about very important things…I think the blogosphere is also a nice place to be creative, but one aspect not to forget and Virginia Woolf speaks about this as well, is to have enough money…..
February 20th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Hi Doug,
Most people find creativity puzzling and wonder how writers and artists “do that.” It takes both physical and mental space. When the body and mind are always on the go, it’s impossible for creative thoughts and images to appear. It’s a lot like spirituality, in that respect, we need a time and a place in which to listen.
I’m going to check some of your other links, now.