Space for Creativity with Lauren Henkin

Creativity through the lens of the founder of The Humane Space and artist

"Creativity; it means exploring something new."

Lauren Henkin is the founder of The Humane Space, a lifestyle company and first-of-its-kind app designed to help people find greater meaning in life through curiosity, wonder, and awe. A trained architect, award-winning visual artist, and branding expert with over two decades in luxury wellness and management, Lauren blends art, design, and humane technology to support mindful living in a distracted world. Her work has been featured in NPR, Architectural Digest, and leading museums—and is grounded in a mission to inspire wonder and deepen self-connection through intentional, curiosity-driven experiences.

https://www.thehumane.space/

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Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thehumane.space

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/thehumanespace

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thehumanespace

Transcript

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Mari 0:20

Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. I'm your host, Mari Reisberg. Over the past several years, I've combined my degrees in acting and somatic psychology to share my sustaining creativity techniques with performers. And now I've decided to share with a bigger audience that includes you. I believe we are all creative, and this podcast is all about that. I'll be interviewing people from all backgrounds, ages, and creativity experiences to share just how creative we all are. Today I'll be chatting with Lauren Hankin, founder of the Humane Space and an artist. Please enjoy Lauren Hankin's. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, Mari. So great to be here. I am thrilled to chat with you about creativity. I know how deeply it finds its way into your life, and I can't wait to explore that with you. But before we get there, why don't you share a little bit about who you are and what you do? Sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

Well, I have been an artist uh for I guess over 20 years now. I uh studied architecture in school, which looking back, the education was very much about architecture as sculpture rather than I would say as functional space. Or at least that's how I um what I brought to it. And I was a fine art photographer for many years and then kind of reconnected with my roots in sculpture. Um, had a number of shows in in both disciplines. Um I also founded an imprint called Vellanoche Press, where I published handmade books. My goodness. Um oftentimes in collaboration with with other artists, which was really interesting. And now I'm the founder of the Humane Space, and we are an app, a really unique app that helps people live more curiously in daily life.

Mari 2:44

Oh my goodness. You have to tell us more about how that how that came to life and what inspired living more curiously.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Like Yeah, I mean, I think um, you know, I think many artists probably live curiously. They're probably some of the most curious people on the planet. Yeah. Um, and you know, I think when COVID hit, a lot of my work as an artist was stalled. I had some shows lined up and those were canceled. And I started doing some research into areas that always interested me um in terms of well-being, which were curiosity, wonder, awe, lifelong learning, things that I had experienced as an artist when I felt sort of the most nourished, the most alive, uh, the most um like I was living well. Yeah. And read some incredible things about the research that has been done on those areas. And it really got me thinking about how everything that I've done, from photography to sculpture to architecture to bookmaking, all of that began as an exploration from my own curious nature. And I realized that this is something that is with us throughout our entire lives, but maybe we don't think about it necessarily as being um also available to us as adults. And so I wanted to create something that would kind of reconnect people to that spark uh that I had and felt as an artist.

Mari 4:41

That's amazing. I, as you were talking, can, you know, really put those pieces together of wonder, curiosity, awe, and you know, how we all have them in childhood in some capacity, and over time, if they aren't nurtured, tend to fall along the wayside, or we may step into more challenges to keep them active. And so, what is it like to support adults to recapture or rediscover those parts of themselves?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

It's been fascinating because I think the the more interesting conversations that I've had with people who are using the app and who are benefiting from it, they talk about things like reconnecting with their sense of what it means to feel human today.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah. And of course, that's not, you know, something that I'm advertising, you know, oh, we're gonna help you reconnect to your humanity or something, you know. But I think that they have this moment where they understand that if they're not feeling curious or if they're not embracing that, that something is kind of dulled within them. And so it's very wonderful to see kind of that spark come alive again for people. And for some people, it it totally varies to what degree they experience that. For some people, it might be reading something that triggers a memory of a class that they took in college, perhaps that was a minor, you know, it wasn't their major, it was a minor, sort of the the passion minors, you know, that we all, you know, kind of gravitated to someone who's just adopting taking a 10-minute walk during a work break instead of doom scrolling or something like that. So it's a really wide range of types of people and how they are re-incorporating curiosity into their daily life, yeah, that is really fascinating for me to see. Um and, you know, I think even as an artist, if I wasn't exploring something new, if I wasn't pushing the boundaries of something, I became extremely bored and dispassionate. And I think a lot of the times when we feel bored is actually because we're not experiencing what it means to be curious in our lives. And we it, you know, it's such a great pathway out of that kind of dull feeling that we can get sometimes throughout life.

Mari 7:44

Absolutely. I so relate to all of that that can feel myself feeling the light gets a little more dim if I've and haven't taken initiative to do something for myself or get curious about why sometimes it's even just why am I feeling the light is dim? Completely.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

I don't think we often ask that question, even I think artists do. Artists are yeah tend to be very sensitized to to that sensation of you know, something's not working here, something's not working with this sculpture. What is it? Maybe it's I'm just repeating myself, you know, or or I'm not I'm not pushing this to the place where it wants or needs to be.

Mari 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

But I think, you know, people who are working in in jobs, especially where they have the same repetitive tasks every day.

unknown 8:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Um, and we have the same to-do lists on our on our to-do list after that period. We have to do laundry, we have to cook, you know, we have to take care of our parents or our kids or uh all these different things. It can feel very hard sometimes, or it rather I should say it can feel very easy to just get into that groove, that pattern of repeated behavior, yeah, and not remember that it's the moments in life when you're outside of that pattern, when you're truly, I think, articulating your curiosity in some way.

unknown 9:24

Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

That is what brings those lasting kind of memories and moments.

Mari 9:30

Absolutely. I as you're talking, I am just connecting to how kind of when we're in a repetitive cycle, we might call that our comfort zone. We know what to expect, we know how to do it, we don't have to think too much. And then when we get to this edge where where creativity really comes alive at the edge of our comfort zone to take us to that next space.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Totally. And you know, artists are, I have found, very comfortable with ambiguity, with trying new things, with widening their perspective. And it's what makes you know the process of art making so wonderful. I think a lot of other people who don't have that in their life struggle with that often. And so trying to kind of make reconnect those dots for them is really wonderful.

Mari 10:34

Absolutely. Well, seeing as how you have such a depth of creative knowledge and space, when you think of creativity, what does it mean to you to be creative?

SPEAKER_03 10:49

I think honestly, it it means exploring something new. I mean, I think it it's sort of the articulation of your your inner curious nature. And whether that means it's, you know, I don't know what this plant is. I want to explore what this this plant is. I'm gonna investigate that to, you know, I have this photograph and something's not right here. The color isn't right, or something's not right, and I want to, you know, modify it in some way, or I want to build on it in some way that is going to, you know, fulfill whatever I imagine it needs to be. So I think for me, the creative process starts with being curious. And, you know, the great photographer Robert Adams, who is a hero of mine, talked about walking as the th the instigator for so many of his creative processes. And then I think the creative part then becomes the articulation of that curiosity and and a widening of perspective uh and openness to exploration and discovery.

Mari 12:09

I love that. That just like articulating creativity can look so many different ways, but it's almost like reorienting to that lens of life.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Completely, and everybody's creative. I mean, even uh, you know, the the this is part of a lot of conversations that I have too when people say I'm not creative. Um, but you know, when you decide what to put on your body every day, you are making an intentional decision there about how to adorn your your body, your physical body. Absolutely. And and I think there's choices even there that are um creative. Um, and you know, I think even in the inner dialogue that we have with ourselves um throughout the day, we're often weighing decisions, weighing paths to take. Yeah. And I don't think we can make those decisions, honestly, without being creative, because you have to enable your mind to explore multiple um answers or solutions to a problem. Absolutely.

Mari 13:26

Totally. Well, can you walk us through the app a little bit so people have an understanding of what it is that they're participating in?

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Totally. So, like I said, it's really meant to help people live more curiously in daily life. And so we do that in as creative, I think, a way as possible. There's lots of different ways to do that on the app from uh lifelong learning. Um, you know, one day we might be talking about our relationship to the sky. Um, another day we might be talking about, you know, how time, how or how solar flares impact the weather. Um, so there's a lifelong learning component. There's a really interesting section, I think, for creative-minded people, which is called, we call them mind journeys, and they're guided visualizations. And most most of the time when people do a guided visualization, it might be taking you where you're imagining going to your happy place or something like that. We actually take people to specific locations in their minds, and sometimes we take them back in time and forward in time. Okay. So we have one, for example, where we take people to meet Leonardo da Vinci in his studio. Um we have another one where you're actually imagining soaring as a snowy owl. Um, and so your mind is having to create this imagery to imagine these scenes, and we're guiding you through that experience. So that is really such an incredible creativity sparking um exercise that is also relaxing and just kind of fun. Imagine going eco camping in the 23rd century. Oh.

Mari 15:19

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

And then we also have a section of awe walks, which are walking guided walking experiences, just meant to get you outside and exploring. Um, and then there's also self-reflection prompts in there, also meant to help you consider your relationship to the world and yourself. Amazing.

Mari 15:41

I love all of those pieces, and to really tap into it, it sounds like in small digestible pieces that because sometimes I I love all the creativity books that are out there, and sometimes when you look at them, they feel daunting or too big.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

So yes, and so I think one of the things that we're trying to do is to give people an opportunity in you know five or ten minutes to have that curious creative moment. Um, some people tell us they use it while they're waiting for the doctor in a doctor's office, um uh and and other times. But yeah, and the other, you know, the other thing I would say is that we everything in the app is human-made, like from the voiceover artists to the sound that you'll hear in the app, we are very celebratory of human creators, and uh not many apps I would say can can say that today.

Mari 16:50

Sure, yeah, I love that aspect. I the um Academy of Film and Television Academy just came out saying that they now have pieces in place that everything to win an Academy Award, you have to prove that it is human-centered and human-forward and human-delivered. So I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

I think that's so important for an app like ours. I mean, most of the people on our team are artists. Uh, and we want to support human creation. And I think, you know, that's in part, you know, the name, the humane space is really a place to connect with what it means to be human. And I don't think we could do that if it was, you know, AI generated content.

Mari 17:45

Sure. For individuals who might be listening to our conversation and feeling like, well, yeah, that's great. I can't do a guided mindfulness, or that sounds a little too out there for me, but there I am curious about it, or maybe I don't feel creative, but someone told me I need to do more creative things. Where would you have them start?

SPEAKER_03 18:19

I I think one of the great places to start, honestly, is we have a section of Soundscapes where we just you can sh with we just published um a playlist called Bird Song Sanctuaries. Oh and each track is focusing on a particular bird. And when I listen to them, it's really just about putting your mind in a different space, really. And it's it's so easy. I mean, it's it's just you can listen to them while you're working, you know, while you're relaxing. So in terms of just something, a three-minute, just very easy thing to do, that is something. And then I think the lifelong learning, you know, it's all very awe-inspiring. It's meant to help you understand something amazing about what another human has done or is doing. And usually those also are like between three and four minutes, and you will you will walk away feeling that energized feeling that you get when you're in that creative flow state. Um and that that was something that was really important to me too, is just as an artist, when you are feeling creative, you you feel that sense of energy. Um and for me personally, a lot of that gets taken away, you know, through um news that I might be reading, or if I'm doom scrolling, which I know I shouldn't do, but we all do it. Um so this is a way to kind of you know get that energy back.

Mari 20:10

Yeah, I I can appreciate kind of reclaiming that creative space or that creative moment, even if it is just a moment.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Completely. And I think energy is really tied to creativity for me, anyway. It has always been tied to it. If I was feeling either physically tired or just weighed down by something mentally, it was very hard for me to get in my studio and really create something that I felt was worthy of the time that I put into it.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

If I was feeling, you know, energized and positive, it was far easier for me to go in and be productive in what I was doing in the studio.

Mari 21:05

Yeah. Did you ever find that even on those days where it was maybe more of a struggle to get into the studio, once you were there and did one thing, something changed and there's that famous code.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Completely, and there's so many artists who have talked about that. And yes, for sure. But I guess, and this just might be me, but even still, if I went into the experience without the right frame of mind, yeah, I wouldn't walk away. I would feel like with that sense of accomplishment that I had going into it with the right mindset.

Mari 21:52

It's so interesting how how our minds work and how it the just the Framework of how we approach something and how challenging it can be to let our mind change.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

The mind is an extremely powerful thing. I mean, even with the this guide and visualization stuff, the fact that your mind can put you in a different environment is it's mind-boggling to me. Yeah. Um, and and yeah, it's just it's just so important and something that I'm trying to work on personally. Um trying to utilize the power of my mind to be more positive, to focus um positive energy towards challenges that I have. And I think it's been it's been really helpful for me over the last couple of years working on that.

Mari 22:57

I recently came across an article in the Psychology Today magazine about creative habits and how there are creative habits as we engage in them, it actually reverses aging in our brain.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

And that does not surprise me. Um there have been some studies. There was a study that uh connected curiosity to longer life. Yes. Um and I I I really believe that that mindset plays just a much a role in um longevity as you know what we eat, how we sleep, how much we exercise, um, all of that. And I think, you know, that's one of the really interesting things about curiosity and awe is looking at the research, uh, you know, you see that it has been connected to all different kinds of things, stress reduction, stronger relationships, yeah, um, you know, less loneliness, memory, um, sense of identity, um, energy.

Mari 24:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

And so, you know, these are really unexplored areas and things that I continue to learn about that are really just completely fascinating to me.

Mari 24:28

I love all of this, all of these pieces. And, you know, doing this work and being artistically inclined and working on this app, I can only imagine where your own inspiration comes from. But take us on the a journey. Where do you how do you spark your own inspiration? Who or what is inspiring you these days?

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Oh, that has changed throughout my life, I would say. Yeah. I take a lot of inspiration from nature. Um, I live in a very small town, 7,000 people.

Mari 25:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

And I often uh see more turkeys than humans in the course of a day.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Um, and so, you know, walking for me is is a source of inspiration. There are so many other artists who I find inspiring. Um, you know, the ones that I continue to return to include, you know, the photographer Robert Adams, uh Cy Twombly, who um was a painter and sculptor, uh, just incredible drawings, paintings, and sculpture. And uh, you know, Frank Auerbach, the painter, Frank Frank Auerbach. There's so many of them, it's it's hard to even um you know, Sally Manton. Uh there's just so many of them. Uh and when I need that kind of uh boost, I will honestly just go to my bookshelves or go out for a walk. Um and I would say as I've gotten older that walking, especially out in nature, is sort of a miracle activity for me personally, in terms of finding inspiration, getting the creative flow going. I have a lot of my best ideas and clean and not just best ideas, but clearest thinking when I am walking outdoors. Um I don't know why that is, but there have been there's been a number of studies about that. And so yeah, but you know, even uh uh looking at the sky here in Maine provides inspiration, especially at night. Uh and so yeah, nature has always played a really important role in my life and in my work. Um, and so you know, I look to it all the time.

Mari 27:18

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

And I I understand how inspiration changes over a lifetime and we find new new pieces both internally and externally that it's it's one of the most incredible parts to life, I think, is finding what you're curious about and exploring that because it it can be totally within you. Like you you don't even have to you know share that with someone else. It can just be I'm really interested in this artist. I'm gonna look look up their work and I'm just gonna soak that in for a few minutes. Um and I think it's also really interesting to kind of track how those interests change over time.

Mari 28:07

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Lauren, this has been such a fantastic conversation. I have one last question. What does it feel like in your body to be creative?

SPEAKER_03 28:24

I think for me, the times when I feel the most creative, there's a there's kind of a weird sync synchronicity that happens in my body where I feel kind of like everything is moving together in the way that it needs to be. And I I can explain that probably the best in two examples. One is I used to photograph with a large four by five camera, a very large kind of like think Ansel Adams kind of field camera. And so there was some physical um aspects to that. You had to walk with the camera, you had to set it up, you had to put like a cloth over your head. Um, and in that moment, and also when I would be working on a sculpture, I felt like all of my body was working together in a way where it felt synchronized. Um and you know, I could be moving around something, towards something, behind something, in front of it, and I could feel like everything was playing all of my body was playing a part in this creative pursuit. And it was all working together in harmony. And the times when I felt disconnected from what I was doing, you know, I didn't have that sensation.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Yeah.

Mari 30:02

Well, thank you so much for walking us through all these pieces and your experience. If people want to learn more about you, your work, the app, how could they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Yeah, so the app, you can search for the humane space on the app store and um and try it out, um, or visit us at thehumane.space on the web. My personal work is on my personal website, which is laurenhanken.com. And you can see both photography and sculpture there.

Mari 30:39

Perfect. Well, I will add links and show notes so people have very easy access. And thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Thanks. All right. Thanks for listening to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. We'd love to keep in touch. So follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We are at Sustaining Creativity. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Tag your friends and family so they can listen to. We love to hear from you, so leave your reviews, comments, and questions. Check out our website, sustainingcreativity.com, for upcoming offerings and creativity coaching. Tune in Tuesdays for our next episode. And remember, with creativity, anything's five.