Little Oracles

S04:E02 | Reconnect: On Prompts, Cross-Pollination, and Creative Elasticity

• allison arth • Season 4 • Episode 3

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In part two of the season-opening three-parter, we're talking about the power of prompts, ways to cross-pollinate your creativity, and how creative elasticity makes you an even mightier maker.

Until next time, take care, keep creating, and stay divine. <3

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[Intro music]

Hi everybody, and welcome to the Little Oracles podcast, an oracle for the everyday creative. I’m Allison Arth.

Well, hello, and welcome back to Season Four of Little Oracles, a season I’ve titled and themed Remake, because I’m coming back from a rather long hibernation period, during which I really wasn’t feeling the creativity — and if you want a little more on the whys and wherefores of that, I’ll link Episode One of this season in the show notes — but this season is all about coming back to creative life, as it were. And in this episode, which is the second of a three-parter that starts with Episode One — so I guess if you haven’t listened to that yet, maybe pause and go back to it [laughs] — I’m going to talk about another happenstance that helped revive me creatively, and the things I learned from that experience that you might be able to apply, too. 

So I talked a little bit about setting parameters for a creative project in Episode One, and I’m gonna dig a little deeper on that here today, because the second occurrence that raised me from the creative grave, so to speak [chuckles] was a set of parameters. And, even more cosmic-convergently, it was the very thing that drove the creation of this podcast: it was my friend Peter’s annual group show, which he invited me to be a part of again this year. (And if you haven’t heard about the genesis of this podcast, or you don’t know who Peter is, I’ll put links to the inaugural episode of Little Oracles, where I give some background on how this show came to be, and also to my Season One Creative Chat with Peter, which is an absolute delight, he’s a tremendously curious and creative individual and he has so many incredible and wise things to say in that episode.)

But back to this year, when Peter extended the invitation for me to create something new for the group show (and I’ll link the show catalog and the details in the show notes). So Peter asks the artists he showcases to respond to a prompt — so, basically, a set of parameters — and while the specifics of that prompt are kinda immaterial to this discussion, I will tell you that being asked to address a concept — and to have a deadline associated with that ask — is a real whopper of a creative challenge for someone, aka me, who’d been in maker hibernation for so long. And what’s even more challenging is that this show revolves mostly around physical objects: things like sculpture, paintings, jewelry, textiles. And while the show welcomes digital and other intangible pieces, like video, I really wanted to sit down and make something with my hands; you know, something that could be displayed and seen during the run of the show. 

But here’s the catch: I’m not primarily a physical artist. I’m not, like, a collage artist or fiber artist or painter — I mean, I’ve done all those things at various times in my life, but not as my main gig, you know what I mean? So not only was I daring myself to create within the constraints of Peter’s prompt, I was also daring myself to create in a mode that wasn’t my go-to. Like, I can write a poem to any prompt, but can I come up with some art-y object that belongs in a group show, alongside other, like, legit visual artists? 

And while I’m not going to go into that beautiful buzzword so many folks love to bandy about — I’m talking about impostor syndrome — but I will say that I definitely considered whether what I was actually capable of crafting would be, quote, “good enough,” to be part of this show. And will I admit I struggled with that for several weeks.

But even though that little pessimistic voice was at work in the back of my mind, I was still more interested in and excited by the creative challenge this offered me; because I didn’t want to let this opportunity just float off into the ether because I felt out of practice, or I felt a bit intimidated, or I just felt creatively stuck. So I brainstormed. I went on walks and I just thought about it, like, a lot. I talked to my partner, John, about my ideas, I researched various crafting techniques, I dug through my stash of supplies, and in time I had a rough idea of the media and the form factor I wanted my piece to take, but I wasn’t clear on the vision. Like, why I was making what I was making, and why I was making it as an answer to Peter’s show prompt.

So, since I’d gotten back into the practice of writing here and there, which I talked about in Episode One, I decided to fall back on that: I gave myself a freewriting exercise; I imagined I was writing an artist statement for the piece. Using the medium I was comfortable in, the one that made sense to me, the one that felt like me, I not only drafted a description of the piece itself, but also what it meant to me, and how it fit into the show as a whole.

So, I can write a poem to any prompt, and through this process, I figured out that I can use said poem, for example, as a blueprint for another creative work. And lemme tell ya, this felt like such a cheat code, you know, such a huge creative hack; in a way, it builds on the practice I talked about in Episode One — you know, using a similar or complementary medium as a springboard and iterating against that — but in this case, it’s a way to leverage your metier, that thing you know you know how to do, into a new arena. 

And I think what’s so vital about this practice of cross-pollination: it increases your creative elasticity. And that’s a wonderful thing, because elasticity is, as you probably know, the ability for something to return to its original form after being stretched; in contrast, of course, to flexibility, which is really important to a creative, too, but it’s more about stretching without breaking, within a set range. So with elasticity, your starting point is that primary creative work you — you know, the thing you do best or most — and you’re extending out from there; you’re broadening your creative experience and facility, so you’re not just experimenting with new techniques and modes expression, you’re also gaining greater perspective on your main mode by working outside of it. 

So for me, that looked like a written artist statement that described a piece that I then sat down and completed. It’s papercraft, it’s origami; it’s dedicated to my Dad; and I had no idea that’s the shape it would take until I sat down and I wrote about it. I stretched creatively, and returned to that original form — that writing that I love to do and that really feels like me — and then I was able to stretch again, and to create this tangible piece for Peter’s group show.

Ultimately, when you stretch your skills, you strengthen your creative self. So when you cultivate your creative elasticity, you cultivate the creative competence and confidence you need to take on any prompt, any set of parameters, and, basically, any project. 

And that’s where we’ll leave it for now. I’ve got one more episode in this trio about returning to creativity, so I hope you’ll join me for that. Thanks so much for being here; I appreciate every single one of you. You can dive into big book energy and creativity content at little oracles dot com, where you can listen to every episode of the podcast and browse the original Little Oracles digital installation. Until next time, as always, take care, keep creating, and stay divine. 

[Outro music]