Creating in Isolation, particularly if you wish you weren't

This episode is an exploration of the surprising power that comes from harnessing creativity in isolation, and how to stop being so damned isolated if you're tired of it.

Natural Wings Aerial Dance:  Dawn Pascoe and Ruth Battle duo trapeze at Toronto Busker's Festival 2013:  https://youtu.be/WODRXKb5cZ4?si=VOSxIQXUyLYgHbve

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to Audacity Works, a podcast inspired by and dedicated to the working artist, the creative entrepreneur and generally doing the damn thing. This exists on the premise that the world belongs to those who have the audacity to believe that their lives have value. This is for you. Welcome to Audacity Works. I am your host, rachel Strickland, and this is episode number 55, in which we're going to talk about creating in isolation. This has been a request from several listeners, followers, audience. Don't know what to call you. Hello, thank you for being here.

Speaker 1: 0:49

But my girl Sasha and my girl Heather come to the forefront of my mind because they're both creating in isolation and Sasha, for example, lives in the middle of literally nowhere, like in a national park, in like a tiny village in the mountains that is, I don't know, only accessible by a helicopter, in a canoe or something, not exactly sure, but like quite, quite an isolated place. And Heather lives and works in Lafayette, where they're. I mean, lafayette isn't inaccessible, but it is a smaller city and there isn't as much of a scene there. So there's lots of different kinds of isolation and I have been putting off recording this episode because I also create in isolation. I live in Charleston, south Carolina, it's not, you know nothing at all. It's got quite a thriving art scene. It's just, it's a visual art scene, but coming from places where I've lived before, like San Francisco and Seattle, it is it's very different. The landscape is different, and I live out in the country and it I do feel isolated and have for some time, and it's I'm not usually aware of it because I am very connected to my international community via this wonderful thing we call the internet. So I don't feel alone.

Speaker 1: 2:24

But locally, here in, in my tiny parish I'll just use the word parish I guess there is a sense of isolation and I have not mastered that and that is why I've been putting off recording this episode, even though it clearly needs to be recorded. And then I just changed my mind because I have done this before and it's time to talk about it. So first thing I want to say is that it's not necessarily a bad thing to create an isolation. There is something to be said for creating without being influenced by that many people. The first person who comes to mind is Don Pasco and Ruth Battle, who live in Perth, which is, like one of its kind of taglines, is the most isolated city in the world and Perth is in Australia and it's on the West Coast and when you think of Australia you think of Sydney and the Opera House and think of Melbourne and like kind of all this stuff is on the East Coast of Australia and then you cross the Red Desert and way on the other side of this enormous nation is Perth, and that's where Ruth and Don live and I met them at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival but yielded in the years ago and we became friends very quickly and easily and we went on to work together several times and we made several shows together and toured them, in a manner of speaking, and the elements is a show, it's an award-winning show that we presented at the Perth French many years ago and that was a really special show. It was really beautiful and very much just came from us and the final act of that show was Don and Ruth's duo trapeze act and it was on a dance trapeze and because Don and Ruth had worked together for so many years in in isolation, like not being influenced by many other people, because of that their style and choreography was completely unique.

Speaker 1: 4:47

I heard this. It was not only my own assessment just watching them, but I've heard other people mentioned it as well. Like this is what happens when you're operating and creating outside the scope of having many, many influences, and you know bustling circus centers and schools that are just full of artists in and out all the time, and that's wonderful. But there is also something to be said for creating without being influenced daily by other people. And back in my day, because this was a while ago, there was no Instagram. So if you're thinking, but we're influenced by Instagram, it wasn't a thing, so that wasn't happening. And I wanted to start out with that, because it's not always a bad thing to be creating in relative isolation there. There are ways to use that as a superpower, and natural wings aerial dance is the name of the company. That's Don Pasco's company, by the way.

Speaker 1: 5:50

If I can find a link to that duo trapeze number, I will put it in the show notes. I have written to Don and asked her if she has one so you can see what I'm talking about and you may be thinking but yeah, rachel, that's, that's great, but they had each other and that is the damn truth. They had each other and sometimes all you need is that one other collaborator for a period of time in your life and sometimes you don't need a collaborator at all. So if you are feeling isolated and you don't have to be isolated to feel isolated you can feel isolated in the middle of New York City. Yep, talking about you, talking about you. Probably the loneliest I ever felt was in a crowded room where I knew everyone. So isolation doesn't have to be geographic, but it can be.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And if you find yourself isolated, you have two choices. One you can go somewhere else. That is a choice that you have. Two you can use what you have if you don't want to leave, and that's what we're going to be focused on today. Option number two staying where you are and using what you have just wanted to like. Sneak that in there. You can leave, you are totally allowed to leave.

Speaker 1: 7:13

And this is where a lot of people say well, I feel, I feel stuck, regardless of whether they want to leave or they want to stay. I hear it a lot. I have certainly felt that way. I feel stuck, I feel stuck, but you're not stuck. You are not stuck, you are scared. You are not stuck, you are scared. It is extremely rare to be actually stuck. Being stuck means you have no options. It means you have no choices and no autonomy. And the only times that that is true is if you are I don't know a prisoner somewhere or you're incarcerated and your rights and your choices are taken away in that circumstance, if neither of those circumstances apply to you, you are not stuck. You have choices, you have options. You do have autonomy. It is just scary as fuck. So you're not stuck, you're scared, and that makes sense. I get that.

Speaker 1: 8:13

So what do we do when we feel scared? What do we do about that fear? One is the first thing is to acknowledge it Like what are we afraid of? What is the worst possible scenario? And usually, if you think about the things that you're afraid of happening, well, if I try this, then I'll be rejected. Or if I try this, everybody's going to laugh at me. Nobody's going to want to sit at my table or play in my sandbox. But isn't it scarier to do nothing? Isn't it scarier to remain unused and unspent Like? To me, that is the most horrifying scenario imaginable is to live a life, get to the end of it and be like oh damn, I, uh. I stayed in the sheath the whole time. I was never unsheathed that. That sucks, let's. Let's not do that. I hate it. That's horrifying.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Okay, so let's say that we have identified that we're afraid, and let's say that we have agreed that we're going to, we're going to deal with this fear, we're going to negotiate with it and act in spite of it, because you can't wait until you feel confident to do a thing. Confidence doesn't come before you do a thing. Confidence is a result of doing things and taking action. So don't wait to feel a certain way before you do something. And for people who feel that they are in isolation or relative isolation, they're usually not as isolated as they think they are, and I am talking to myself as well. Now, I think we can agree. It's not very likely that the perfect collaborator and your new best friend is not just going to knock on your door one day and be like what's up, let's make some bomb ass art. That's probably not going to happen. And yet that seems to be what a lot of us are doing is just like waiting for the doorbell to ring or for the phone to ring and let's just say, if it happens, great, but it's probably not, so let's stop waiting for it and just do something on our own.

Speaker 1: 10:23

One thing that would be helpful here is to release the expectations of what we think this is going to look like, because it might not look like what you think it's going to look like. It might not look like what you want it to look like. It might be something different, but we don't know. So we have to kind of inhabit this place where we're open to the possibilities and whatever takes form in front of us is something that we can use. For example, we might love to just stumble upon this collective of other creative thinkers who are gathered together and they want to do a thing, and you're like cool, I can join this collective and then I'll have that bit of community and if that happens to you, that's amazing. And if not, you might be the gatekeeper, like you might be the person that organizes this group of creatively thinking people. You might need to volunteer as tribute and not be attached to the outcome, because who knows what's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 11:29

But what if you decided to hold a salon and I mean like salon am I saying it right? I don't know, it doesn't matter which is, you know, an old word? That just means a gathering of artists and other creative people, people who appreciate art. Just get them into a room and serve them cookies or whatever, and talk and see what happens. Maybe nothing, maybe something, but if no one else is doing it, you might have to do it. It might be you. Now, who do you invite to something like this? I'd say anyone that you have the vibe with, anyone that you've met. It doesn't matter if they are in your discipline or not. They might be in a totally different discipline and that's okay. Just get into the room First, make the room and then put people in it and invite them to invite whoever they want to be in the room. I don't know what's going to happen, but it sounds like a good time to me, even just for the chance to stand in a room with other people and be like this is what I do and this is what I want. That is an opportunity for someone else to hear you and be like that's what I do, that's what I want, or I want to help that happen. And if they don't, they don't, but if they do, you've just changed your life. Congratulations.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I was just speaking, I was emailing with my friend, maria, who was feeling kind of similarly, and she was asking about the time that I spent in Seattle because I did feel isolated when I moved to Seattle because I didn't know anybody there, nobody that was in my scene anyway. I had friends that I was moving there with to live with, but they weren't artists, and so I found myself in Seattle. I was 27 years old and Seattle is a very vibrant town. There's lots of art, lots of weirdos At least there was back in my day but I didn't know any of them. So I was kind of in this place where like, alright, now what do I do? And I got extraordinarily lucky because right around the time I busted up into Seattle, a new circus school and performance space also opened its doors and that was Emerald City Trepeze Arts. I think I walked in there. It was a shell of a building. The only thing in there was the flying Trepeze Rig. There was barely an aerial point in the back. I think it was just getting installed.

Speaker 1: 14:04

The day that I arrived and I'm in, the owner, gary Kirkland, and we became friends and we were both kind of black sheep because we were new in Seattle and no one was very happy that we were there. Most people were not overtly unkind to me somewhere, but there was a very strong, like you can't sit with us feeling which I get, I totally get but being in a space like that, that is new, and getting to affect change in that space on such a real level, because it is new and because you are new and we just really helped each other out. We created classes, we created shows. I put a lot of things on the stage at Emerald City Trepeze Arts that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to put anywhere else, simply because I busted up in those doors and I met Gary and like hey, well, I feel like the redheaded stepchild, how are you? And he's like yep, same, let's go get a coffee. I'm like, okay, cool, I didn't know it yet, but I had just met one of the most important collaborators and a dear friend like for life. So that's what I want to really hammer home here Magic happens in the room.

Speaker 1: 15:22

I'm taking that from the movement maestro, of course, dr Chantay Coalfield. She's like magic happens when you get into the room and she's speaking about in person events. But magic does happen when you're in the room. And if you're in a place and there's no room, you might have to make the room. You might have to have the audacity to be a leader in your own little community, and if there is a room that you can go to that you don't have to make. Go to that room and give them all of yourself.

Speaker 1: 15:57

When I, when I, moved to San Francisco, my dad gave me a piece of advice. He said, rachel, when you go to a new place, you need to take possession of that place and take possession of the people and care for them and help them. Take possession of the place, Take possession of the people, be in their lives and give of yourself generously. And that's what I did in Seattle. I followed my dad's advice and that was one of the most prolific periods of my entire career, because I followed that advice and I did not feel ready.

Speaker 1: 16:33

What I wanted to do was wait. I wanted to wait for an invitation. I wanted to quietly send out emails from the comfort of my apartment, and I did those things too. But my hunger was a lot more uncomfortable than my fear, and there's a lot of value in being hungry. There's a lot of value in desire and having the gall to follow that desire, to overcome your fear and take action anyway In spite of it. That's where magic happens. So get into the room. Either make the room or find the room, put yourself in there and then give of yourself generously, make change happen.

Speaker 1: 17:14

You don't need 12 people, you only need one. And, honestly, the time that I spent in Seattle and my life there and the things that I did there, the relationships that I made, that period of time ended up being the basis for what became what I teach in the Audacity Project, because it was so prolific and because it was so effective. And it extends beyond your local community. It extends to international community. You want to work with some people. Go, get in the room with them, get in their faces, meet them, see what they smell like, I don't know. Talk, just get into the room. Magic happens when you're in the room and sometimes you have to make the room.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Looking at the time, I'm going to wrap this up and in benediction, may your hunger outweigh your fear, because you don't need 12 people, you only need one. You don't need a five-year plan, you just need the next two inches. What are the next two inches? And sometimes that's enough. Thank you for being here and thank you for letting me talk into your ear for 20 minutes, and an extra special thank you to my patrons for making this and so much more, possible for me to make this work available as a resource free of cost. If this was helpful to you, the best thing that you could do for me is to send it to someone that you think it could help. I am always open to hearing your suggestions for more episode future episode ideas. You can reach me on Instagram at Rachel Strickland Creative, or on Patreon at Rachel Strickland Creative. Be hungry, be wild and don't go back to sleep.