How to have productive and inspiring conversations about your creative work

If you feel daunted or cringy about sharing your work with others, or having conversations about it, you are not alone! Sometimes it feels like you have to have a very thick skin to hear what others really think.

If you are someone who works from a vulnerable and heart felt place in your creative work, it can seem like it is not worth it to connect with others about it.

It is worth it! Without a depth of connection around your creative work you can lose momentum and purpose. It can seem like a worthless endeavor and a waste of time.

This is because the creative act is, at its core, a place of communication, an utterance, that needs to be received in order to be fulfilled. And when it is received well, you will feel inspired, valued and energized.

It is important to get interaction around your creative work, but it is not easy to get really good conversation.

There are three basic ways that we might get that interaction:

• First is at a show or event where you are likely to get wonderful affirmation. This is important, and you should definitely give yourself permission to soak it up.
  
  However, it can leave you unsatisfied, and potentially you could get the post show blues, because you do not have the sense of your work being deeply held and connected with. You have spent your time, energy and heart making something that really matters to you, you need more than celebration. You need connection.
  
  
• The second classic way is the critique - what we learn in art school. This is where the cringe factor might originate. It is all about judgement and what works and what does not - as if someone else has the authority or right to say! I am not convinced that there is an important place for this kind of conversation - but it sure does make the people talking about your work feel important. At its worst this kind of engagement can make you feel bad about your ability or lose your sense of ownership and authority about your creative work.
  
  
• The third is the most difficult and ultimately the most useful. It requires both trust and vulnerability and in my book takes some training. The guiding question for this kind of conversation is "how does this work impact me?" The viewers need to come with an open heart and a willingness to receive something that they do not already know. And to suspend the urge to judge.
  
  There is an amazing depth that can happen when you begin to hear how your work affects and connects with other people. It is inspiring and motivating. It becomes clear that your work matters, and that it has relevance far beyond your own world.

If you are going to put together a group to talk about creative work, here are a few tips:

1. Be choosy about who you invite. Members should be both open and interested and also able to suspend judgement and be supportive. Also choose people whose work you admire.
   
2. Make agreements early and affirm them at the beginning of each meeting. For example:
   ----No judgements either good or bad.
   ----"I" comments are the preference, I feel..., I see..., I am moved in this way 
   ----there is no ultimate truth about a piece- it is all opinion
   ---- when you are talking about another person's work, speak from your own experience and with a sense of being in service to that person
   ---Know that what you are saying may be important and true for you, and not for the person whose work it is, so do not be attached to whether they agree with you. 
   

I am in the process of creating a coaching group for artists and creatives who make work from the heart, from a depth of vulnerability and professionalism, who are working on getting their work out into the world. This kind of conversation will be an important component of it.

If you would like to know more about it, please subscribe to my newsletter http://eepurl.com/buTz61​, and email me val(at)taprootartsinsight.com.

I have yet to get the group description on my website, but I am definitely talking to folks already, so please do not feel shy about contacting me! val (at) taprootartsinsight.com.

You may also be interested in my Taproot Winter Workshop on February 17th. Click to learn more.