Treat your art like seasons
Or why you should develop multiple creation cycles
🇫🇷 A French version of this post is available here.
Every day since January 2016, I write spontaneous or more thoughtful haikus which I share on a blog called “La pause haïku”.
The particularity of the traditional form of this kind of poetry is that it is connected to seasons in an inherent way. Each haiku is indeed based on what we called a “kigo” (季語), a word or a group of words associated to / that evokes a specific season.
Therefore, the writing process of a haiku is closely related to the succession of spring, summer, fall and winter. Its style will thus adapt itself accordingly and will also allow the reader to better identify the context in which the haiku lives. By this adaptation, the poet will force its creative muscle to be continuously flexible, to transform itself, and thus to create from a whole new perspective.
In this regard, the notion of kigo could undoubtedly benefit every kind of artistic activity if it were applied. By practicing its art in a cyclical manner, the artist will have the opportunity to treat it with a totally new approach, driven by the environment and the particular characteristics of each cycle.
During each of them, he will allow himself to let go of the artistic habits acquired by the structured practice of its art in order to develop and discover forms of expression heretofore uncharted or to include brand new concepts.
The main goal here is — at regular intervals — to step out of its artistic comfort, expand its sources of inspiration, create where its art has never been before, but especially to avoid falling into a creative monotony.
Practicing its art through multiple creation cycles can avoid being faced with creative boredom.
Every four months or so, you can thus decide to implement and experiment several technical or conceptual elements related to your artistic field, which will be applied at different scales of implementation and levels of difficulty. Here are a few examples :
- Writing: Switch from fiction to non-fiction, write shorter texts or more verbose ones, change the type of its pen or the support on which we write, etc.
- Photography: Take photos of new types of subject, switch to analog photography, explore new and unknown places, etc.
- Painting: Change the format of its canvas, use new color palettes, decide to paint outdoor, etc.
- Music: Play a new music style different from yours, learn a new instrument, play with a friend, play in the street, etc.
If your art and the aspirations that come with it will inevitably evolve over time, the involvement of a kigo may lead it to embrace a new form of emancipation and freedom that goes beyond the mere medium on which it expresses itself and the colors it depicts.
Whether it rains or the sun shines, your muse will undoubtedly be more inclined to serve a creativity now plural.
