What is the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome when creating?
Making the time is the hardest, and the motivation is the struggle. Finally this week, I’ve created a new rhythm because I realized I wasn’t finding balance. I’ve been focused on my day job to the point where I wasn’t feeling smart enough in my art. I wasn’t showing anything creative to my community of friends who are artists, so I wasn’t getting that reflective feedback that is necessary to feel like I was making progress in my creative growth. I started to become paralyzed. Now I have started painting as my own rejuvenation therapy, and I’ve started to wake every morning to write for 10 or 20 minutes. This means getting the kids to school a little late because I’m waking them later to give myself the time. Writing or painting for 20 minutes is short but powerfully energizing. I am more diligent at home in the evenings when I’m structuring my time with the kids, their homework, dinner, and exercise. I can’t do everything. If I make a big dinner, that takes away from exercise time or time with them. Something always suffers, but I’m just diving in and letting the work take me. And I’m excited for the next day because I leave myself a cliffhanger. The exhaustion I feel is from life; the creative work actually energizes me so I have to do it. The ladies of Fulana—after marriages and babies—have finally put a date on the calendar to meet. We are making the time. We’re excited to make new work.
Tanisha Christie is an interdisciplinary performing artist and filmmaker. After years of working at the nexus of arts, media, social justice, and healing, she is currently finishing her master of social work (clinical specialization) at Hunter College in New York City. A child of a Solo Mom, she loves to ride her bike to the beach.
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