Join us every Wednesday at Solune Coffee, Jacksonville, FL for Figure Study! Community challenges you, celebrates you, and gives you courage.
Creativity takes a lot of energy. To make something authentic, you must draw inspiration from your life and experiences. When you surround yourself with creators, dreamers, builders, and people who pour into their creativity, their craft, and into others, a sort of osmosis happens. I am fortunate to live in a supportive community surrounded by other artists and songwriters who embody this philosophy. I love my city, and it took leaving and coming back to understand that. Every artist, no matter how independent, needs this connection. Creativity cannot happen in a vacuum. It is energy and life. It is about surrounding yourself with authentic people who pour their entire heart into what they create and keep it open to let others in.
Creativity is cyclical, with bursts of momentum and periods of rest. To refill the tank, immerse yourself in a community that inspires you with its passion, curiosity, and drive to create. People who understand that the process requires trial and error can best support your journey. This environment encourages more experimentation, persistence, and continuous refinement of your work. It shows you ideas and insight into how others see the world and choose to express it. It infuses into your own thoughts and changes the way you perceive challenges. It shows you how to take something painful and transmute it into something beautiful and relatable. How powerful is it to take something seemingly devastating and galvanize it into something that could connect with another’s experience, and help them feel it? It is alchemy at its finest.
A strong creative community does not compete; it does the opposite. It listens and amplifies. It asks questions and offers support because this tribe understands your journey. To be creative is to be different. In a world of conformity, we need art to keep society moving forward. Art reminds us that there is no single path to expression. If you are just as excited to watch someone you care about grow as you are to grow yourself, you have found it!
When those slow periods come, they’re not a sign to stop. They’re a sign to connect to your work, your people, your purpose. Because creative energy feeds a conversation, a spark, or a new perspective. Stay curious, keep showing up, and keep connecting. The spark always returns, transformed by the pool of creativity you dive into. Your creative community isn’t a distraction to the process. These interactions are part of the process. When you surround yourself with inspired people, their energy fuels your own, and the cycle begins again. It’s the drudgery of life that slows you down, and when you surround yourself with creatives who persevere through the bad weeks and continue to use it to make something beautiful, it can ignite your drive and desire as well. Community keeps you accountable as much as it keeps you inspired. It keeps you from drowning in the riptide of your own thoughts.
You are also vital to this ecosystem. When you show up and experience what someone has poured their heart into, no matter what that may look like, they feel heard, and you absorb that energy. So surround yourself with those who celebrate you, challenge you, and welcome you in equal measures. Share your work, ask questions, and most importantly, show up for those who show up for you.
