Creativity flourishes in nature
Nature has never stopped creating since the beginning of time, and those who find the time to be attentive to nature’s details and experience its wonders are often rewarded with a special drive that can boost their own creations.
This past 18 months of social distancing, and health measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, has been a reminder for many artists and creators that stepping outside and getting fresh air from a natural environment does wonders not only for their emotional and mental health, but also for the inspiration and motivation needed to keep exploring new ideas within their creative practices.
The newfound interactions between creators and nature was a common topic among the first group of interviews we conducted for our project. It was striking to see how the great majority of participants mentioned nature as a theme for their content, and a space to find peace and inspiration in the midst of COVID-19.
Jodianne Beckford, a Black photographer and creator (photo below), told us that she was inspired by the community she had been able to build around her love for plants. This was Noire Girls Plant: a platform that she had developed during the pandemic dedicated to educating people on the impact of nurturing plants for personal healing. She offers workshops, plant consultations and different products such as soil-mixes and organic pest repellent.
Jodianne had found a way to reconnect with nature by bringing it inside her home in the form of succulents and palms, something that also responds to a very urban desire to have more green spaces at home. In the process, she created a business and a creative community around it.
Matt Gooderson, a music producer, songwriter and composer, found nature, and specially silence, to be profoundly inspiring for his music practice. When asked about the good things he experienced during lockdown, the first thing he said was: “Feeling nature more deeply”. He also commented:
”I found huge inspiration in the silence of lockdown. The sound was incredible, the first lockdown, with no planes or calls. I think people experienced the sky being more blue, the air being fresher. And I don’t really believe that in that short amount of time it could be true, maybe it was, but what I think is more likely is that we saw the sky bluer because we were living in a less visually stimulated world, we weren’t traveling to as many places, so we were looking deeper and, for me, it was this, it was this opportunity to look deeper.”
It is well known that artists and creators have always seen nature as a muse for songs, poems and works of art, and that many creative advancements in other fields have been inspired by natural processes and the characteristics of ecosystems. But the experiences of these creators amid the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the natural world not only as a source of metaphors, but as a living agent that can offer a possibility to see the whole of creativity with a different set of eyes. And perhaps more importantly, they raise the question of how we can better reframe the relationships between creativity, creators and the natural world in order to make the best out of this ever-evolving situation.
