Creativity While Reclining

crip creativity made more accessible

Just a reminder that my workshop Neuroqueering Shame in our Creative Lives is this Saturday, 5 July at 12:00 pm EDT. This is a great workshop for helping you reframe “dysfunction” in your life, and will include a creative invitation that many have found eye-opening and generative. The cost is only £15 (about $20USD), or you can buy a combo ticket to Shame, Spiral Time and Mise en Place for a discounted price of £40 (or £20 spread over two monthly installments). All ticket-holders will receive a recording of the workshop and access to an online space for past and current attendees to connect.

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For most of my life I dreamed of Virginia Woolf’s proverbial room of my own. As a homemaker and mom raising a family in a small Philadelphia rowhouse, having a whole room to myself, where I was only responsible to myself, and where I could close the door on the world... that felt like both an unattainable dream and also *necessary.*

It took me a very convoluted, roundabout journey (including my kids growing up, a divorce/remarriage, and unmasking as neuroqueer), but I I now have way more space for myself than I could ever have imagined. It is a blessing I do not take lightly.

At the same time, the curious truth is that despite all my space in which to create, you can find me 90% of my waking hours in two places: a day bed in my studio and on the couch in my living room.

This is because for a whole variety of reasons, I spend most of my time reclining.

I would set up my creative spaces aspirationally—the way I thought I *should* use all this room now that I’m an empty-nester. This has meant lots of desks for working at, and upright chairs for sitting in. I spent lots of time setting up these spaces, but then ... the surfaces became dumping grounds, the chairs covered in clothes and laundry .... and I would feel ashamed.

Ashamed that I wasn’t using all this space I had always dreamed of, ashamed that there were whole rooms I never worked in because there was nowhere to lie down.

Finally, I took my own Divergent Design advice and stopped designing aspirationally for how I think I *should* use my space. Instead I started designing for how I actually *do* use my space. Right here, right now.

In my studio, I moved out a huge shelf and installed a daybed. I painted that end of my bright green room a lighter blue with leftover paint from another project, so that I wouldn’t feel like I was in front of a green screen when I zoomed from my daybed (as I frequently do). Then I rearranged things some more and moved out my desk entirely (it’s now my sewing table, though I have to admit, I am gravitating toward hand sewing because …. yup, I can do it lying down!).

I pulled together a little creative corner where most of the things I need to make stuff are all within arm’s reach of where I lay on my daybed.

And suddenly, I use my studio again!

Next up is doing something similar in the living room, where I often spend a lot of time on the couch. My couch backs up onto a bookshelf, and that bookshelf is now mostly a dumping ground of random “maker stuff” littering the shelves in front of the books.

It works ok, but I think I could make it a bit more organized, so that the materials I use most down here on the couch—knitting, hand sewing, and doodling supplies (for keeping my hands busy while watching TV—are more accessible.

Do you have space and organizational barriers keeping you from doing the things you love?

Do you love to bake but your baking supplies are so disorganized it’s overwhelming to get started? (Ask me how I know....)

Do you love expressing yourself through fashion, but your closet is such an overwhelming mess that you end up just wearing the same things over and over?

Does shame about these messes and overwhelm make you feel defeated before you even begin to figure out a design that might actually work for you?

I have two upcoming offerings that I think will really help.

The first is my workshop on Neuroqueering Shame in our Creative Lives.

Saturday, July 5th, 12-2 pm EDT; £15 GBP (about $20 USD)

This is not specifically about designing creative spaces, but it is a deep dive into the political aspects of shame in neurodivergent lives, and how that shame creates all sorts of dysfunction. Shame is a powerful political tool used in almost every area of our lives—our families, our schools, our workplaces, even our identities—to wrench us into conformity with the values of industrial-colonial time and compulsory executive functioning. In this workshop, we will look at the ways shame disables us for deviating from neurotypical expectations and norms, and the ways it creates dysfunction in our creative practices. Through creative care invitations, we will examine some of the ways shame shows up and explore how we can disrupt and even transform it, so that it becomes less and less debilitating.The second is a course called

The other is called One Small Space.

Mondays class July 21st & 28th, Aug 11th & 18th, 1-3pm EDt, Sundays body doubling August 3rd & 24th, 11-3pm EDT; £75 GBP (about $100 USD), payment plans and limited free tickets available.

Monday classes including recordings so you can work at your own pace even if you are not able to attend live.

In this four week course, we will explore what space you really need to have a satisfying creative life—or even just a functional home life—and then design and execute the smallest space possible to make that happen. Something you can actually ideate, design, and complete in our time together.