Creating Together: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Artist Groups

Artist/Book Maker Mary Kritz & I exchanging collage tips at the Crichton Cultural Community Centre 2010 Spring "Doors Open" Event

As I prepare for another Vision Board Workshop, I’m sitting here thinking how wonderful creating art with a group of passionate creative souls is.  Although I enjoy the company of others, for a long time, I preferred to create art alone; it took me a long while to find artists groups I enjoyed being a part of… perhaps you share this same challenge.

As a kid, you could find me sprawled out on my bedroom floor drawing.  Lost in my own world; art was a solitary activity.  When I was 10, however, I became good friends with several classmates who enjoyed art; often we’d get together and sketch versions of our favourite comic book characters – it was great to share work and learn from others.  As art became a serious subject in high school and things like being graded, cliques and competitiveness came into play, the fun in making and sharing art subsided.  I retreated to the freedom I found working alone in my bedroom “studio”.

As young adult, my monotonous full-time job as a secretary made me yearn for the days when I unleashed my imagination.  Enrolling in weekly night art courses, I re-discovered the pleasure in creating and sharing art with others.  I loved that there were so many different kinds of people of all ages and places mixing in one room; here there was even more to learn.  Making the transfer from office to school once again, I began full-time visual art studies at university.  This brought mixed feelings, as competition and cliques returned to threaten my enjoyment of working within a creative community.  Fortunately, this was balanced by the fact that I was still able to draw and share much creative energy with a small community of like-minded students and professors.  Making art every day for 4 years made me feel more alive than I ever.  This university setting was a life-transforming experience for me.  Here I realized what a powerful positive force gathering like-minded, passionate artists within a space could be – it had the potential for releasing such good energy into the world.

University ended and I found myself searching for new spaces to fit in.  For a decade I drifted in and out of art organizations and groups; learning much but never feeling like I truly belonged in many of them.  Alienated, I spent much time working alone in my home studio; which, on less-inspired days, seemed like a prison.  For years my husband suggested I turn to the internet to find a community of like-minded artist souls; after several years, I finally did!  My first dip into digital communities proved to be a fruitful one.  At the SmARTist teleconference for visual artists based in the United States, I discovered my problem of finding a place of belonging in an art institution/group lay in the fact that I had little or no criteria when selecting one.  Instead of taking stock of who I was: my values, needs and goals, I’d been choosing spaces and compromising these things that were so important to me in the hopes of fitting in.  As I became more conscious of the type of art community I wanted to be a part of (ie. collage-related, open-minded, inclusive, welcoming nurturing, etc.), it was easier to find a fit.  Since then reaching out over the net and within/outside my community to other artists has resulted in many positive and meaningful relationships. 

In 2009, I joined daily on-line journaling classes with U.S.-based mixed media artist Kelly Kilmer.  Reasonably priced, packed with valuable information as well as plenty of opportunities to make virtual friends across the globe, I felt like I had found my artist “Mecca”.  In the real world, for a couple of years now, I’ve been a member of the local Painted Pony ATC (Artist Trading Card) group.  Every month we gather to trade themed ATCs as well as sharing ideas, stories and inspirational insights related to our creative lives – I derive so much energy and motivation from this group. These and other spaces have made positive lasting impressions on me.  The good things I’ve gleaned from them, I carry on in the classes I teach.  If you’re finding yourself feeling isolated creatively, joining a local or on-line visual arts community might really help to deepen your experience of art … there’s so much empowerment to be found in group dynamics!