Creativity is a Shapeshifter

your work is not finite, and other thoughts on creativity

At the end, enjoy a short excercise to integrate this reflection and some resources that inspired me the last few weeks🌱

When looking at nature, shapeshifting exists in many places and for different purposes. We have the butterfly whose metamorphosis process is for life to continue into beauty and freedom, or we have the mimic octopus who shifts both behaviour and shape to warn off predators. Our own journey into life is a metamorphosis in our carrier’s belly. A seed’s purpose in life is to transform, not to stay the same.

Anything that is created is the result of a metamorphosis, a shapeshifting of sorts. Born in the depth of our consciousness, moulded by your childhood, the bird you saw fly by today, carved by the day you had yesterday and whether your body feels like home today. It comes into the world transformed, shifted.

It has taken me a long time to understand that my work also shapeshifts and transforms constantly. The reason it has taken so long is that I exist in a world where the thing that is valued the most is my productivity, where the world of algorithms hungry for content goes deeply against the slow and necessary shapeshifting movement of the creative process. To this, I want to speak to today.