Community collaboration is essential when growing your creative practice.
How much importance do you place on an authentic support system? Finding, building, and maintaining a community within the creative field is essential for your practice. It dissolves feelings of isolation and loneliness and allows us to be seen by others who relate to us on a deeper level; thus formulating more confidence and trust in ourselves. Staying in tune with your creative community will help to normalize some of the chaos that comes with this territory.
Community will also drive personal growth. It formulates the opportunity to experience creativity from the various perspectives of all people surrounding you— at a collective level— rather than the individual one you can provide for yourself. Community also allows others to see the work we do and give constructive feedback. Through giving us support and confidence, community will encourage us to step out of our comfort zones, experiment, remain inquisitive and motivated through our daily life
But what about collaboration?
Community as a whole can give us resources, inspiration, and insight - each of which is amplified through collaboration within your community. As a photographer, Lindsey has worked on numerous styled sessions with florists, designers, wedding planners, artists, and models who each bring something unique to the shoot, as well as all the takeaways from other shoots they have been a part of and their entire career. Working together, everyone learns something from those around them, and since everyone sees something unique - the combined effort can drive a unique style to the shoot that may not have been found otherwise. As a painter, Sam has done quite a few collaborations with other artists and models - such as live painting on nude bodies in the middle of the city with another artist. Through this, both artists had to find the pieces of their work that complimented each other, the color pallet that inspired both of them, and even agree on the brush strokes they wanted to showcase for that particular emotion. By agreeing on a vision together, both artists were pushed to explore these colors, these strokes, and this one shared emotion even further - pushing them to expand beyond what they typically loved to paint on their own. They dove all in to showcase one emotion together, and adapted every step of the way to the bodies of the models, their emotions, and their movements.
How can you collaborate (safely) during this global pandemic and social distancing?
Wondering how you can collaborate while still practicing social distancing? So were we. We set up our own collaboration - a photo-shoot done over FaceTime where we both had to work to set a scene, lighting, a pose, and multiple camera angles at once in order to get shots that we both resonated with. We (Lindsey & Sam) got on FaceTime and worked together to pose Sam’s phone, body, and surroundings, while Lindsey photographed her phone as if it were a product she was trying to showcase.
Need some ideas for how you can collaborate and build community during this time?
Have virtual photo shoots. You can play with this in many different ways. iPads & full length mirrors are always a fun added element.
Plan an online exhibition or interview series with others— we can still make events happen through Instagram live, zoom and other fun platforms. Allow your voice and others in your community to be heard.
We’ve just opened submissions for our new blog platform and would love for you to be a part of this community. Share your story, your knowledge, your gifts— with those waiting to hear it. Visit this page to learn more.
Get creative in your community— is there a way to participate in public art in your area right now? whether that be as simple as sidewalk chalk murals to publicly approved installations; how can you create art that inspires, brings hope, and generates positivity to your local area?
Invite others into your space utilizing zoom— allow clients to see your process directly and bring them into your creative space. You can also host creative parties, instructional videos, or happy hours this way.
Start a podcast— gather friends in your field to promote fun, quirky and important conversations through live interviews & more.
Collaborate on physical art projects via the mail— work with other mixed media artists to mail incomplete art works back and forth to finalize a fun composition. Create a fun new series together
Plan for the future— plan in-person events for the future with multidisciplinary artists. Gather ideas for group shows, concerts, exhibitions and more.
Have you tried any of our ideas, or come up with one on your own? We would love to hear about it, and feature it! Send us a note at emberandsolis@gmail.com
<3 Lindsey & Sam
