What is a Creative Practice?

Wendy Richmond says in her Communication Arts article, Developing a Creative Practice,

"Anyone who has pursued creative freedom knows that it’s a double-edged sword. Personal work is an opportunity to fully explore your own vision and passion, to follow paths further. You make your own timeline, set your own goals, follow your own passions. How inspiring! Then again, how intimidating!

We are accustomed to relying on business and school to provide the structure for creative output: a problem to solve, a client or teacher to please, a deadline for adrenaline, a good grade or a paycheck for acknowledgment and kudos. It’s difficult to find and sustain personal motivation outside of those structures. No one’s telling you what is worth doing. A photographic diary of a desert pilgrimage? A story of a community? A visual interpretation of an internal journey? Your choices are infinite, and you’re the one in charge of deciding what’s worthwhile.

So how do you maintain your allegiance to doing your own creative work when the support structures that you have relied upon disappear? You develop a creative practice."