Inside the Creative Process; Inspiration from Artists, Writers, Performers, Designers, & More

[Solo] The Creative Process is a Political Act

In this short solo episode, Alicia reveals her sadness about NOT seeing Kamala Harris elected our next president. She has a post-election reminder: Your commitment to your creative process IS a political statement. Make your art but even more importantly, value the time, space, not knowing, and lack of productivity needed to start a creative process and see how this goes against everything society expects us to value. We've got this.

 

The Creative Process behind EVEROTHERWISE by Dance Artist Leslie Seiters

In my conversation with Leslie Seiters, we talk about the process of making the piece, 'everotherwise'. A consistent process that started more than three years ago, Seiters describes her self as an in-director, noticing the tangents and pulling out fragments from an ocean of material.

She writes about her decision to finally share this work, "It is long-delayed and too soon, emergent and well-established, known and what-is-it-ish? Prominent elements have faded, accidental happenstances have become central, and traces of our long process are in and out of focus."

everotherwise by Leslie Seiters

Friday, Oct.25th at 7:30; Two shows Saturday, Oct. 26th at 5:30 and 7:30
The Prebys Stage (at SDSU, across from the ENS building) 
Purchase tickets here: https://psfa.sdsu.edu/calendar

everotherwise interrupts an ongoing flow and assembles fragmented information into an “otherwise” weave. Dancing is tangential, coincidental, and nearly recognizable creating distance from patterns of meaning, knowing and expectation.

To discover more of about the work of Leslie Seiters: https://leslie-seiters.com/

To purchase tickets for everotherwise: https://psfa.sdsu.edu/calendar

Learn more about Creative Chrysalis with Alicia: https://mailchi.mp/c56f8e7440c5/creative-chrysalis

Follow Alicia on IG: https://www.instagram.com/aliciapetersonbaskel/     

 

 

 

Reignite your Creative Spark with Children's Book Author and Illustrator Jonna Watson

Jonna Watson loved to write as a child, but personal experiences caused her to push her creative spark so far away that she couldn't summon it back. After living out of alignment with herself for 30 years, she learned to trust her intuition again and now creative insights come to her like magic. 

*Check out Alicia's Creative Chrysalis: https://mailchi.mp/c56f8e7440c5/creative-chrysalis

*Follow Alicia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciapetersonbaskel/

*Follow Jonna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonna_watson/

*Find Jonna's books at: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AJonna+Watson&s=relevancerank&text=Jonna+Watson&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

*Listen to Jonna's 5 minute inner child podcast: https://tr.ee/qivlZcRd_L

The Creative Process behind PLEASUREHOOD by Dance Artist Eric Geiger

You may also enjoy my Interview with Eric Geiger from 2022 (Episode 3): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-creative-process/id1600742208?i=1000550669672

Eric Geiger's writing about the work:

"PLEASUREHOOD is a dance directed and performed by Eric Geiger with collaborators and performers Jordan Daley and Nick McGhee. Through PLEASUREHOOD I have been asking myself- how can I create more space for what I don’t know, don’t understand, or have not yet experienced? How does the work, the choreography, the “what” and the “how,” create more space for otherness, more space for sensing through my moving self, our moving selves? How can we sense more through the work? What if the choreography holds the question- how can we create the conditions in order to sense more, feel more, drop into pleasure more?

Radical Tenderness
Radical Intimacy
Radical Sensuousness

The dance and the dancing is tender, intimate and sensuous. As Jose Esteban Munoz talks about in his book Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, PLEASUREHOOD offers us an opportunity to find ecstasy together. Can how we are with each other be the material of the work? Can tenderness be the choreography? Can intimacy be the material we’re tending to?

What have we been doing in the process of PLEASUREHOOD? We’ve been organizing, reorganizing, and disorganizing ourselves in order to arrive in our dancing?  We’ve been wildly moving through space, messing with time, destabilizing our habitual patterns and making room for risk taking and aliveness. We’ve been shaking and shaking it up.  We’ve been finding value in being in it together while simultaneously listening to our responsive/responsible selves. We've been making something and giving it away simultaneously. We’ve been experimenting like children playing scientist, who mix ingredients together just to see what will happen. Or, like alchemists, making something common into something magnificent. We’ve been practicing generosity together. We’ve been falling in love.

PLEASUREHOOD is “of” our queerness which is different from “about” our queerness. And, our queerness informs all aspects of this dance. We are Queer and the three of us, together, exist in multiple intersections of identity, race, age, and privilege. My desire is that through the ongoing practice, through the dancing, through this kind of  togetherness, we transcend who we might believe we are.  And it’s different each time we are together, in each moment, in each place, with each witness, each time. PLEASUREHOOD offers us an opportunity to question and transform who we are rather than expressing who we are. Through the performance of PLEASUREHOOD we are continuing to figure it out.

With PLEASUREHOOD I’m interested in attempting to create an arena of thought. With each attempt at dancing PLEASUREHOOD Jordan, Nick, and I step into uncertainty and vulnerability. It is inevitable for compassion and empathy, through this vulnerability, to become part of the work’s lineage. Paying attention to the process changes the process. The work does not attempt to be representational. It does not depict compassion or empathy but generates a context in which the value system of the process and its lineage is the actual desired change. Through PLEASUREHOOD we become permeable to the world. That which increases our capacity as artists also increases our capacities as human beings."

Find Eric Geiger on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericandrewgeiger/

Work with Alicia in the Creative Chrysalis: https://mailchi.mp/c56f8e7440c5/creative-chrysalis

 

Overcoming Doubt in the Creative Process; A Post-Performance Talk

Last week, I performed a dance piece that I had been researching for three years, but even so my self doubt became a problem for me to overcome. Was I prepared? Should I be doing more? Is what I'm working on worthy of being seen? All questions that creeped into my mind once I decided to share my work in performance. It was worth taking some time with these fears and questions, because in the end, I was able to make magic. 

Listen to this episode for all of my pre-performance thoughts.

Follow Alicia on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/aliciapetersonbaskel/

Work with Alicia to create your masterpiece: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/catalog.php?owner=25643833

 

"Make a Dance w/ Me" with Dance Artist and Writer Alicia Peterson Baskel

You are Invited: On September 26th, 2024 @ 10am PDT, I will be performing an improvised solo dance piece at the Feldenkrais Institute of San Diego. I would be delighted if you would join me either in person or over Zoom. In this episode, I speak about the logistics that help me create a container for this performance. 

Feldenkrais Institute: 3680 Sixth Ave, San Diego, CA 92103

ZOOM LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89750458556?pwd=LeDbpsUGQVLIm8HvxYE2HrFmwb71Nh.1

ZOOM Meeting Password: 373526

Follow Alicia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciapetersonbaskel/

The Essence of Creativity w/ Human Design Shadow Expert Danna Yahav

"Creativity is being who you are no matter who that is" - Danna Yahav.

Danna's insatiable curiosity has taken her down every spiritual, healing, and self growth rabbit hole for the last 15 years. Her specialization is Human Design, shadow work, radical self acceptance and liberation from a highly syndicated world. The work she has done to marry Human Design & psychology has brought over 5,000 people to download her Human Design Shadow Chart. Her workbooks on Amazon have sold thousands of copies in multiple countries. Danna continues to shift others' perspectives, inspire them to find meaning in their lives, safety in their choices, and the courage to be who they are through her programs, on Instagram (@this.is.danna), and on her podcast (A Tonic for Lunacy).

Links: 

Human Design Shadow & free shadow chart:https://www.humandesignshadow.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/this.is.danna

Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3SZhxVBEWZisBmgWsfNSfJ?si=1d6cbc3b9c5f4481

The Value of Confusion in the Creative Process

How do you feel about confusion in your artistic process? In this solo episode, Alicia argues that confusion is not something that we have to fix but rather an indicator that we are onto something new and different and uniquely our own. 

Follow Alicia on Instagram

 

Transforming Grief into Creative Expression

I recorded this episode on Tuesday, August 27th - the 6th anniversary of my mother's passing. In this solo episode, I speak about how I'm no longer trying to avoid feeling my grief and instead am finding ways to process this emotion into expression...into Art. What is your medium for expressing your emotions artistically? If you don't know, maybe now is the time to consider honoring your creativity. 

Follow Alicia on Instagram: @aliciapetersonbaskel

You may also be interested in these podcast episodes:

Grief is Part of the Process

Engineering Improvisation

Check out Alicia's Breathwork offerings:

15 Day De-Stress

Virtual Group Breathwork

1:1 Breathwork Sessions

Creativity turns the Mundane into Magic w/ Indie Artist Kelli Perrault

Kelli Perrault, known professionally as The Pleasant Creative, works in a variety of mediums from digital illustration to screenprinting, linocut printing, mural painting, and (as she reveals in our interview) just about anything that ignites that spark of inspiration in her imagination. Kelli speaks about her journey toward recognizing that her job as an artist is to see/share the magic that already exists in the everyday and to encourage others to recognize that they too are artists. Kelli's artwork is showing at The Double Dip Gallery in Lodi, California and you can shop her vibrant retro inspired prints on her website.

Links for Kelli:

Shop her Collection

Visit her Website

Follow @pleasantcreative.co on Instagram

Links for Alicia:

15 Day De-Stress

Follow @aliciapetersonbaskel on Instagram