Please Take Up As Much Space as Possible

Artists need loads of room to work

Joan Mitchell. City Landscape. 1955. Creative Commons License.

Taking up space: What does this mean and how can creatives put it to good use?

The concept lends itself, quite conveniently, to numerous applications. In one context, it refers to a group (i.e., Taking Up Space) that empowers Native American girls to pursue their interest in STEM by attending a NASA space camp. (Love the literal pun.)

In Alyson Gerber’s novel, Taking Up Space, it’s about teen girls struggling with body image and learning that true self-esteem comes from within.

For Krystal Franklin’s podcast, also called Taking Up Space, it’s about encouraging people to take up space in the world by pushing past fear, doubt, and insecurities. (No, I don’t claim to have a monopoly on these ideas!)

The through-line is pretty clear. ‘Taking up space’ is about making bold claims to identity; asserting the right to imagine yourself in your own image (rather than as others see you). And it’s about pushing back against stereotypes and strictures that threaten to hold you back from becoming, fully, you.

I’d like writers and other creatives to really lean into this notion as they sit down to make something. We don’t often dwell on our right to—or the necessity of—taking up space when it’s just us and a laptop or a pad of paper (or a canvas, a loom, etc.).

But of course, this means so much more than your physical presence in a room. In order to create, you need to make a tremendous amount of room for your efforts, psychologically. Creating draws upon big emotions, powerful feelings, and sends ripples out into the wider world, which serves as our source of inspiration as well as our outlet for communication.

Creating is a big act. It’s a form of acting out our aliveness, and that is no small feat.

You can’t possible accomplish this without taking lots of space, as much space is you need, and then some.

But many artists struggle to lay claim to all the space they need to stretch their creative muscles. In many of the creativity workshops I’ve been convening, artists confess again and again that they feel hemmed in by circumstances, ranging from crushing real-life responsibilities to crippling doubts about whether it’s worth trying to be, or become, an artist.

Those feelings are the opposite of taking up space; they force you to shrink down to a tiny dot, like a period on this page.

But making art is an expansive act, and the artist needs to take all the room she possibly can to explore her practice.

You’ve probably seen film clips, as I have, of painters working with enormous canvases that take up an entire wall of a huge studio. They take giant strides to get from one end of the canvas to the other, perhaps flinging paint, slapping wide brush strokes on the wall. Think of Joan Mitchell, for example.

This form of creating operates as a wonderful metaphor for any artist who strives to take up space as they create. You don’t need to literally cross a large room to get it done—but you do need to cross that room in principle.

So how does that happen?

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Like so much else having to do with creativity, this comes down to your mindset.

You must, first and foremost, give yourself permission to take time and expend energy on your artform. As much time and as much energy as you can, at any given moment.

Picture yourself as an unlimited being—an unfettered being who is not constrained by the clock, the encyclopedia, the how-to books on writing, and other utilities and tools. You are capable of creating in a liminal space—a space unconnected to time and place. This is the place where you have all the metaphorical room you need to spread out.

Fill that room. That room is yours. And spill into the next room too, if you want to.

While you’re there, go ahead and yell, scream, rant all you like—on paper, on canvas, in your head, or even out loud. No one has the right to stop you. Not even you!

Take up a fat load of space. It’s yours. It’s waiting for your arrival. And when you get there, create with abandon, create wildly, create like nothing else matters and there’s no judge or jury anywhere in this space you’re filling.

Drop me a line upon your return from your vast and special space. I’d love to hear all about your adventures.

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