Solitude and Creativity

Again, my apologies for the lack of posts. This is the insane time of the year. Art shows at school, Advance Placement test, wrangling them seniors to finish out the year without quitting on everything, and then 4 craft shows back to back! And then there's the kicking out of the temporary housemate that just took over my space as well as my mind space. He meant no harm, but I completely lost it! I need clutter free living conditions when my life is insanely busy. There needs to be clean and orderly space that I can be in. As well as solitary space. I think my need for solitary has always been my bottom line for being a painter with need for private studio space to paint. That turned to private sweatshop space. And now I have both!!! Once drinking the wine of living alone, I don't know if I ever want to go back to living with anyone. I am completely spoiled with the option of doing what ever I want, whenever I want to. A separate space for all of what I do! Who would want to share that? Not to mention all of the solitary I can use. Well, we'll see.
It's coming up to my one year anniversary for being alone in this house. I've re-done the entire upstairs with new purposes including a new painting studio and sweatshop. I think this summer I'm going to start repainting downstairs.
Anyway, I've been quite interested in why I need solitude so much. And I found this great blog entry by Leo Babuta on the blog Zen Habits titled The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People

which has some very interesting theories about how we need to conquer our fears about being alone before we can fully open ourselves to creativity. I also like the

" few of the benefits I’ve found from solitude:

• time for thought
• in being alone, we get to know ourselves
• we face our demons, and deal with them
• space to create
• space to unwind, and find peace
• time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it
• isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice
• quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar"
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