I am presently caught in a creative block and have have engaged in the Artist’s Way program to pull myself out of it. Julia Cameron, the creator of the program, writes about creative blocks in her book Walking the World. “Often we experience a sense of powerlessness because we do not see any direct action that we can take to concretely alter our sense of being stuck…sometimes we need to exercise just a little elbow grease in any creative direction we can find.” (pp 246-247) Then she offers a directive to start listing “small creative actions” to prime the pump, such as painting a windowsill or making a collection of favorite poems.

None of these particular creative actions appealed to me, but I began considering doing something creative in the kitchen. I’m not certain what got me thinking about cheese except perhaps a recent episode of Tony Bourdain’s No Reservations where he snarkily eats his way through Greece.  Greek food made me think of goat cheese, and I wondered if I could make this type of  cheese in the way Greek farm wives  have made it for thousands of years.

So I began researching recipes and “how-to” videos on fresh cheese-making. The first batch was a disaster resulting in my dumping a half gallon of expensive goat’s milk down the drain because I could not get the curds to separate from the whey. (This is when I realized that cheese-making is an ART). Rather than give up, I went back to my computer and started research how NOT to make fresh cheese. After tweaking my separating agents and getting a finer weave of cheesecloth, I was able to triumphantly hang up my first bag of cheese to drain.

Furthermore, I dovetailed my weekly “artist’s date” with this endeavor by going to my favorite spice and herb merchant (Penzey’s), sampling appropriate herbs for this batch of cheese, and finally selecting a sweet California Basil. When I got home, I blended the basil with garlic and coarse sea-salt and worked it into the cheese at the proper step of the process. The finished product was about a cup of fresh cheese that was sweeter and creamier than the most expensive chevre I could ever have purchased in a store.

So, I know you are asking “What’s this got to do with the creative process?” Everything. The action of making something is almost as important as the inspiration to create. That’s why a painter will write or a writer will play a guitar or a poet will bellydance. Action busts through the creative block the way a sledge-hammer breaks through a brick wall.

All that and a great tasting cheese on top of it.

Text and images: L. Gloyd (c) 2009