BALBOA PARK #10 - the creative-nest

BALBOA PARK

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BALBOA PARK #10 - the creative-nest

importance of solitude for creativity

Nicoz

Dec 10, 2023

Transcript

0.0 introduction, and podcast overview
00.29 background and artistic practice
01.07 working spaces: Strangeland and home studio
03.21 importance of solitude for creativity
05.07 creating a nest-like space for creativity
10.02 the impact of environment on creativity
12.29 balancing distractions and creative focus
16.52 finding comfort and inspiration in creative spaces
18.00 Rituals and preparation for creative flow

Welcome to BALBOA PARK! you can listen to the episode or read it down here:

Hello and welcome to Episode 10, 10 episodes how cool !

How are you doing everyone?

Today I'm here because the other day I posted in the Substack notes the picture of the setting in which I was doing my work done.

If it's your first time here, first the introduction.

I am Nicoz Balboa.
I am a trans man.
I'm Italian, but I've been living in France for more than 20 years.
I have a teen daughter, I am a mom, and I run a tattoo and art studio in the very west of France, by the ocean.
And I also do graphic novels in Italy and translated also in France.
And in this podcast, I want to talk about the creative process, or at least I want to observe mine.

If it's the first time you arrived, you land on this podcast, that I have this space in La Rochelle called Strangeland, which is the studio where I tattoo, this is how I make a living, and also where I

Take time to create my illustrations and also where I'm starting giving graphic journaling classes in person and I live in a very cool flat with my daughter and sometimes my partner

and also my dog Albert.

And in this cool flat, which I’m very grateful for, I have an home studio, I have a spare room with all my archives, journals, professional memorabilia, but also like all the art supplies and paper and all the things I need to do my profession.

And I have this table and I have a balcony and it's a very cool space as is Strangeland.

If you don't know what Strangeland looks like, go to strangeland.fr and you will find my tattoo space in La Rochelle.

Why am I telling you this?

Am I bragging?

No, I'm not bragging.

The thing is that my daughter lives with me one week with me and one week with her father. and -even if during the week in which she's with her father- we meet and we do things on especially on Wednesday and I also have a partner who lives like two hours and a half from La Rochelle so when they are in town we live together but This is not their home 100%.

My living situation, it's like sometimes it's a very full house, but sometimes I'm all alone.

And it's very funny to see how it changes my my mood, I guess because of my inability to concentrate or to focus or maybe my super ability to hyper focus sometimes when I'm all alone it's easier to get into my creativity

Because I know that I can have, I don't know, two hours, three hours strike without anyone coming and ask me even a tiny question that this tiny question can get me out of my concentration for like three days.

So I cherish this moment of solitude. I appreciate when my house is full and it's very cool and I'm very grateful to have love in my life and to have a very cool daughter but I cherish those moments of solitude and in those moments I can just like don't make dinner eating just right from the fridge (I know right?) and If I'm not doing it at Strangeland, maybe I can also avoid showering and I can stay at home and concentrate on drawing or writing my book (my book, like my graphic novels. Sometimes I need one time to write the book. I'm not a writer, but..)

…Anyway, to do all the creative stuff that I like to do and sometimes those creative stuff pay my bills.

This is very cool. (They don't pay it like...nevermind :P )

The other day, despite I have one whole tattoo studio in town and I have one whole spare room in my house, in my home, my living room became an art studio and I like those moments in which I can take over the living room.

And so on the couch there are papers and supplies and i can sit on the carpet. I have this very old kid’s desk that I use it when I sit on the floor (and that I usually use as a coffee table).

I have this image that I cut from a magazine a while ago of this Tokiwa house or I don't know the name.

It's like a place, like a mansion in Japan, in Tokyo, where Osamu Tezuka and Fujiko Fujio, they worked in their young age.

It's an old house, but I guess it doesn't exist anymore. Now it's like a manga museum.

And this was the place where this Legendary mangaka used to draw maybe when they were younger, but now it's a sort of museum of manga in Tokyo.

Sorry to not be very accurate… let’s move on Because I wasn't talking about this, but I have this image from this house, and once I cut it from this magazine, as I was saying, in which there is this picture, in which there is this setting.

It's a room in which you can see the setting from those mangakas to draw.

And I loved it because the desk is so tiny that to draw on it, you have to be seated on the floor, which is the way I drew my graphic novel, Play With Fire, that it's out in Italian and in French.

So if you can read one of those two languages, you can find it.

Anyway, the other night I have the house all for myself and I could like sit everywhere even on the dinner table or something like this but I got back my old setup.

I just make the little difference, the little change in which I put a pillow under my butt to make my back a little bit more straight to avoid the back pain and it felt so good :P

So what's the thing that I like so much in being in this comfortable, cozy, regrouped position when I draw?

It feels like I am like in the middle of a of a nest.

I like this feeling of being like in a cozy place.

I'm not wearing shoes. I'm wearing like a short or comfy pants and I'm on the floor on the carpet and it feels very good.

I don't know if it's a thing, if I can forget about my body, it's way more easy to relax and maybe connect to the inner part of myself which is creative.

And also there is this sensation of when I'm in this like nest-like space and then I'm in my, as French would say, I'm in my juice.

I'm into like some liquid, some inner space liquid, like I'm a fish in a bowl.

school of fish in fishbowl — Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

I feel like I'm safe and I know that I will not get distracted because there is no external solicitation and so I feel safe and I can let go and I can -very calmly and very easily- go with the flow of my creativity (pardon me for this very hippie image that I'm giving you, but this is the feeling).

And sometimes when I'm at Strangeland, I love my studio so much because it's like it's cozy, it's colored, it's fun, there is a lot of images and it's a very... A few weeks ago somebody looked at my home and said, oh I love your space, it's very...

clutter core and i didn't know it was a thing but that i'm very clutter core like maybe i am the anti Marie Kondo? I like the idea of Marie Kondo and I use this!! like

is this object spark joy?
Yes, I keep it.
If it doesn't, I don't.

But for me, there are a lot of silly things, silly object, plastic toys or things like this that spark joy.

Sometimes it's even difficult for me to throw off a bottle of I don't know shampoo because I was like oh but this spark so much joy because this shampoo I bought it two months ago while I was on the trip and I saw this and I saw this so

I have a very strong connection with objects.

It's not like I'm a materialist or maybe I am, but the object often aren’t very expensive.

They are just like linked to memories and I like to be reminded of memories.

So I was saying I love going at Strangeland because I love also there all these

clutters which are fun and are maybe from friends that are artists there are screen prints or books or something like this but sometimes it can be very frustrated when i'm like in the middle of concentration I'm drawing or I'm also maybe in a zone of okay I'm answering emails I'm writing emails I need to concentrate or I'm editing the podcast or I don't know and there you have friends or people that come to the shop just to say hello

And I'm very, how do you say, I'm very conflicted about this because I love when people come at Strangeland to say hello.

I love to make coffee for my friend to come and see me, to come and see me or maybe to exchange, to talk, to connect with humans.

But when I'm in the zone of concentration, maybe because of my ADHD, get me out of this zone.

It's so frustrating that sometimes I feel a real anger.

I'm like, no, please don't talk to me, please don't enter the shop, which is very weird because it's a shop, it's a street shop, like the door is directly on the street and it's cool when people enter because it means that maybe I will take some appointments and maybe I can pay my bills.

But it can be very frustrating to get distracted and since it's a public space, since it's a shop, Strangeland, I can't act on my impulse of saying please get off my shop please get away please don't talk to me because it will be very strange you know you enter in a in a shop in a place which is open to public and the person who owns it say to you go away i don't want to talk to you

(When I think about it, it's not very strange here for La Rochelle because sometimes people can be, especially in some places, can be very nasty, like they don't feel like they don't like to be disturbed even if it's like a café or something like this.)

But this is maybe a way all other subjects and maybe a more “local” subject!

((Peut-être que si tu es intéressé par ça, et que tu parles français, j'ai un podcast que je fais avec mon partenaire Justine, a.k.a. Trognette, qui s'appelle Strangeland x Nicoz Balboa, et dans lequel on parle de ça, de La Rochelle, et souvent avec des gens qui viennent nous voir.))

So, coming back to the reason of this podcast, once I said all this, now maybe you can understand a little bit more why, when I'm alone, I like to create a nest, a creative nest.

Did you see the picture ?

let me knwo HOW and WHERE is it YOUR creative-nest!

What you like to do to reconnect with creativity? it can can be drawing, can be graphic journaling, can be knitting, can be cooking ( maybe I already know where is your creative nest, in the kitchen?).

let me know!

I’m curious to know what do you do to put yourself in the confort/creative zone!

when I think about it…. I also need a creative inspiration when I'm freehand drawing on the client and I need to access this space of creativity But in that case it's different because tattooing it's never meant to be an alone practice

so what do i do? maybe i get a coffee and then i change the music and then i bring near me all sort of like my sharpies or i realize that i have some rituals that free my body in some way in order for my creativity to come true even in that tattooo-studio-situation (I create rituals to put myself in the fish bowl of aloneness).

Maybe the solution for accessing this creativeness every time could be just installing a sort of living room in my studio :P

But it's strange because I also like to have a table because, for example, when I paint, I like to stand up to be more mobile.

ANYWAY

it's all for today please if you enjoyed the episode consider subscribing & consider sharing it with a friend who maybe need to hear this maybe a friend who struggles to find their own creative nest

and you can also become a paid subscriber on Substack to support

don't forget to rate 5 stars on the platform you are listening it too and please reach out to me maybe !