Alongside the project with Nil Yalter, some of you may know that I’m pursuing a PhD in art history. Every Thursday, I drive nearly an hour to get to downtown. The journey is not a chore per se, as it leads me to what is, without a doubt, one of the most inspiring classes I’ve ever taken.
This year, I have the privilege of studying with Professor Rebecca Duclos, who leads the seminar Critical Examination of Artistic Context: Probing Peripherality — a workshop-seminar devoted to para-academic methods. Far from the conventional seminar format, it unfolds as a kind of living laboratory. Each week, we’re invited to (re)examine our stance as researchers and writers, to experiment with alternative methodologies, and to collectively explore the overlooked spaces where creativity breathes, those liminal zones often forgotten in the rigor of academic life.
Last Thursday’s session was a beautiful illustration of how this seminar embraces the para-academic. We participated in a workshop that intertwined automatic writing and deep meditation. Sitting together in the dark, on the floor, a gentle string of lights surrounding us, we were guided by Brianna Kormendy-Ramirez, a young artist from the Black Healing Center in Montreal. After a long, grounding meditation, one that seemed to empty the mind completely, or at least that’s how it felt, Brianna invited us to take a sheet of paper and simply write. To write freely, endlessly, without the interference of thought. With the mind quiet, it felt as though the body, the hand itself, had taken the lead.
I’m not going to share what spilled from my own pen. Not because I don’t want to, but simply because it’s not as interesting as what Brianna had written the night before her workshop. Wanting to prepare something special for the group, she had composed a letter filled with gentle advice and reflections. She didn’t read it aloud; instead, she handed each of us a printed copy to take home, to read later, quietly. In it, she reflects on the act of creation, on its healing force, and the subtle ways it threads back into our everyday lives.
The letter, written in the form of a protocol, felt like a small gift, a shoulder to lean on, as, I’ll admit, right in the middle of my book-writing phase, it couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Here’s Brianna’s letter:
Wednesday, November 5th, 2025
A non-exhaustive list of my thoughts/advice on creativity.
– Learn how to breathe properly. The creative process is the same as breathing. Exhale-inhale. Give-take, Transmit-receive. Expand-contract. Create-consume.
– Let yourselffeel devastated. Take some time to sit with the uncomfortable feelings. Cry. Crying is a good release. Once you have picked yourself back up, figure out what the feeling was trying to teach you. Save that for later.
– Your mind is meant to wander, let it. Notice where it wants to go. Think of your mind as an eager dog on a leash that wants to sniff all the piss-covered trees. Let that dog do its thing and watch it lead you somewhere interesting.
– If you try too hard to control the outcome, you will become rigid and you will likely end up frustrated and dissatisfied.
– If you are a recovering perfectionist, the key to getting unblocked is to do identity work. Release the idea that everything you do or make must be perfect. Embrace the idea that you are allowed to do something badly. It is such a relief Corita Kent taught me that one.
– Consider everything an experiment. Imagine that every attempt is part of a grand research project that will last your entire life. When you try, regardless of the outcome, you are gathering information. That is a good thing. When you are lear-ning, you are creating.
– Learn how to tune into your body. Much like a car, you need to learn what it means when certain dashboard lights turn on. Your body is constantly communicating with you. You must invest time, care and attention to learn how to decipher its language and cues. Develop the habit of observing how your body reacts to certain ideas, people, places, and things. This is how you sharpen your ‘gut’ instinct.
– Your creative process does not have to be some neat, tidy, perfectly-engineered, assembly line production process. Analysis in pursuit of efficiency is not bad, but it is different from the process of creating. When you are engaged in the creative process, mess is good, non-linearity is good, spontaneity is good. Long live the mess!
– When in doubt, draw inspiration from your lived experience. Write about what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’d like to know! Part of creating is allowing yourself to live. If you don’t let yourself live, you’ll have less material to create from.
– Get weird with it. Use gadgets and tools of the occult to guide you.
Try setting an intention, then allow yourself to be surprised by the result of an experiment.
– Do a little bit of drugs. Not a lot of drugs, but a little weed never hurt anybody. And even a small amount of psychedelics will help you see things drastically differently.
– Think of the world as one big Pinterest board. Save everything. Don’t become a hoarder. Do practice imagining that inspiration can be found everywhere, if you see the world through enchanted eyes.
– Acquire a journal, then practice putting your thoughts in it. A paper and pen are great tools for self-reflection. Whatever words come out are a reflection of your inner world. Journaling is like keeping an archive of your thoughts, ideas and feelings that you can later revisit, or not.
– Carve out some time on a daily basis to just be with yourself. No phone. No media of any kind. No conversation. Just you and your thoughts. It is hard to create sincerely when you haven’t taken the time to get to know who you are.
– Set some time aside to create, then protect it at all cost. Consider your creation time sacred. Shut your phone off if it helps you to protect your headspace from invasive and distracting notifications.
– Get out of your head, and into your body. Do an activity that puts you into autopilot mode-go for a walk, take a shower, do the dishes, etc.
– Find other people who like being creative on purpose, then get together in a room and create alongside each other. Take turns sharing then listening. Don’t withhold genuine compliments. Be generous with your thoughts.
– Just show up-do it badly, do it scared, do it tired, do it unpolished, do it unprepared. Showing up is half the battle.
– Remember that you will die one day. You likely won’t regret having tried and failed. You’ll regret not having tried. You’ll regret a life lived unfulfilled. You’ll regret the chances you didn’t take out of fear. You’ll regret the dreams you didn’t see through to pursue. You’ll regret your unexpressed love. You’ll regret the time you could have spent around those you love. You’ll regret not allowing yourself to be as fully-expressed as you could have been. You’ll regret getting in your own way. As previously stated, this is a non-exhaustive list of thoughts/advice that has helped me increasingly unlock my creativity. I’ve come to the conclusion that becoming more creative involves learning how to get out of your own way, layer by layer.
Brianna Kormendy-Ramirez