The Third Place and Creativity

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Monday, November 13, 2006
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We're going on four months here in South Dakota, and I still don't have a third place, a hang-out that isn't home or work, but provides for social interaction. Back in Houston, my third place was Taft Street Coffee, but I haven't found a comparable setting here yet. Thinking about this made me wonder if, metaphorically speaking, art needs a third place, too.

Most writers I know are creative in other areas of life. We write, but we don't just write. Some make music, others paint or sculpt. There are a lot of writers who daylight in graphic arts. I'm one. It's not that the artist is good at everything creative he does. Great writers are probably not going to be great singers, great painters, and so on -- but that's not the point. The lesser strength serves as a balance to the greater. Is this a negative? Does energy that should go into the primary art instead get squandered on the secondary? Could a novelist who dabbles in photography become a better novelist by giving it up?

Actually, I think the opposite is the case. These "third spaces" are necessary to the artist's development; they enrich the quality of his expression. Paradoxically, instead of spending all his creative capital, they seem to grow it. Aspiring writers seem to be sponges for advice -- good or otherwise. I wonder if this might be something to add to the usual lists. To improve in your area of strength, commit some time to a secondary art and let the one nurture the other.