Читать книгу The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women - Gail McMeekin - Страница 20

Alone time sets the stage for creative reflection. A sanctuary offers a place to indulge our creative spirit to fuel our creative process. Following in the footsteps of Virginia Woolf, interior designer Chris Madden, a regular on Oprah! and The Today Show, wrote about the importance of personal spaces for women in a gorgeous book called A Room of Her Own: Women's Personal Spaces. Chris believes strongly that women need this place: “I tell women when I lecture around the country that not everybody's going to have the luxury of an entire room. Carve out a corner, if you have to, in your living room or bedroom, with a chair and a basket filled with things you love—books, pictures, tapes. If you don't create the space, you might not take the time.”

In her own personal space at home, Chris has surrounded herself with meaningful treasures. She describes her creative space: “My desk is a vintage farm table that has a lot of soul and that's important to me. I also have a chaise to relax in, and there's an old statue from our garden that got split in half by a tree. I have a rotary phone, as I like the slow dial. On a tray I display black and white pictures of the men in my life: my husband, my father, and my sons—I love black and white photographs! Then there's my first sewing machine—an old Singer—which is sitting on what I call my generational quilt. The quilt is made of pieces of my mother's summer dresses that my grandmother sewed for my mother and was pieced together by my great grandmother. I love that it's about three generations. I also have a small wooden altar of photographs and the work of people who have passed on in my life, along with favorite boxes and rocks I've collected. On the wall I've hung big black and white poster-sized, almost abstract pictures, of rides in an amusement park in my hometown that I took during a blizzard—they bring me such joy!” Chris also has a Walkman for listening to her favorite tapes and sometimes lights small candles to enhance the relaxed, meditative mood of her personal space.