WHERE'S THE SPACE SADIE? BY SADIE VAN WIE

Where’s the space, Sadie?

My photography teacher used to ask me the same question every week.

I put my journal entry in front of the class and would wait for the familiar words:

“Where’s the space, Sadie?”

Every corner of every page would be covered with photos and colors and words and anything else I could glue or tape or sew into it. I used to hate the look of blank space.

She would remind me that this wasn’t always the best mindset to have; that space was good and needed for a great piece of art.

And still, next week my turn would come around:

“Where’s the space, Sadie?”

As I’ve grown, I feel like I have a better understanding of the value of space.

Since starting college, I’ve realized that I wasn’t just bad at making space in photography class, I was bad at making space in my days to be creative. I was bad at making space for mental health. Bad at making schedule space, social space, sleep space, etc.

Basically, I just plastered and colored and glued the corners of my life with stuff because I didn’t like the look of an empty page. 

I’ve had to crash and burn a few times in order to understand what my teacher was trying to show me: 

Space is crucial. I sabotage myself by creating these rules that there can’t be any room left over. It’s unhealthy. Unrealistic. Growing up and becoming a better creative, to me, looks as simple as remembering to ask the question:

Where’s the space, Sadie?