Beauty in the Process

CATALYST: How do you define beauty?

AMENA: Beauty is anything that reminds me of what's good, right, loving & true. Something that is a bass line. Sometimes it's a conversation. Sometimes it's seeing how a difficult experience changed someone's life for the better.

CATALYST: How do you reconcile the tension of commercial viability (making a living from producing art) and your own artistic integrity? Or is there even a tension?

AMENA: I feel this tension sometimes when I am asked to write a piece for a particular event or organization according to their theme. The good thing is I am always writing things I agree with, but the tension comes in trying to fit certain messaging into the art of spoken word. It is a tender dance and takes a lot of prayer and drafting, plus communication with the team I'm working with.

One thing I always have to work on as an artist is the discipline of just creating, whether I am working on a project or not. This way I keep the freedom of writing what comes out of me naturally while taking on various projects for work purposes.

CATALYST: Describe your creative process. What sparks the process for you? What obstacles do you encounter during your creative process?

AMENA: My creative process starts with music, preferably John Coltrane or Miles Davis. I almost always do a free write before I write anything else. The combination of the free write and the jazz gives me a chance to write unedited and with no end goal in mind except to get my words and thoughts flowing. One of my obstacles is the constant fear that something I'm writing isn't good enough. This thought often keeps me from just sitting down to write versus coming up with all sorts of errands to run and items to clean! I find when I finally sit down to write, it's a relief and I'm glad to have at least started the process.

CATALYST: We are all "called" to be makers, according to the creation mandate in Genesis. What is the relationship between your art and your calling? How do you see yourself fulfilling your calling through your art?

AMENA: To me, art is my calling; it's the thing God has given me to do so He can shine through it. As long as I am using my words for good and living a life that matches those words, I feel like I will be fulfilling my calling and my art.