Taking down barriers to creativity

Dubbed Creative Crew, the group gathering monthly has caught the eye of a wide range of artists, including Redwood City resident Cary Kelly. When he is not at work or in class for his master’s degree in education, Kelly practices the drums, guitar and singing, works on poems and coordinates events featuring local art.

“There’s not a group that’s as interdisciplinary or casual and accessible as Creative Crew,” he said. “I do think it’s really important to have affirmative spaces where artists can share their work without judgment.”

Because Kelly, 24, focuses his creative energy in multiple media, he appreciates the diversity of projects Creative Crew participants put on display, which include everything from set design to novels and other literature. He said many arts organizations in the Peninsula are centered around a particular medium or require a specific level of participation. The open format of Creative Crew meetings, which welcome anyone to attend and share their work, he said, welcomes artists at any level of experience to see what others are working on and brainstorm ways they can approach their own projects.

When Redwood City resident Tony Gapastione started inviting artists to share their work with each other in the fall of 2012, he was hoping to provide a space for himself to share his work without fear of criticism. An actor and filmmaker, Gapastione had been struggling with rejection after months of acting auditions. When a friend suggested he start something of his own, Gapastione sent out a call to his friends to meet over coffee and discuss their creative projects.

“It gave me the idea that instead of sitting around and waiting for someone else to initiate, or for someone else to book me a gig, or invite me to their movie, that I could be the catalyst, that I should start my own work,” he said in an email.

Gapastione, who is also a pastor at the Peninsula Covenant Church at 3560 Farm Hill Blvd., said some 12 artists attended the first meeting to discuss what motivated and challenged them about pursuing creative work, and they decided by the end of the night to make the meetings regular.

The group has grown over the years, Gapastione said, to host more than 40 people some nights, so he has limited the number of artists who share work each meeting, asking those hoping to present to sign up ahead of time in recent years. But he has been hesitant to add many more parameters around the group’s meetings, saying the only rule for Creative Crew meetings is to encourage each other with comments and observations that focus on the positive aspects of each other’s work.

“We all know our art needs improvement and many artists already feel insecure and have faced tons of rejection in every form,” he said, adding that many artists feel insecure about their work, having faced rejection in several forms, including verbal putdowns, pushback from mentors and declines from agencies acting as authorities in their form of art.

“I always tell our artists you don’t have to apologize for the ‘condition’ of your work,” he said. “We all know it’s not perfect or what it could be … but let’s celebrate what it is.”

Though Penelope Barcelo had known about Creative Crew meetings for several months before she attended her first meeting June 18, her experience with other writing workshops, which she found left her tired and feeling defeated, prevented her from attending right away.

Barcelo, 30, lives and works in Redwood City, and is putting the finishing touches on her first novel, three years in the making. She said she was immediately aware of the welcoming atmosphere the group fosters when she walked into the room, and left the meeting feeling inspired by the hip-hop artist and stand-up comedian, among others, who shared their work with others that night.

“I just think it’s just really great that there’s a place that you can go to in the community where you can feel like real support, real support and not feel this kind of judgy vibe,” she said. “You can just go in there and feel comfortable about sharing your passion.”

Barcelo she plans to attend future meetings, and said she was grateful to Gapastione for carving out a space in the community for those who are motivated by creative projects.

Kelly was similarly grateful to Gapastione for helping artists connect with and encourage each other at various stages of the creative process, whether or not they are working toward selling their art or showing it somewhere.

“This group reminds me that you can create without pressure, you can create without a specific goal in mind,” he said. “[It’s a] reminder that there are others who are also trying to understand themselves and the world around them through art.”

The next Creative Crew meeting is set for 7:15 p.m. Sunday, July 16, at Back Yard Coffee, 965 Brewster Ave. Visit creativecrewrwc.com for more information.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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