Pieces of Experience - Attention

Artist Jay Stone works on a drawing project at InsideOut Studios in Hamilton, Ohio

Lately, I’ve been thinking about attention - not just as a concept, but as something I have a personal relationship with. I notice its shifts. I feel when it’s sharp, and when it dissolves. Some days it feels like a muscle I can flex and hold. Other days it slips out of my grip.

In a creative practice, attention becomes the central tool. It’s what makes a moment of engagement different from a moment of distraction. It shapes experience - not just what happens, but what’s noticed, what’s remembered, what has the power to change us.

If creativity is a strategy for making meaning out of the unknown, then attention is its raw material. It’s what we direct, shape, and return to. When we think about what makes up an experience - especially one rooted in creative growth - we might start by looking not at the materials or the setting, but at how attention is invited, held, and guided.

In Supported Studios, we see this constantly. A facilitator might not control someone’s attention, but they can help shape the conditions that make attention possible. They notice when someone’s gaze lingers, when a hand reaches again for a certain texture, when a new material causes a pause - or a spark.

What we call a “creative moment” often begins with the smallest shift in attention. And that shift can be the start of a much larger experience.