Welcome back to The Inspired Artist.
Each Friday, we explore identity, creativity, and the way who you are influences what you create. Then you'll receive a new mixed-media printable to spark your creativity.
I believe creativity is directly connected to how expansive our lives feel.
And I’m talking about more than making art.
When we allow ourselves to create, we are actively participating in our own lives. We are taking something that exists inside of us and giving it somewhere to go. That process matters because creativity is part of how we express who we are.
When I’m creating regularly, I feel different. There is movement in my ideas and in the way I think about what is possible. Creating opens something in me that affects far more than whatever I happen to be making.
I can also feel when I’ve gone too long without it.
That feeling of stagnation is real. I feel it in my body, and I feel it in the way I experience my life. Creativity is important enough to me that I pay attention when it has disappeared from my days.
I don’t see creativity as an extra in my life. It is part of how I experience who I am. When I cut myself off from creating, I am cutting myself off from an expression of my own identity. Eventually, I feel that.
This is where flow state becomes so interesting. When you are deeply engaged in creating, your relationship with time changes and your attention is fully involved in what you are doing. You are using your imagination and allowing yourself to follow what interests you without needing to know exactly where it will lead.
That experience teaches you something about who you are.
You are a creator.
And when you allow yourself to BE a creator regularly, that way of being begins to influence the rest of your life. You become more available to ideas and more willing to explore what interests you. Your life expands because you are actively engaged with it.
Creativity was never meant to be something we squeeze into whatever time is left.
For some of us, it is part of how we come alive.
From Anaconda Art: Specimen
Birds show up in my artwork often because I love what they represent: freedom, protection, motherhood, and the courage to eventually leave the nest and fly.
In Specimen, I paired this beautiful white bird with a crown and surrounded it with botanicals against a luminous blue background. The word Specimen felt perfect because it describes something worthy of being noticed, studied, and appreciated for exactly what makes it unique.
I think we forget how powerful our differences can be. We can spend so much energy comparing ourselves to what already exists that we miss the value of what we bring to the world simply by seeing it through our own eyes.
That is especially true as artists. Your creativity becomes more interesting when you allow your own ideas, preferences, and curiosity into the work. That individuality is where so much of the beauty comes from.
Specimen is an original, one-of-a-kind mixed-media collage available at Anaconda Art using the link directly below.
