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.
Your Creativity Doesn’t Need Your Life to Cooperate
My life looks completely different right now than it did a few weeks ago.
I’m staying with my in-laws while I get ready to move to Hawaii, and this week I’ve also been helping my daughter move into a new apartment. My regular routines have changed, and I haven’t even been able to get out and walk the way I normally do.
In the middle of all of that, I needed to create.
Creating has become such an important part of how I move through my life. When I sit down with my supplies and begin working with an image, I become completely engaged in what I’m doing. My attention moves to the colors, the composition, and whatever idea I’m following. For that time, I get to be an artist making something simply because I want to see what it becomes. The world around me disappears for awhile- and I enter that flow state - which is the place we all love to be - it's why we love creating so much.
I think we sometimes give creativity a very specific place in our lives. We imagine having an afternoon available, a clean workspace, and enough time to really get into a project. Then life changes, our schedules fill up, and creating gets pushed further away.
This week has reminded me how valuable it is to make room for creativity inside the life I’m actually living.
I created these two Halloween pieces while so much around me is changing. Sitting down to work on them gave me time with a part of myself that has been there through every version of my life. I’m still the person who gets excited about an image and wants to cut it out, move things around, add another layer, and see where the piece goes.
That matters to me because creativity is part of my identity.
When you know that being an artist is part of who you are, creating deserves a place in your life alongside everything else that matters to you. Even twenty minutes with your supplies can reconnect you with that part of yourself and remind you how much you love making things.
Life will continue changing. There will be full weeks, transitions, family responsibilities, moves, and seasons when your usual routines look completely different. Your creativity can exist right there with you.
This week, mine looked like two Halloween collages made in the middle of a life transition. And I loved creating every minute of them.
You can watch me create "Moonstruck" in the full DIY Short on YouTube here.
The Grounding Guide:
Grounding Meditation & Guidance
Begin your journey with this free grounding gift.