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Hello, Creatives!

‘Tis the Season!  And for many Creatives, the darkness and cold temperatures along with the expectations that come with the Holiday Season put us in a creative slump.  It is normal this time of year for studios to be empty, brushes to gather dust, notebooks go unused.  So- for this week’s Creatively blog, I give you a challenge- get creative!  A good accompanying read for this week’s post is the “Getting Unstuck with Mindfulness” post. 

I have lots of information for you about getting unstuck and finding your creative flow (look for the upcoming workshop series at Columbia Art Center!) and this week we will highlight some of the advice: go simple.  Release yourself, creative, from high-level expectations in your work. Set yourself up for a project that you enjoy. Choose a subject you are familiar with and know you do well and enjoy doing.  Cook that back to an even simpler version of this that you know will likely produce something you can feel good about.  We are trying to set you up for an enjoyable process and product.  I really like mandala and zen doodling for this (there is a blog post to get you started on this if you are interested).  One way to get yourself back into doing something is to simply remind yourself why you enjoy doing it.

Need more? Add a small component of motivation. Give yourself a deadline in the form of a gift, find a local show, event, open mic or something to participate in.  Self impose a deadline- and make it short (1 week MAXIMUM).  What would happen if you gave yourself 30 minutes? Sometimes a shortened timeline can release you from higher demands you might place on yourself and further facilitate the exercise. 

When you are done, while you are doing it and as you are getting started- talk to others! Talk to friends, loved ones, other artists, or (gasp) a creativity expert (me!) about your process, what excites you, what your barriers are, what your successes are, what got you into your art form, what fulfills you about it.  We are trying to get as many parts of our creative brains awakened to remembering our love of our art.

That’s it! Stop reading, start doing! I challenge you to share your work on the @creativelyllc IG page- help challenge each other to reignite your creative energies and support each other!  I’ll kick it off- I have challenged myself to two pieces this week, stay tuned...​

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