Two prominent things stand out to me when I think about practicing art and creating a body of work—building my skills to achieve my vision and understanding and communicating the concepts, subjects, themes, and ideas or topics in the artwork. Both require supporting myself through feelings like confusion, overwhelm, and loss to find direction in my artwork. These feelings can be paralyzing and immobilizing. And they can be overcome with a few practices that provide clarity on what comes next.

Last summer, I began laying out the questions I’ve used to craft an inspiring and spacious creative practice. I’ve shed light on the notion of working in creative seasons and I’ve shared ways it has helped me radically expand my practice and my business.

From a young age, I learned very quickly that there were so many ways to look at creativity. And so many of those ways came down to individualism. That is the way you perceive the world and the way you process the world. Yet, the subject of creativity is so vast. And it can be just as expansive to identify a way of working - a creative practice - that doesn’t hinder your originality but instead elevates it.

Last summer, I began laying out the questions I’ve used to craft an inspiring and spacious creative practice. I’ve shed light on the notion of working in creative seasons and I’ve shared ways it has helped me radically expand my practice and my business.

I never really understood how creative mantras could be incorporated into my daily art practice until I learned how lonely practicing art can feel some days. Yes, I am a part of a creative community that I converse with daily and I have a creative mentor that helps me align with myself quarterly. Yet, for the most part, I work alone in my studio which results in plenty of personal conversations on a daily basis.

The Artist’s winter season is a time for deep nurturing. It’s a parameter of time, completely determined by you, to turn inward and nourish your creative foundation. Leaning into a creative season offers you to align with your current circumstances, intentions, feelings, and needs.

Your creative practice is the most important piece of your creativity. Setting up an art studio provides a place to arouse inspiration and enter your artistic workflow.

Each year, I open my studio to budding artists looking for guidance and growth in their creative practice. This Artist Mentorship program grew out of my passion for sharing creativity with others, and this coming year it is structured to be extra special.

Trust comes from understanding any given situation and having confidence in the outcome. You can build a loose routine that helps you anticipate the future using creative seasons. It gives you the tools to know your creative season is focussed and your nurturing season is rejuvenating.

The creative process is personal and typically takes consistent bravery. It’s an exchange of giving and receiving, and when those two move out of balance it can leave an artist with burnout, fear, and questioning.

Growing into an artist is different today than it was just a handful of years ago. Artists no longer just assume the role of lead creative but also might take on copywriting, email design, website design, content creation, shipping, handling, customer inquiries. Over time, and even when you don’t realize it, it’s easy to lose touch with your creativity or forget that creativity has a natural ebb and flows.

When I see my earth pigments gathered, I reflect on eco-systems. This interaction of organisms and their physical environment creates a thriving biological community. Whether inanimate or animate, all pieces play an important role in contributing to individual support and the success of the ecosystem as a whole. These thoughts are tangled deeply from just keeping my materials close in my studio. But it’s these moments of reflection that can have the biggest and most profound impact on my creative practice.

Slowly drifting into the new year, my studio set up shifted as furniture fell into new spaces. I spent time culling through the old and situating collected pieces intentionally — that included the artwork I displayed, the furniture I held onto, and the books that have enlightened me. I created a space that I am excited to belong and continue to work through the stories of my materials. How do you find that warmth in your own studio?

Stepping into creativity doesn’t always flow naturally. There’s rhythms, a dance you do to keep up with your inner thoughts. How do you come back to the practice with confidence, inspiration? One of my favorite tools is visualization.

Creativity is a muscle - figuratively and literally. It figuratively needs exercise, discipline, and habit to grow and become stronger. It literally flexes through your body as it moves throughout your work. When this creative muscle memory grows, you open up to your work effortlessly, leaving room for light and inspiration.

Stepping into your studio should wake something inside of you. You should feel energized, motivated, inspired, curious, joyful, and peaceful. You should effortlessly move throughout your creative practice without question or hesitation. Working in this manner is the definition of creating a studio — habitual — ritual and when this happens these emotions come in abundance.

I read a lot of books in 2018 about personal development. A few of them really stood out to me as they related 100% to my creative lifestyle. They left me feeling inspired, refreshed, and motivated. As I moved into 2019, they sparked a lot of honest creative conversations with myself which in turn has helped me gain clarity and write killer goals for 2019. They are as follows:

Creativity is something that can be fed, nourished, and rejuvenated. Oftentimes, through seasons where inspiration falls short, practicing creativity becomes distant. It’s hard to bring back, challenging us to abuse inspiration. But what if you could call upon creativity and inspiration when you wanted? This is discipline, and it’s often a lost skill that every creative should have.