As part of her ‘Abstract Painting: Step Into Your Own Creative Power’ course, Jen Sievers had a bunch of screensavers for mobile and desktop with her beautiful art and a range of phrases. The one that resonated with me as soon as I saw it was “Today I will create”. I downloaded it straight away and it has been on the home screen of my phone ever since. Every time I tap the screen to check the time and notifications I see those words. And it has basically become a mantra for 2020.
I love creating, I love experimenting, I love painting and working by hand. But sometimes in creative business the admin, mundane, necessary jobs can creep in and take over. You can get stuck doing the same sort of work on repeat. Sometimes I will start the day with the best intentions to get on the computer and get through some of the admin quickly – emails, invoicing, quoting, social media replies, bills etc. and get sucked into the computer vortex and end up spending most of my day there.
Since Arlo was born I have been taking on more graphic design work, which is fine, it can be a good source of income, it works well fitting it in around a little person. But it does mean spending more time at the computer, and my dream is to create art all the time. So this year I am making sure I carve out time to create every day. Sometimes that means getting a few hours to play with my watercolours and inks. Sometimes all I have time for is to put a couple of new marks on a work in progress.
Sometimes it isn’t even about creating art.
Sometimes it means just being in my studio and taking time to consider the work on my desk and prepping paper or canvases for future work I know I want to do. One day I just created colour swatches of all my inks and watercolours.
Sometimes I sew. I started taking sewing lessons on maternity leave and so far have made seven pieces of clothing for me plus several others for Arlo. I am sharing more of my sewing journey on my new personal Instagram @those.moments.inbetween
At times it feels like I don’t have the time or headspace to create, but what I have found is even fitting in 15 minutes does wonders for me. Because even if it is just 15 minutes, those precious minutes are mine. In amongst the client work, business admin, life admin, laundry, cleaning, toddler activities and cuddles, that time to create is just mine.
I saw this quote shared recently, I am not sure who originally wrote it but the post I saw was credited to @salthousenyc
Picasso created more than 50,000 works of art.
How many are considered masterpieces that we still admire today?
About a 100.
Less than 1% of his creations are still relevant.
Stop trying to be perfect.
It's a numbers game.
Start creating.
Be courageous enough to share.
So that’s my goal for 2020. To show up everyday and keep creating every day and to have the courage to share it with you all.
What is your goal for 2020?
