Hello 2024

and why being creative is such a gooood thing

on my studio desk - actual PRACTICE sheets completed! O_O

Another year flew by and I it was certainly an interesting one. I don’t recall having so many ups and downs on almost daily basis - talking about feeling either utterly sad and defeated or really positive and full of ideas. I am not going to pinpoint this on anything but simple personal evolution. After all, I am here to experience, learn and evolve - as is everyone I believe.

If anything, there was this one thing that really became crystal clear in my last week of 2023, when I was going through covid and had a lot of time to be in and out of pain and receive a-ha moments. Truly an interesting time this was and I’m actually grateful for it even though I am still not fully well and my voice is all weird and I still feel things in my lungs but… I digress :)

For the xyz-th time I came to conclusion that I REALLY NEED TO BE AS CREATIVE AS I CAN BE. It was like, srsly girl, get a grip on yourself!

And it’s really beyond me how I can slip away from this knowing so quickly and so often and turn to the next shiny thing or go down the rabbit hole of some newly discovered self-help/self-realization/self-anything really thing. It’s crazy! I do know why this happens, I do, and it’s tricky, but oh boy oh boy I almost wish I didn’t know because sometimes, the Knowing makes everything so much harder. It’s like you give something the energy to be because you are aware of it and that’s exactly what you shouldn’t be doing. But hey, learning right, and doing it better the next time. And the next time. And the yxy1-th time until it finally sticks and you make this tremendous shift. I am totally not saying I’m there but I am at the beginning of it. Again. It’s actually quite funny in a rather sad way lol.

I feel oddly better about knowing I am not the only one with these issues though. So many artists I follow fall into the same rabbit holes and have the same things on their mind so at least I know I am not alone. It’s a weird consolation I know but I take it :)

All I know is, that I really need to create and share what I do. Because I feel soooo much better when I’m in my creative mode, when I fall into the flow of solving a creative problem or when I am learning new techniques or seeing how other people create similar things or things I am in awe of. All of these things are uplifting to me and if they are uplifting for me they must be uplifting for at least a few others too. And I hope that me sharing my a-ha moments and creations and creative processes and even bleh moments will be valuable to at least a few of you and that we can start chatting about stuff that comes up and form a lovely creative tribe right here in this space. This is something I feel I used to have but it went away or better, it got lost in the rabbit holes called Instagram and Facebook and actually, when I was pondering about it, Etsy was the beginning of me loosing it. Because I wanted to make things that other people would like and buy and this took me away from making the things that I liked. Putting pressure on myself when things didn’t sell wasn’t too nice either. Of course it would be absolutely awesome to be able to make a living from making art but maybe not every artist is supposed to. Or needs to.

Maybe the purpose of art making and all creative endeavors is actually in making us feel better? The maker and thus the viewer.

So I am turning a new leaf and going back to basics. I wanted to dive into all the accumulated creative e-courses that I amassed over the years for so many times now but I just didn’t, I couldn’t. Because there was something else or everyone else so much more important than that. But not this time. Not this year. This year I am taking back my time and making the most out of it in accordance with my heart and soul that is. Not my busy ego-mind, and hopefully, I’ll be able to distinguish between them as it can be rally really tricky sometimes.

This year I am taking a creative sabbatical and will be sharing all about it. Well, let me rephrase this - at least as much as I will feel like :) I really do not wish to enter into another self imposed “job” situation that will end up draining me more than giving back to me. Does this sound familiar to you?

Of course there will also be hikes to go onto and other things to explore but my creative practice MUST BE THE most important thing. Period. It’s MY MEDITATION really. A time and space that connects me to my true self and that is the reason why there’s so much resistance when it comes to holding it a daily practice.

Steven Pressfield

knows all about it.

Austin Kleon

too. And many others I haven’t had the chance to read from yet.

I already started with my daily sketchbook play dates back in November 2023 and so far I didn’t miss many dates. It definitely made me feel much better even if I only doodled one simple thing on the page or the whole spread.

I will continue with this daily practice alongside following the teachings from the before mentioned e-courses. It is funny how many I have and how I seem to already know the things that are being taught in them but I definitely lack the much needed practice and hours invested in getting better. Although it still eludes me the “why” behind the “becoming a Master in anything”. Aren’t we all just perpetually learning and trying out new things? Never arriving at the final destination? Never knowing everything? Aren’t we supposed to enjoy the journey more? I do feel more inclined to this sentence than to mastery of anything really.

But anyways …. let me get back to my Danielle Donaldson’s course called Down To Earth so that I will have something to write about the next time I get myself behind the computer :)

As always, I’ll be thrilled to get a comment or a reply here but if not, I shall not let this discourage me from writing more. I promise :)

Wishing you some lovely magical and creative times and sending you much love till the next post.

♡

Nina