As a kid, I loved to draw, and I drew all of the time. However, as I got older, especially when I got into high school and college, it seemed like I had to be in the mood to draw and to make art or I had to be deeply inspired. I would sit down to draw, and if I wasn’t “feeling it,” I just gave up and waited for a day when I was “feeling it.” That just meant that I made art infrequently. It was just so sporadic waiting around to feel inspired and in the mood.
Now that those days are long behind me, and I’ve spent many years making art and teaching art, I find that making art and being creative is really about consistency. When we consistently show up to our art, we improve our skills and our craft, but we also don’t need to wait around for inspiration to strike. Consistently showing up and getting to work makes it so much easier to get into our art because we’re not waiting around for the muse to sit on our shoulder and whisper in our ear.
It’s amazing how ideas flow when we just engage with our making repeatedly and consistently. When we get our hands moving and making over and over again, ideas just seem to spark. It helps if we have easy ways to engage with our art, and easy ways to get started. When we try to envision a big, complex project, we can be easily daunted by the scope and the complexity. But if we can find a way to sit down and make for 15, 20, or 30 minutes a day, it’s incredible what that time adds up to.
I’ve been engaging in daily artmaking for probably two years now, and I sit down every morning for 30 minutes to an hour and make something. Here lately it’s been daily collages, and even if I can only find 5 minutes, I find a way to make something. It has added up over all of that time, and it has become a habit. It feels strange when I haven’t had time to make my daily art. There are just some days that are super busy where I need to me up and going early in the morning, and I don’t have a chance for my daily making. On days like that, I usually find myself working for 5 or 10 minutes right before bed. Making something so quickly forces me to work quickly and intuitively, and often, it’s these quick 5 or 10 minute works that seem to open up new directions and new ideas.
It’s amazing what can happen when you show up everyday and make something.
How are you showing up consistently for your art? And if you’re not, how can you start?