This year I have a couple of word(s) of the year, and one of them is consistency. I want to show up for myself, my art and my business consistently. And one action that fulfils my intention to show up consistently in all three areas is consistently creating art.
The Idea behind a Consistent Art Practice
I felt a sense of unfulfillment last year which I traced back to not creating enough art. I knew I had to make creating art a priority this year and moving forward for two main reasons:
Creating > Consuming
I realised that I was experiencing a lack of energy because I was spending more time-consuming content rather than stimulating my brain by creating.
I watched endless how-to videos about branding, marketing, running a business, being an entrepreneur, and making money. And I spent more time educating myself and building my knowledge than implementing what I’ve learnt and creating results. And I am not devaluing the time I spent on education and research because it obviously helped and it will continue to help me, but it ended up overwhelming me to the point of feeling paralyzed to take any action.
And when I was zapped out of all my energy and left completely uninspired, I reflected on what went wrong and what can I do differently. And it was then that I realised that I was doing more of what was draining my energy (consuming) and doing less of what gives me energy (creating).
So this year’s intention is to create a huge body of work!
My art practice is the foundation of my Creative Business
The second realisation was the reminder of my priorities. The business I am dreaming up and setting up stems from my creative practice, my art is at the centre of it and is the foundation for it.
So my intention is to focus on my art and put it first, and trust that everything else will inevitably flow from it and fall into place.
And if I’m being honest, I got a little tired of being told how to run a business when the people I was listening to do not and cannot possibly have the same goals and aspirations of what they want to do with their art, business and life. So I didn’t want to be influenced by opinions that were rooted in a different set of circumstances.
So this year my intention is to put my head down with blinders on and immerse myself in the process of creating art, and make my art practice a priority!
How to Develop a Consistent Art Practice
The plan I came up with to develop a consistent art practice is to take a 15-day art challenge every month for a year.
I have taken up 30-day and 100-day art challenges before, the former required A LOT of willpower and the latter eventually felt like a drag. And while I want to develop a consistent art practice, I don’t want it to feel like a chore and I want to feel excited about it. Having also taken up a 15-day art challenge in the past, I knew that it was a long enough time for me to learn from the challenge but short enough for me to stay consistent and stay excited about it.
So I have decided to do a 15-day art challenge continued over the year with a different theme every month. Having a different theme every month:
- helps keep things exciting,
- gives me direction as to what to work on and work with so that I don’t feel stuck or lost,
- and gives me a chance to work on the different projects I desire to work on (anybody else has a hundred different ideas they can’t wait to get started on?).
Essentially, the idea is to get into a habit of making art, and as of now, I believe this is the best way to ease into it. I will keep you posted about how this plan of a 15-day art challenge every month for a year pans out! And you can sign-up for my mailing list and become a Studio Artinject Insider to make sure you stay in the loop x