How to Find Your Creativity When Your Heart Isn't In It

1. Class Introduction: All of life's ebbs and flows. There are times when our hearts and our minds just aren't in a place to be creative. And when it's your job, the added pressure of that can make the process more complicated. Life happens. Sometimes it's the absolutely unexpected that leaves us stunned. Other times, life changes in ways we know are coming, and it still renders us heartbroken and unable to access our creativity. After being a professional creative for over 15 years, life's ups and downs have hit me at the worst times. I have needed to create projects for a national trade show during a move to a new state where I knew no one. While prepping projects to be on national television, I've dealt with loss and grief. And right now, I'm trying to establish myself as a surface pattern designer. Well, my only child has moved away to college, leaving us with an empty nest. Everyone experiences times when we just can't. You're not alone through everything. I've learned a few coping strategies that have helped me get back to my creative self. Try one of these ideas, try them all. Choose one that works for you right now. There's no particular order to these, a gentle nudge to get you back in touch with your creativity. Join in this class and get encouragement and inspiration and find a little bit of hope. 2. Class Project Instructions: For the class project, choose one of the ideas from this class that speaks to you in this moment and share with us. That could be a photo, a watercolor swatch, from a moment you were inspired or share a class you took where you learned something new. Maybe you even made a new piece of art. Your creative spark may be exactly what someone else needs to see today. To share your project and to encourage and inspire others in this class, click the Project and Resources tab underneath the video. This will need to be done on computer and not a mobile device. On the right side, find the purple button that says submit project and click to begin the process. 3. Something New: Something new. Learn something new. Try cooking. Baking, crochet. Take a class. Take a class here on skill share. Take a class at your local library, take a class through community Ed, but find something completely out of your normal creative work zone. Enjoy creating with zero pressure. That brings back fun and creativity. Work on getting back to just play. 4. Adventure: Adventure. This can be an adventure that takes you to another country, another state, another city, or it can be as simple as taking yourself out for a coffee in a shopping afternoon. Other than the coffee, you don't have to spend a dime. But go to those shops that you never take time to visit. The ones that fill up your creative cup. My personal favorites are the Local Garden Center and the City Green House. Label the excursion market research if you have to convince yourself. Stop doom scrolling. Get outside, touch grass. Leave the shell of safety of your home. You'll gain new perspective. And not only will you fill your cup, but the number of glimmers you will encounter will increase exponentially. 5. Glimmers: Glimmers are tiny moments that bring joy. Those moments come from noticing the beauty and the simple things in life, things that are seemingly insignificant. As creatives, we often notice beauty in places that others might miss clouds in the sky at sunset, unique petals on flowers, the color of your favorite sweater, the pattern that's left behind when the waves leave the sand. In times of struggles, our vision becomes tunneled and narrow. We focus on functioning and stop noticing. Even if you can't fathom making art or even a scribble, take the time to notice again. When you find that first glimmer, it becomes easier to find more and more. So search out moments of beauty that bring joy anywhere and everywhere. Leonardo Da Vinci said the artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of. 6. Collect Beauty: Collect beauty. Collect beauty tangibly. Those glimmers you've been noticing. Take a photo, paint a swatch of a color that makes you smile, gather up pretty things, items that speak to you. Find three of your favorite coffee mugs or three of your favorite artworks. Lay them out. Then add more lovely items to create a flatlay. You don't even have to take photos. You can just simply enjoy the beauty. Enjoy the process of gathering beauty. 7. Discovery: Discovery. Organizing is the journey, not a destination. I found this quote, and well, it's been true for me. Rearranging my workspace and my supplies brings a sense of order and accomplishment. Not to mention, it's kind of like being a kid cleaning their room. Oh, look, I forgot about this toy or in our case, art supply. When you find a new toy, you just have to play with it. Who knew that cleaning could inspire creativity, which can spark an idea, which could launch brilliance. You never know what you have until you clean your art room. 8. Start: Start. Make something, anything, even a scribble. This something doesn't have to be marketable or social media worthy. Allow your struggles to just flow through your work. Release it. Just start. I put start farther down the list, and Well, that seems like an odd choice because, well, start seems to be the place to begin with. But sometimes we need to try new things first. We need a new perspective, a new opportunity. We just need to get the creativity flowing again. Sometimes we just cannot connect to our supplies and tools. So start when you're ready to make art and continue to make that art consistently. Just start. 9. Junk Happens: Junk happens. You're gonna make junk. Face facts. You're not at your best. It's okay. It's allowed. It's life. Someone once told me, make something and then throw it away. The first project back or even the first projects of the day are often terrible. While it sounds harsh, the advice is sound. You broke through the drought and you made something. But what you made is not precious. There's more inside of you. It needs to be unleashed again and again. Linus Pauling said, the way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and then throw the bad ones away. 10. Spread Your Light: Spread your light. During times of struggle, while it's hard, try to maintain gratitude and positivity. What you put into the world boomerangs back to you. Keeping a positive mindset will help encourage yourself, as well. Nate said the essence of all beautiful art, all great art is gratitude. And also, continue to cheer for your friends and acquaintances. Be happy for their successes and joys. Yours will come around again. Let their happiness bring sunshine into your world for a moment. 11. Grace and Time: Grace and time. Henri Mattis said creativity takes courage. Facing tough times in life takes courage. Maybe the two can interact. As you face your struggles, finding the time to be creative can help you face what lies ahead. Creativity gives you purpose, focus, and sometimes a reason to get out of bed. Art is our way of expressing ourselves. It helps us work through feelings and share them when sometimes words aren't enough or even when words escape. Give yourself grace and time. 12. Class Wrap Up: Struggling with creativity is something we all face. Know that you are not alone. I hope that one or two of these ideas has sparked the tiniest moment of optimism, sparked the desire to get creative again. Thank you for joining this class. My wish is that we can share projects and encouragement to help lift each other up to build a community that knows and understands what it feels like to battle our own creative drought and be willing to come alongside those who need the support. May you notice a glimmer today that fills your soul with joy? 13. My Personal Class Project: I'm going to give you a little peek as to how I followed my own prompts last week for the class project. For my adventure, I headed out to a couple of my favorite places, and the first one is my local flower shop, which is full of eye candy and happiness. Then, while I was out for another adventure, I noticed these beautiful purple flowers, and they had these gorgeous wax flowers. I had to get these. To collect beauty, I gathered some fun pieces that I had laying around my office to make a pretty flat lay and bring out all the beautiful colors. While cleaning out my office, I discovered a brayer and a gel plate, and I also discovered some markers I hadn't used for quite a while. To start with, I just started drawing with a couple markers that look close to the color of the flowers. Found one that matched and decided that was the color I wanted to work with. After thinking about that jelly plate, I went to Skillshare and found a class. I started mixing some of the paint that I had gathered in my collection and mixed it to match the marker color that I had gotten. Then I took out the jelly plate and gave it a try using some of the flowers I had picked up. I have to be honest. This definitely turned into junk, but that being said, I tried something new, and I definitely have a couple classes that I'm going to go take that are going to teach me more about making work with the jelly plate that looks pretty cool. And finally, to spread my light, I am trying to be very positive on social media. Be sure and share your class project and inspire us.