Taking Breaks, Taking Risks, and Discussing Art With Friends
A January Roundup! The start of 2024 and all the things that helped me grow.
Dirt
What’s going on over here and what am I working on?
Starting new projects is always so interesting and fun. It feels like the world’s your oyster and all the possibilities lie ahead. I have a few projects that are in the middle of a lot of work, which makes them muddier, murkier, and less fun. However, the idea of what a project could be, with the entire path ahead of it is always terrifying… and refreshing.
I’m trying to lean away from the fears and embrace the uncertainty of everything that could come. Embrace risks and try new things, because it often leads to growth.
Water
What’s helping nourish my mind and creativity right now?
So many things! I took a half-assed two-week break over the holidays and into the new year. Though I did finish a book in those two weeks, I did otherwise spend time away from email soaking in life. I think it was a needed reset because my brain has felt more ready to grab inspiration since returning.
The Denver Art Museum’s “All Stars” exhibit featuring work from The Phillips Collection. It’s not the art I necessarily would’ve made myself go see, which is why I’m even more grateful we went and had a docent lead tour. Going to the museum is always so fruitful!
Discussions about beading, sewing with beads, browsing bead catalogs, and more with my wonderful friend and artist, Annie Aqua. Annie’s work is not only inspiring to me because it’s so detail-oriented but because she is always finding ways to practice her creativity even when she’s not working. Being around other creative people always helps open your eyes and spark ideas.
I’ve been taking the time to paint my nails regularly, recently. I used to just paint the whole tip of my fingers and then peel off the polish once it had dried. True story. However, I decided I wanted to get good at painting nails in 2023 and low and behold, I’ve gotten better. It’s been a frivolous way to spend time with myself and a way to do purposeless art. Nothing more purposeless than wiping it off in a few days. Purposeless time spent and purposeless art have become a reminder that not everything needs to be monetized or valuable and I can’t recommend the practice enough.
Grow
The results of the hard labor.
Sometimes this section is hard to work on. This time there’s not as much to share here as I’d like.
However, I do feel like my writing process is clicking more lately and that is the result of years and years of practice. The whole Daniel Pink 10,000 hours and practice makes mastery concepts. It’s not something I can make a beautiful printout though. I just get to feel this one.
Seedlings
Seedlings is the paid portion of Planting Seeds.
This month’s Seedlings Roundup features a dive into my comics process with a look at how I started practicing comics diligently in 2016 and how that led to my eventual graphic novel deal.
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