Make Time For Your Art

Do you wonder how to make time for your art? How much time are you willing to invest? What else are you willing to let go of to make space for your art?

I found this mandala I drew in 2011 – 10 years ago. That’s how long I’ve been on my creative journey to being able to say proudly, I am an artist. I was thinking about it this morning, they say you need to invest 10,000 hours to be considered an expert at anything. In the past decade, my attention, focus and effort towards getting better at my art hasn’t wavered.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t invest time and energy into my creative practice. I can’t tell you if I have logged 10K hours but it’s been a lot. I’ve made some really crappy art, some really beautiful art and everything in between. The end product doesn’t matter as much to me as the journey I’ve been on.

I don’t have enough time

People tell me they don’t have time or energy for their creativity but they really, really want to do more.

I would ask you why it matters to you and what are you prioritizing instead? Are you making everything and everyone else more important than you? I would invite you to review your calendar and do an honest assessment of where your time and energy are going.

Making art is radical self-care

To me, making time for creative expression is a form of radical self-care. It took me years to make it okay to make my art matter enough that I found the time – even while raising kids, growing my business, being a wife, keeping the house clean-ish… and I didn’t get it all perfect, far from it.

There was a painful moment that is still so clear in my mind where I was spending so much time in my studio on the weekends that my daughter said that me painting was just like me working: I was unavailable. Ouch! This was a turning point in how I saw my creative time. I was trying to cram it into the weekends and then feeling grumpy if I didn’t get to make art.

I wasn’t giving myself permission during the week to make time for play because I had too much to do that was more important. I came to realize that nothing has supported my own personal growth and development more than my creative practice. Making art has allowed me to explore in words, color and images who I am and what I stand for in the world.

What I stand for is…

I stand for making the world a more beautiful, meaningful and fulfilling place to be. I believe we can make a difference with our art, because when we make art we are happier, calmer, better versions of ourselves. I wrote in my journal recently that I feel more myself right now than I ever have, I feel more aligned and on purpose. The photo below is me in my happy place – my studio.

I’m not “there” yet because there is no there. There is just me and my practice. My willingness to explore, to play, to celebrate and grieve in equal measure. Because this has been a journey into the depth of doubts and fears, the self-criticism and judgment that kept me from making art for over 20 years.

As I step onto a new path of coaching people around their relationship with creativity and how they can heal their Inner Artist, I am gifting a limited number of coaching sessions in March. Need a fresh perspective? A listening ear? Ready for a change?

I invite you to schedule a time to connect. Let’s have a deep, meaningful conversation around your art and why it matters to you. You can schedule your session here: https://calendly.com/minetter/depthcoaching