Making Time for Art Finale!
Have a gracious attitude.
Hey! I hope you have enjoy this month’s series on making time for art. I hope all of my practical tips get your juices stirring about how you can make an art journal, make space, and dedicate regular time to making art in your busy life. We are on homeschool break over here and enjoying having some slower mornings and extra playdates. And of course, more time for creating! ;)
My final tip is not a physcial one, like my others. It is more about your heart. That is, have a graceful attitude towards yourself and making art.
For me, this last point is the most important, because the proper mental attitude I keep about my artistic practice makes everything else fall into place. This is one place where my faith and physical practice meet. I trust that God gave me the artistic gifts that I have, plus the life I currently live, including kids, including busyness.
If I begin to feel like my life is a distraction from my art, then I've lost perspective. And when I lose perspective, everything goes awry. My attitude towards my children sours. My attitude towards the house that God gave us sickens. My attitude towards my husband may even go south.
My life is my art. Everything I do, every person in my life influences my creative practice. I can't sacrifice one for the other. My work would not be what it is if I had no kids or those life experiences that inherently come with marriage and family. Remembering the truth of what matters, and where priorities are, keeps my creative practice flowing.
Yes, I have a dedicated art space and a regular time carved out to be in my studio, but this is true too: when I get to that night, I am bone-tired. Many times, I don't work at all.
Sometimes I push through and work, for which I always feel glad. Sometimes, I sit on my couch and read. What I do not do is beat myself up mentally for being exhausted. Being tired is perfectly valid in this season of life, and probably will be with me often as life moves on. I can rail against that, or I can accept my human limitations and rest when I need to. And next week, I will try again to work in my studio. However, all week long I have been making life beautiful all around me, and that my friends, is all I need.