The Creative Unlearning

What do you think of yourself? What do you think about what you create in terms of your art? How do you talk to yourself?  I am going to bet that some of the things that you think about yourself, and your creativity are not very positive. There is a distinction between being aware of our flaws and being dictated by them and seeing them as a focal point.  When we perceive ourselves from a negative...

Do you know where your confidence comes from? Most people assume it is out there. And we have it put into us, by our teachers, parents, siblings, peers. Or by the things that we have achieved in our lives and what others have said about us.  We use these measures, as confidence tokens that we slot into ourselves and that seems to build up our confidence. And we can also look at the things we do wh...

Do you know where your creative confidence comes from? Welcome to a 6 part series on uncovering your creative confidence; we will take a look at where it can be found, how to recover it, if you feel its lacking and each podcast episode will end with some journal prompts to enable you to actively engage and see that you are both the seeker of the question and also the person that can provide yourse...

Do you have dreams that are precious to you and that you keep and hoard and do nothing about because you are scared of ruining them. You’re scared of denting them or scratching them. What if those dreams want to be born and you are free to scratch, dent or break them and it is all still ok? That they are resilient enough to take their place in the world however they end up appearing and you are fr...

When it comes to creativity, we think we need to be in the realms of the extraordinary, but the very nature of the word implies, it only happens occasionally; that it is unusual. Yet, we live our lives in a daily basis in the ordinary moments. They make up the majority of our time and this is where we should be directing our creative attention because this is where our artistic process has a chanc...

We as artists can mistakenly think that if we are having thoughts that our art and what we are creating isn’t good enough that we are unique in having that experience. That those thoughts are telling us a truth only to us and no one else. The good news is that these thoughts are not unique to you, we all have them.  What is unique to you, is the art that only you can create, because no one else se...

Have you ever considered that you are in a relationship with your art? That like any relationship there is a reciprocity to it. You have to put into the relationship and be present and loving within it. We consider our relationships with our loved ones, the people in our worlds. But we don’t always consider that we are in relationship with ourselves and our actions and that includes our creativity...

What if the story you tell about yourself is limiting your potential and the possibilities that could exist for you. We think that neatly pouring our huge expansive selves into one tiny story is what gives us a sense of who we are and what we stand for. But what if those stories are just illusions? What if you moved through the world without a defined story of yourself, what doors could that open...

Children have a way of learning and creating that is imbued with fun, joy and lightheartedness. They have an overwhelming amount to learn in a short space of time and they do so with a level of skill few adults possess. Instead adults, adopt a method of more struggle and less grace. They remove the fun out of their activities and allot their time in ways that they view as being responsible adults...

We have an internal dialogue that impacts our actions. An inner critic or an inner guide and we are not always aware which voice is driving us. They both have distinctive characteristics. It is good to know what they are, so you become aware of what your navigation tool is?  Your inner critic is urgent, comparing, competing and telling you all the ways that you are not doing enough. Your inner gui...

With the start of a new year can come a set of new and shiny goals, Huge goals, transformative ones which generally require you to be a whole other person to achieve them. These types of goals  are abandoned mid way into the new year and neglected for the remainder of the year. They may excite you but motivation can run dry very quickly.  How about, this year, you set mediocre goals? Ones that hav...

In conventional work there are certain terms that are used regularly such as systems and time blocking. What if as a creative you are repelled by such terms and don’t find that they resonate with you. It’s not about removing all structures from the way you engage with your creativity, rather substituting such terms with ones that are more in line with you intentions. Balancing the creative freedom...

What happens to our creativity when it is left unanswered or worse still, when it is met with judgement and criticism: it corrodes. The way our internal voice talks to us and accompanies us throughout our creative journeys has an impact on our actions when it comes to making art. We need to be able to focus on our creative desires whilst removing our attention from any critical internal chatter. T...

When it comes to your creativity, are you sitting in the waiting room. It could be that you are waiting for the right time, for permission or waiting to be picked. What if your name never gets called out, eventually you have to leave the waiting room.  How about instead, you choose yourself, you don’t wait on anyone or anything outside of yourself? You create and build trust within yourself and re...

The reason we can never create anything beyond what we truly believe about ourselves is because our subconscious mind holds these beliefs and its job is to make sure that they align with our actions. So if you wonder why when you set an intention to make art and find yourself never taking action towards it, you may very well be  harbouring some errant beliefs that are not conducive to your creativ...

Have you ever felt ghosted when you have shared your art. Whether you have sent out submissions and never heard back, or posted on social media to deafening silence, know that rejections in whatever forms are not unusual on the creative path. We need to be able to normalise this experience and find ways to navigate it when it happens.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrhN2tHfJk9epvMaE_m5uw https...

As a creative have you ever been told to be ’realistic’. Today’s episode dives into the use of the concept and why as creatives we are always straddling two worlds because we live in the seen world but we create from the unknown. No other person can predict our future for us, so no one else gets to decide what our reality looks like aside from us.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrhN2tHfJk9epvM...

As creatives we are sharing our art and that is a vulnerable act. And in that exposure we want to make sure we are grounded in our own opinions of our work and our process and not swayed by the opinions of others.  If we allow what others say  about our art and use that as either a motivator or a deterrent from creating then we are leaving ourselves fragile in our creative explorations.  We as the...

The creative has a journey to undertake and that is the journey of unlearning. We mush unravel all the stories and myths we have been told about art, creativity and the artist. We don’t have to be starving artists, we don’t have to live with creative blocks, we can make art into more than a hobby if we so desire. We do not have to wait for inspiration to strike. A piece of art does not have to sel...

Why nature is a great creative mentor. Nature allows for its seasons and cycles and as artists we can do the same, but at times we can get confused when trying to fit our creative processes into strict schedules with deadlines and outcomes. This episode looks  at how we can benefit from following our natural creative processes when making art.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrhN2tHfJk9epvMaE_m...

Are you suffering with the symptoms of perfectionism. Do you being your new creative projects but never complete them? Or have plenty of ideas and never begin them and lastly do you complete all your projects but never share them with others? Then this episode is for you. Listen here and if you have any questions or want to share your experiences then please feel free to email me at illustratingra...

This week’s episode of The Spirit Of Creating takes a look at the way artists have to have faith in the unknown. To embrace the void and invite in the creative possibilities that exist there.

This week’s episode of The Spirit of Creating focusses on creatives embracing the curves of life when making art and living creatively and not being concerned with linear conventional thinking and trying to make their creativity fit into a neat contained box.

In this week's episode of The Spirit of Creating I take a look at creative confidence. I have written a book called Uncovering Your Creative Confidence and the premise of it is questioning our mistaken assumptions about where it is, what it looks like and how we can access it. https://illustratingrain.teachable.com/

In this week’s episode of The Spirit Of Creating I am talking about the way ideas visit us. And how our minds can take the simple and clear approach of an idea or inspiration and turn them into complex impossible tasks. Our work is to remove the layers of false complexities and return to the seed of the idea.