The Art Peace Experiment
We're two friends, Tasha and Briana, doing an experiment for 52 weeks, each making one tiny creative thing a week and sharing the fears, breakthroughs, and beauty along the way. Because we believe creativity isn’t just about what you make - it’s about remembering who you are. We'd love to have you join us!
The Art Peace Experiment
Week 3: Human Flourishing & the Art of Starting Messy
We started recording back at week 1, but between tech glitches and wobbly beginnings, week 3 felt like the real beginning. So that’s where we’re starting. In this first shared episode of The Art Peace Experiment, we’re diving into the conversation that brought it all to life - week 3 of our 52-week creative journey.
We talk about what it means to flourish as a human, the fears that keep us from starting, and why creativity is such a vital part of joy, healing, and self-expression. From watercolor mishaps to Moana quotes, this episode is full of laughter, honesty, and heartfelt reflection on what it takes to begin - even when it’s messy.
✨ Inside this episode:
- The wisdom of Aristotle (and a little mispronunciation)
- Why growth matters more than perfection
- Nature as a mirror for human creativity
- Learning to trust our creative voice again
This one’s for anyone who’s ever whispered, “I want to try, but I’m scared…” (or stared at a blank page for 20 minutes and then reorganized the spice rack instead).
If you’ve ever waited to feel “ready” before starting something new… we get it. We waited, doubted, wrestled with microphones—and then started anyway.
This episode is our gentle reminder that beginnings are allowed to be wobbly, weird, and wonderfully imperfect. You’re not behind. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re just beginning. And we’re so glad you’re here.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you know someone who needs this kind of gentle nudge, send it their way. The more kind, creative hearts in this space, the better.
And if something in this episode resonates or makes you smile, come say hi on Instagram @theartpeaceexperiment 🤍
Welcome to the Art Piece Experiment. We're your hosts, two artists and friends. I'm Tasha. And I'm Brianna. at the end of 2024 we decided we wanted to cultivate more safety peace love alignment and excitement through our art and our art practices so here we are sharing our journey with you and we're so excited you're here we hope you enjoy our conversations they're honest raw just Two friends talking to each other about the realities of life and creativity. We're so excited for you to join us and be along with us for the journey. We're currently two months into the art piece experiment, but we've been recording podcast episodes throughout this entire time. The first few weeks... not quite worth sharing. We were learning what we were doing, but week three, we felt pretty good about it. And we want to share the conversation that we had. We have one that's really just a conversation talking about art and life and what creativity means to us. And that's part one. Part two for this week is the check-in. We have an artist check-in where we talk about the actual art that we created and what we kind of learned from that. So I hope you enjoy part one of the first episode of our podcast. Week three. A whole nother week. Okay, normally I ask you what If you painted this week, but I'm going to break the mold a little bit. And I actually want to share a quote that I got from a book that I listened to while painting. Oh, I love it. Okay. Let me hear it. This past week. Now you have to forgive me a little bit because there is a word in this quote that I do not know how to pronounce. So I'm just going to. Let everyone know right off the bat. I don't know how to pronounce this word. Fair warning. But it's a good enough quote that I'm going to embarrass myself to share it anyways. Excellent. Okay. So it's from a book called The Happiness Advantage. And it is a business book. Okay. But this quote is good even for people who don't want business books because it's not about business. Okay. It's about happiness. Okay. All right. And says, perhaps the most accurate term for happiness, then, is the one Aristotle used. Edemonia. I don't know how to pronounce it. Say it. Edemonia. Edemonia. Which translates not directly to happiness, but to human flourishing. Human flourishing. Yeah. And I just felt like we needed to talk about that today. And I wanted to see if that resonated with you the way it did. really resonated with me. Yeah. I love that. Happiness means human flourishing. That's powerful. That's so good. I know, right? He has a few other things in there that he said that I also had to jot down. Like happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential, which just built on that idea of human flourishing. And yeah, you know, happiness is not the belief that we don't need change. It is the realization that we can. And to me, that really just goes with not necessarily like change, but like we can grow. It's this idea that we can grow. All about the growth mindset. Right. That flourishing, that growth, that it's not about the arriving. It's about the journey. Yes. Oh, so good. I love it. And I, you know, listened to that while I was painting a flower. So it was, it was good. Perfect moment there, right there. Yeah. It reminded me of a conversation we had that you shared, you shared with me. You know, I think you heard this from somebody else, but that, you know, like we as humans, we're the only ones that really hold ourselves back in nature and that, you know like flowers and trees and everything else they just do what they have to do to not just survive but to flourish you know they reach for that sunlight they grow their roots to find the water in the soil like they don't hold back they're like no this is me and i'm gonna i'm gonna thrive and be beautiful and like beautify the world Yeah, I just love that so much. I heard that from Valerie McKeon, and she is amazing, and I love her. But she was talking about that, like how, yeah, in nature, a rose doesn't look at a daisy and say, oh, I'm not a daisy, so I shouldn't bloom to my full, you know, like I got to hide myself. No, they take all the sunlight they get. They take all the water they get. They take all the nutrients in the soil that they get, and they just bloom. They just go for it. They just bloom to their fullest potential, right? And I'm so grateful that they do.
SPEAKER_02:And
SPEAKER_00:wouldn't we be missing out, right? If they didn't, it would be so sad to not be able to experience a rose because it was afraid it wasn't a daisy or embarrassed or, you know. Yeah. And it's the same with us as humans. You know, we all have these amazing experiences. traits and gifts and talents and points of view and perspectives. And we all have something worth sharing because we're all unique. And aren't we grateful for the people that do show up and do share themselves, their essence? For the people that make the most impact on our lives, it's because they have shown up. They have shown up. Yeah, I've seen a lot of things online lately of artists and other creatives being like, oh, the world is so dark right now. Is it even worth it to create? And is it okay to share? Share happy things. Share happy things, right. And share this beauty. And it's like, yes, we need it. Yeah, because it's so hard sometimes. That's the reason that we need the light to help in the darkness, to shine in the darkness. We need the beauty of the world and the beauty of people, of human beings, you know? Yeah. That hope and that light. Yeah. I mean, the sun doesn't say, well, it was really dark last night, so maybe I shouldn't shine today. Yeah. It comes up every day anyways. And then the night comes every night. You know, it's like... It's okay to have both within ourselves, within society, and it's okay to shine. Because without those cloudy days, we wouldn't be so happy to have the warm, sunny days. It's true. It's true. If we didn't experience the cold, cloudy days. miserable depressing you know days we wouldn't be so joyous I mean it's the first week of spring this week and it's like yay I'm so happy the sun is shining the tulips are coming up cold winter growing and it's so full of joy and hope and like relief you know and those positive feelings but if it was that way all the time It would be like, eh, it's just another day, you know? Yeah. And, like, how often do we look at ourselves and just think, like, you know, we all have those moments of just, you know, stopping ourselves from growing and flourishing and, you know, being that light and being that beauty and feeling like, oh, now how could I make, like, I couldn't make someone else's day better. I couldn't, you know. yeah right be that or like I'm not deserving of that like yeah you are deserving of being that light and that goodness and like just the fact that you exist makes the world a better a better place yeah yeah and I don't know I just so good that kind of reminds me of a conversation I had with Danny my son the other day he was asking me he was like mom what are some of the worst things that have ever happened in your life? And then he was asking, what are some of the best things that have ever happened in your life? And, um, you know, I was kind of thinking about it. Um, and I was like, well, you are the best thing, obviously. Right. First and foremost. But then after that, it was kind of like, well, aunt Tasha, aunt Tasha is the best thing. Um, that's right. But it was kind of like, it was hard to pick like a singular thing. And as I was thinking about it, I was like, you know, some of the best things in my life have come because of some of the hardest things in my life. Yeah. And the growth that I've had and the people that I've met because of experiences and like, I don't know, just like the things that have happened because of the hard things. Right. Ended up being some of the very best things in my life.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:and um it's just kind of an interesting observation to make that um you know going back to the dark and the light and like needing both in life right if we didn't have the dark we wouldn't appreciate the light and um yeah and so knowing that we all have Yeah. Yeah. but to go on that journey of growth. And what was the quote? What did they say? We've got to read it again. The full thing? Yes, all of them. Oh, my gosh. Hang on. Let me find it. Okay. Perhaps the most accurate term for happiness, then, is the one Aristotle used, edemonia, which translates not directly to happiness, but to human flourishing.
SPEAKER_01:Human
SPEAKER_00:flourishing.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. And with, you know, in nature, there are good days and bad days. There's, there are days where it just downpours. Yeah. But then that means that they get stronger roots, stronger roots, right? When the wind blows, they, they grow stronger. When the floods come in, they get more water, right? Like they, like they get the things that they need through the, through the hard times too. Yeah. And then the sun shines and they need that too, you know? Right. And there's this full balance in that cycle. Yeah. Right. And growth. It's beautiful. It's just growth. It is beautiful. And, like, all of those days and times are beautiful, except for maybe wind. I don't really like wind. Okay. Well, just destroyed my points a little bit. But, you know. I mean, we just got to cover, you know, cover up. But, I mean, you know, we don't have to, like, love and cherish all of those bad times. That's right. We don't have to. Or even times of growth. Like, that's not necessary. We don't have to like that. It is helpful to recognize the growth that came from those times. And it's not even a matter of like, oh, I'm so grateful that that happened. But you can come back to this like, I am grateful that I am resilient. I am grateful that I took that bad situation and I learned and I grew. It's like being grateful for... that um power within yourself to you know being this this thing that can flourish and can grow like that's amazing yeah and i think that is in kind of all areas of our life too and um even like in creativity knowing that it's not gonna look good the first time you know like we're gonna have times of frustration and times of learning and we learn from the things that go wrong right right we just watched moana 2 and the crazy builder lady she is like there's only learning then no she said there's only failure then learning then death oh my gosh it's kind of funny but it's kind of true at the same time a little bit you know like we fail we learn from we learn from our failures she says that with such happiness and contentment she does she's like so excited about it and it's really funny but um but it kind of got me thinking about that you know like it's really it's okay to fail you know like it's okay to fail because you're learning from it
SPEAKER_02:it's
SPEAKER_00:okay to not get it right because you're learning now that's not how to do it the way that you want to do it or, you know? Right. And so then it just, it builds your, your, your knowledge and it builds your experience and it builds your growth and your resiliency. You know, it's just, it's really a good thing. Yeah. It's a great thing. And sometimes we can get so discouraged, like speaking from personal experience, you know? Right.
UNKNOWN:Like,
SPEAKER_00:sometimes I get so discouraged and sometimes I like the fear of failing just makes me not even start, you know, like I don't even start because I'm afraid of failing. Right. It's like this thing that's so important to me that I want to do. I'm not going to do it because that's so relatable. Yeah. So, uh, having that like mindset shift of failing is a, is a good thing and it can be a joy right maybe take some of that yeah happy energy from moana too and say it's okay it's okay we failed i mean i didn't paint traditionally for years because of that right the fear of wasting paint and messing up paper and it's like okay but yeah Now that I've started again, it's like, why did I wait so long to do this? Yes. Yeah. When you finally actually start and you're like, oh, this is amazing. This is amazing. But had I started sooner, I still would have been in that mindset of like, I just wasted paper. I just wasted paint. And it would have been like this really negative thing. So I had to go through that emotional journey and growth to get to that point of being like, you know what? It's okay if I mess this up. I love that because I feel like sometimes when I hear people say that, I wish I just started sooner, you know, and then I like think about myself and what I'm holding myself back from. And then I'm like, oh, I'm holding myself back. And then I like go into that self-criticism, you know, like. Right. Make myself feel bad. Yeah. Like I should have started sooner like them, but I didn't and I'm still not going. Terrible. Yeah. There's something wrong with me. Yeah. All the negative things. But really, you have to be. You have to go on that journey, and that's a good journey to go on. It is a good journey to go on. And it's okay to go on that journey, and it's okay to take your time and to warm up to it and take baby steps and just kind of think about it for a long time. And that's okay. That's okay. That's okay, and it's good because those are things that help you too. I mean, I think it's important to take steps forward. Yes. I think sometimes, which I'm very guilty of this, sometimes we feel like we just have to leap in full throttle and just go for the thing. If you're going to do it, go all in. Yeah, which, yeah, I do that. We just had a conversation. We did. We did. About that. Yes. Yeah. Oh my gosh, what were we even talking about? I don't remember. I think we were talking about learning how to crochet. Oh, that's right. That's right. We were talking about learning how to crochet and, you know, how difficult it is to like make little stuffed animals and stuff. And I was like, that's probably not the best thing for a beginner to start with because it's kind of hard. And she was like, well, do I ever start anything? Why would I make a scarf if I can make a stuffed animal?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like I want to make something for my daughter and yeah. Jump right in. Jump right in. Don't make it easy for myself. Yeah. So. Which is fine too. That's great. It's fine. It's fine. You know, I started making one and it has all different size legs and arms and everything. It's very wonky and so cute. And she's going to love it when you finish it. Whenever I finish it. It's currently in the closet. 50 years old. Yes. She'll like find all the pieces and be like, maybe I'll finish this for you, mom. Yeah. She'll show it to her kids and be like, look at your silly. Your grandma. Look what your grandma made. So lovingly attempted for me. And then moved on to embroidery because that is my soft art of choice. It's more fun. But that was good. You tried crochet and you were like, actually, I don't know that this is for me. I don't find joy in this. Yeah, I still want to do something with textile, you know, like red and yarn. And so then it led you to embroidery, which And you've tried and you found, I love this. Like it's, you're finding so much joy in it. I get to draw. Yeah. I get to draw and then. Paint with threads. Paint with threads, which is, it's so much fun and it's so relaxing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Anyways, it's great. I think I had another point that I was going towards and then derailed with, with this story, but that was, that was fun. Yeah. That was fun. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Um,
SPEAKER_00:Well, I don't remember where that was going, but I did have a question for you. So, you know, thinking about this human flourishing, I am curious if you think like you, let's just keep it like from individual perspective, but do you think you as an individual could flourish without creativity? I, that is such a good question. I really, I don't think so because I fully believe that that creativity is something so inherent that, like, I think we are all born with it, but individually. I know that, like, I would just kind of shrivel up and die. Like, you know, like, I would just be such a shell
SPEAKER_01:that
SPEAKER_00:without creativity and without those ways to express myself, and that goes within, like, not even just painting, but doing like crochet or sewing or making, beading bracelets or whatever, or decorating my home. Those are all ways that I express myself creatively and are a way that I find joy and fulfillment. in and so without creativity without being able to express those things and without you know art in that way and like singing and dancing and you know playing the piano yeah playing the piano it's huge for me and so um yeah it would be miserable like life would just be sad and and dismal and just so gray like that's the image that I keep you know it's like in those infomercials where they're like oh gray now and they're like this you don't want this you know yeah that's exactly what just popped into my head I was going to say the same thing the terrible life and then you get this vacuum and your life is wonderful the vacuum of creativity yup Okay, so now I want to hear your answer to the question. Yeah, I would shrivel up and die. I don't think. I think I would lose pretty much all will to live. Yeah. I mean, I am a mom, so I would keep plugging on for her, but I feel like even motherhood is an act of creativity. Yes. You have to think up so many different things yeah in a creative way in a different way you know like how do I handle this meltdown yeah what are we making for dinner tonight how do I explain this thing how do we survive summer and having this child like you know like Yeah. What activities can we do so that we don't go crazy or like that we'll teach them this one principle that I'm trying to instill in them or, you know, like so that we can have fun together. Right. There's so much creativity. So much. And, you know, my main joys in life are being a mom and creating art. Yeah. And reading books, which is amazing. somebody else's creativity yeah um right like all the things that we enjoy ingesting whoa all the things that we enjoy like ingesting that's a weird way to put it i don't know i can't think of a different way but all the things that we enjoy in life also consume yeah yeah are are creative things from other people you know yeah come from other people's creativity. Shows, music, books, artwork, all the things that make life enjoyable and fun and joyous. I mean, even nature, something about nature feels very creative. Yeah, because no two flowers are the same. The leaves on the tree are... all a little bit different or like there's there's differences and there's creativity and there's um the flower made a really great creative choice it's blooming so on point love it uh yeah yeah but nature i mean that's all that it is is creation yeah Which is beautiful. It's beautiful. Like all the worthwhile good things in life, I feel like stem from creativity. Yeah. And, and, you know, like we're, we're artists, we focus on, on art, but something aesthetic. Yeah. The aesthetic and all of that, but creativity comes in so many different forms. Yeah. as well. Like, you know, one example that I always cooking, what are we going to have for dinner tonight? Yeah. But like something that always stick that has stuck with me since I was a teenager was my brother was in a really horrible rock climbing accident and he would have lost his feet. But, you know, probably would have been amputated. Like, part legs down and would have lost both of his feet and never would have. Well, I mean, I suppose he could have walked again, potentially different things. But the only reason that he was able to keep his feet is because he was flighted to a hospital where there was a surgeon there who had just invented this surgery. Wow. That could put his feet back together. My goodness. And saved them. And You know, you don't always think of like doctors as being creative. Yeah. But he invented this surgery. He's the only person in the entire world that could have done this surgery. And he happened to be at the hospital. So like miracles upon miracles. But it was this man's creativity that had this huge impact on, you know, another human's life that then impacted, you know, the rest of his family life. You know, like his future family. His future family. Like, you know, my little niece and nephew. I know. Two little kids. Yeah. Two little kids now. And now he's a doctor. A foot doctor. A foot doctor. Yeah. It totally impacted the rest of his life and then the lives that he in turn impacts. Yeah. And it stemmed from one person who embraced their creativity. Right. And so creativity comes in so many different forms, but it is what makes the world, society, individuals beautiful.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like it adds that worthwhile element of not just, you know, not just surviving, but like thriving, flourishing. Yeah. I love that so much. Me too. I am very passionate about this. I feel like it's, you know, I just want everyone to embrace their own unique creativity and, you know, not comparison, not looking at other people and, you know, like, well, they're creative this way, so I should be that way too. And it's like, no, no, no. Embrace what is special about you. Yeah. And that is what's going to have the most impact. the most impact, not only on your life, but touching everybody around you and making the world more beautiful. So I feel like I hear a lot too. Oh, I don't like, I'm not creative. False. Yeah. That's a lie. That is a lie. That's a lie. That is a lie. You were telling yourself. Yeah. Or that somebody has, you know, like whether it's society, like you've been brainwashed. Yeah. Where you feel like you, what it means to be creative is only like in one way. Yeah. You know, there's only one way to be creative. That's false. False. That's not true. Just call us the creative myth busters here. Here we go. That's our new slogan. New slogan. But I hear that a lot from people. Yeah. Oh, I can't draw, so I'm not creative. Or, you know, like I can't do this. Oh, I'm not really that creative. And even me, like even I have felt in the past, like I'm not really that creative. Like I can copy things, but I'm not creative. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's stop, rewind, and think about that for a second. Because we are all created with such immense creativity. We are just born that way. I mean, there were studies done on children that shows that. because of their creativity levels, they're like a genius level. Right. And then as they go through life and as they go through school and you start conforming. Conform, yeah, and are not able to keep the creative problem solving and things like that, then they're like- Less genius. Yeah. They're like, I don't know if it's their IQ, but they let go of that creativity, right? And so- It's, it's not that we don't have it. It's just that we haven't maybe learned how to use it or learn how to recognize our creativity. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Because we, I mean, just like we were talking about with motherhood, we were being creative. every single moment, right? Oh my gosh. Yes. Like it's even just, yeah. Like thinking about what to make for dinner tonight is an act of creativity. Yeah. Because it's, it's thinking outside the box a little bit. It's like using our own, I don't know, like what is creativity? I guess maybe we should talk about that. Like what is creativity? Yeah. I mean, I mean thinking about it, like even something like empathy and compassion are acts of creativity. in a way. You know, it's like getting outside of yourself and sending love, like loving other people that are different than you takes an amount of creativity. Yeah. Thinking outside of your own experience. Right. And imagination, right? Empathy, you kind of have to have imagination with that. Yeah. Because you have to imagine what it would feel like. You have to imagine what they've gone through and you know you put yourself in their shoes that's like using your imagination of how you would feel right and that often because you haven't actually felt that you haven't actually felt that you haven't actually felt that you know because you haven't actually experienced that but by using your creativity and your imagination that emotion can come up like you can actually feel you know sadness because of thinking about somebody else's sadness or joy, thinking of someone else's joy. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of times that comes from storytelling
SPEAKER_01:too.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like hearing another person's story, whether you get it from, you know, a movie that shows a different experience from yours or, you know, a friend who shares something with you and it opens your, opens your mind to something new. Yeah. Yeah. But the only way to, I feel like, really embrace that is through your own creativity and imagination. And, you know, it runs deep. Yeah. It runs deep because it's just that whole part of your soul.
SPEAKER_01:You
SPEAKER_00:know, it runs on creativity. Yeah. It's in our very essence. And so if you think you don't have creativity... just know that that's not true. Like you are born creative and you just have to figure out what that looks like for you. Like what feels good to you and, and, and really embrace the, your intuition and your own feelings and what interests you and excites you. Yeah. And, and it'll, you know, it'll lead you to finding your, your, your way to your creativity and lead you into creative pursuits. Right. Just like with crochet, you were like, Oh, that looks cool. I really want to try it. And then you realize it wasn't for you. And that led you to, like, you know, it was because you embraced that. Yeah. Like interest and that desire and. Willingness to fail. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then it led to something even better. Try and try again. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Which I love. And, and, you know, not necessarily looking at all of that as like failures. Like sometimes I, that word is, feels a little harsh. Yeah. But it's just, it's just those taking, taking those steps forward to discovery and. An experiment. An experiment, which it's, it's all just play. Which is, I think a lot of why we called what we're doing the art piece experiment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because we're trying to, We're experimenting. We are. We're trying to figure out how to find peace in our creativity. Right. And how to really embrace that. Yeah. And not be afraid of failing. Yeah. Which, you know, comes down to loving ourselves. Yeah. It's really an experiment about loving ourselves. I know. Which creativity is all about coming back to that, you know, I am worthy of thriving.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like I'm not just surviving. I am putting beauty into this world. Yeah. And really connecting with your inner self. Yep. Like your true self. Yeah. Is what, I don't know. I think that's what the journey really is about for me is learning who I am and what I like and what I want out of life. Right. and learning how to thrive. Yeah. And what beauty do I want to create. Yeah. And put out in the world. Right.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much for joining us. We're so glad that you're here. If you'd like to give us a comment or leave any takeaways that you had from this episode, we would love to hear your thoughts and have you join our little community. Episode two is here and available now. We talk about our artist check-in and what we did during the week to help us create a space of safety and joy around our creativity. So if you'd like to have a listen, go ahead and pop in in the next episode and we'll see you there. Music