Week 3: The Artist Check-In — Permission to Create Your Own Way

In this second half of Week 3, we’re checking in on what we actually made during the week and how it went.

From sketching on iPads to embracing the “wrong” way that turns out to be exactly right, we’re reflecting on how creativity feels when we let go of pressure and follow what delights us. We talk about the fear of the blank page, the temptation to compare, and how small choices (like lighting a candle or using a different tool) can shift the entire creative process.

✨ This one’s full of gentle reminders:

• Your way is the right way.
  
  
• Comparison steals joy - celebration restores it.
  
  
• Creativity can be an act of love and connection.
  
  

We hope this conversation inspires you to lean into your own process - messy, joyful, unique, and yours.

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 🤍

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

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. Welcome to part two of this conversation. If you haven't checked it out yet, part one is available. It's the very first episode of our podcast. You might want to listen to that one first. If not, if you're just fully rubbling it and listening to this episode first, we also love having you here. Welcome. This is our first artist check-in. We're going to be talking about the art that we created during this week. It's week three of the art piece experiment for us. Without further ado, let's jump into the conversation. So speaking of that, did you paint this week? We're kind of long into this and we're just getting to it. That's fine. That was a great conversation. Yeah, that was good. I did. I did do some sketching. So I did do some artwork this week, which was really good. So it was really interesting because I, in the past couple weeks, have been really trying to focus on what... like on what delights me. Right. I've said that every single time. We'll probably continue saying that. And I love that perspective, but, um, I've tried to make the art practice a really special thing. Right. But I've only done it like twice. And, um, Previously, whenever I would sit down to draw art, it would be like, oh, he's kind of excited. And I would sit down and then it would be like overwhelmed. You know, like, oh, the blank page. Like, what am I going to do? And oftentimes that would keep me from even sitting down at– Fear of the blank page. The fear of the blank page. The fear of like not knowing what to do or not making it look good or, you know, whatever. It was all very fear-based and very anxiety-based. But– When I sat down this time, I was kind of feeling that a little bit before. And when I actually sat down at my desk in the place that I had created that whole atmosphere, it was this instant feeling of like, calm and safety and peace. And I hadn't even lit my candles. I hadn't even done anything to make it that atmosphere. But just because I had done that the last couple of times and really embraced that, just sitting, the act of sitting down at that same spot made it feel made those feelings come up again and made it feel good. I love that. And so then I was able to move forward with, with creating and it was awesome. Yeah. And it was, it was really cool to know that it only took a couple of times, you know, like it didn't, I don't know. It didn't have to be this year long thing for me to get to that place of feeling good. Um, which, you know, I mean, I don't know. Everybody's, Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, at first, like we talked about earlier, where I just want to like jump in full throttle on things. And so I'm like, I'm doing traditional art, which means I have to sketch it and paint it and do all the things on like on paper. And as we were preparing to start the experiment, I realized I still want to sketch on my iPad. I still want to sketch on my iPad. And I still do some sketches in my journal. And, you know, like I do like, I do enjoy that.

UNKNOWN: 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:37

But giving myself permission of, okay, I'm starting something super new with the painting and it's okay if I want to do the sketches on my iPad because this is fun for me. And so it's like a little bit of staying in my comfort zone while I move forward. But then I also, I don't have that major fear of the blank page anymore. because I can make a mess on my iPad. I can get it happily where I want it. I print it out. I transfer it onto my watercolor paper. And then that already, it gives me, it's like, okay, I love the way this looks. I'm really excited about it. And so putting that first mark on that paper, on that new blank page is not so intimidating. It's not so intimidating. Yeah. And, you know, maybe one day I will get to the point where I just draw straight on the watercolor paper knowing me I probably won't. Yeah. And that's okay. And that's, you know, but like it's okay and it's okay, you know, taking those steps. And I love that that's like you embracing your process. Right. You know, where you started out feeling like, oh, this is– the process that i have to do is with traditional artists i have to paint you know like i have to sketch on the paper and i have to do it this way all or nothing because that's what everybody does or that's what people say you know but then you realize like actually that doesn't work for me you know and this way feels better to me and so then you let yourself do it i feel like sometimes i just like force myself into doing things that don't actually feel like good to me you know yes because i because i feel like that's what i'm expected to do or you know that's what everybody else does and that's the way you do it and so i i don't lean into my creative problem solving or like my creative right my way of doing it right yeah and i think that you leaning into like doing the sketch on your ipad and and then transferring it like that was alone was an act of creativity, right? Of figuring out a different way to do it that felt better to you. Right. Right. And I love that. I love it too. Yeah. And I think that's also what this whole experiment is about is, is finding those ways, you know, that feel good to us. Cause that's what we've really been struggling with is like, well, everybody's telling us to do it this way, but it doesn't really like, ah, you know, it doesn't really feel good. Like I don't, something's like stopping me. Right. Because it doesn't really work for me. And so that, is what we were wanting to really figure out is

SPEAKER_02: 7:25

like

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

how to make this a thriving, a thriving thing instead of like a, I don't know, stilted, like, like we really want this, but it's like hard to go about it in the ways that are within the box. Right. That we think that we need to go about it. So we're figuring out how to do it outside of the box. Outside of the box. Yes, I had an interesting experience with this week where– so I did two paintings, two paintings this week. Nice. And my, I guess, fourth one that I have done– Well, let's see. Okay, I've done five paintings in the last three weeks, right? It's like the fifth one, technically. The fifth one, even though one of them was a repaint. But anyways, okay. It's really important that you understand all of these details. The fifth one was my best painting so far.

SPEAKER_02: 8:24

Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00: 8:25

Yeah, and I'm like, I looked back on all of them in order and I sent you a picture and I was like, look at this. Look at this growth. Look how much growth I've had in the last few weeks. This is really exciting. And was kind of celebrating that. And then I sat down and started doom scrolling. But I found some new artists, I mean new to me artists, and was looking at their work. And they're watercolor artists. And I was like looking at their work and it's like, oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. And it was like botanical, you know, kind of stuff like I like to do. And at first it was just like, oh, this is so fun. Like seeing what they're doing and what they're working on. And then it slowly started falling into that comparison. And like, oh, I'm not this good. And they're so like, oh, like they're painting with such ease. ease and confidence and and it's so beautiful and then i just have to stop myself and be like you've done five paintings five paintings and you're like scrolling through they've got like hundreds of paintings on here wait a minute right right and it's like even though you have like you have built this confidence in working on on your ipad and like yeah you know building patterns and all of these other things and you have do you have that that confidence there, an ability there. And it's okay that you're in this part of your journey. Okay. I'm saying this as if I'm not talking to myself. It's like, you know, it's okay that I'm in this place of learning and like within my own journey. And also what I painted was pretty dang cool. Like it was good. It was good. And I shouldn't lose sight of that Like it still feels weird to me to be like, Oh, celebrate myself. Like, cause I did not grow up with that mindset, but I'm trying to really embrace that. And, you know, just like, you know, it's okay to celebrate your wins and your victories and like what you did well. And it doesn't have to compare to where other people are at. That is such a hard lesson to get, to really like, to really get into a thing, to get over, you know, the comparison.

SPEAKER_01: 10:41

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 10:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:42

Oh, because I think we live in a world of comparison. You know, that's like all that we see all the time is just a comparison to other people. Yeah. And especially since, you know, the social media age. Right. That's like such a problem and and so hard. And so coming coming back to just we don't need to compare to the Joneses, you know, like we don't need to compare to any other artists or any other creative person. Yeah. We just need to be ourselves. And flourish. And let ourselves flourish. And put beauty into the world. Yes. And that's good. It is good. And worthy. Oh, that's a worthy thing to do. Yeah. And then, you know, after that experience, I had to come back and be like, you know, what if this artist that I really liked or this artist I really liked or this artist I really liked or this musician I really liked stopped sharing what they're doing? Like, how... devastated I would be.

SPEAKER_01: 11:42

Because

SPEAKER_00: 11:43

I have a few people that I will, instead of just scrolling, I'll be like, oh, I wonder if they posted something and I will search them and I will see because it is uplifting to me. It's like this beauty that I seek and want in my life and I want to see if they're creating something new and to hear from them.

SPEAKER_02: 12:02

And

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

And, you know, not everyone is going to want to share their creativity on, like, on Instagram or something like that. And that's totally fine. That's totally valid. And we're not saying that, like, everybody has to do that. But, like, what a shame it would be if they weren't putting that beauty into the world. Right. And, you know, we can be that person.

SPEAKER_01: 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:35

Yeah. I love that because I mean, yeah, think of somebody, an artist or a, you know, a singer or somebody that you really love to follow. And think of they at the beginning of their journey looked at somebody else and said, oh, well, they're doing so much better than me. And so I should just not even try. Yeah. And then they just didn't, didn't try. Yeah. Then what we wouldn't have because of that. Right. And the same goes for each one of us. We all have something to offer. We do. We all have beauty inside. Yeah. Yeah. Another example. So my mom, um, we had this fun dynamic where we would go to restaurants and we would order a couple different things and we'd share it all and we'd sit there and we'd eat and then we'd talk about what ingredients are in this? How do you think they made this? And then can we go home and recreate it? Yeah, that's so fun. It's something that we just love to do and I wanted to give an example of something that's not like a business. Yeah, right. It's not on social media. It's not a business. There's just those moments of connection that were shared from that creativity.

SPEAKER_01: 13:59

And

SPEAKER_00: 14:00

if my mom hadn't been willing to embrace that side of herself that got curious and wanted to play and wanted to have fun, we wouldn't have had those moments of connection that... made you know my life a little bit more beautiful and a little bit more fun yeah it's just it's so empowering and it's so important I love that I mean that made me think about you know my own mom and and are the things that we would do I mean we would make like cards and stuff and with stamps and we would make jewelry you know like yeah and those are some of my favorite

SPEAKER_01: 14:38

as

SPEAKER_00: 14:39

a kid, you know, is doing those activities with her. And it was because she wanted to do that. She was interested in that. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:48

And, and then we were able to do it together and she thought, you know, I would like to, but, um, it was, it was because of her following that and, and leaning into that opportunity and that, you know, curiosity and, um, creativity right that we you know got to sit and we had really great conversations and that was some of our best like bonding time

SPEAKER_01: 15:16

you know

SPEAKER_00: 15:17

and how important is that

SPEAKER_01: 15:20

yeah yeah

SPEAKER_00: 15:21

within your own family you know like it's so important to have those moments and some of the best times I mean like making cookies you know like are some of the best memories are circled around creative moments yeah sometimes I feel like creativity is just another expression of love that's you know really what it boils down to it's just it's another it's another way of saying I love you yeah and sometimes it's to yourself sometimes it's to you know a child or a spouse or a friend or even nature or the world like it's just it's another way of just saying I love you yeah Well, and some of the best gifts that I've gotten are homemade, you know, handmade because it's so meaningful, right? Because they put in that love and attention and thought and, you know, the thoughtfulness that goes behind it. That is creativity. Yes. And, and that, yeah, I love that. Creativity is another form of love.

UNKNOWN: 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:37

That's it for today, friend. Thanks for spending this time with us. We hope you're leaving with a little more light, a little more peace, and maybe even a nudge to go be creative just because it brings a little more joy to your life. If anything in this episode spoke to your heart, sparked a thought, or made you smile, we'd love it if you'd follow the show, leave a quick five-star review, or share it with someone who might need a little creative encouragement too. And remember, your creativity matters. Your voice matters. You matter. We're cheering you on Always. Until next time, keep making, keep softening, and keep showing up as your whole beautiful self.