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 5: Creating in the Chaos — Grace, Growth & Tiny Steps
Before diving into our artist retreats, we revisit a big topic from last week: the pressure to have the “perfect” space before you start creating. Spoiler alert—it’s not true.
From there, we share how our retreats unfolded (with a few surprises), the resistance that came up, and the unexpected creative detours that still held meaning. We talk about the messy, beautiful reality of making space for yourself—physically, emotionally, and creatively—and how art can help regulate, reconnect, and ground us, even in the midst of chaos.
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 🤍
Thank you. Welcome to the Art Peace 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.
Speaker 01: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 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.
Speaker 00:Week five. Here we are. Yay. So we had our artist retreats. We did. Last week or I mean this past week. And we're going to talk about that today. But first. There's something I actually want to address from what we recorded last episode. Go for it. Okay. So we talked about getting ready for our artist retreat. Yes. We talked about getting our spaces all ready and all of that, getting our studio office spaces all ready. And I feel like it'd be kind of irresponsible if we don't address the fact that Having a perfect studio space is not a requirement for actually creating. Yes. And I wanted to bring that up because I feel like if you're listening to this, to the last episode and you're like, well, I don't have a studio. I don't have this space, so I can't create. A lot of my creative friends and a lot of creatives that I've talked to when they go through this process of, oh, I want to create and I don't know, like they go through those first steps of starting to create again and like talking themselves into it basically. And then a lot of them or a lot of us get to that point of, oh, I don't need my art or my creativity to be perfect. Like I can just get it. I'm like, I'm going to go for it. I'm just going to do it. And then we put up these other blocks of, I don't have the perfect space. I don't have the perfect equipment. Like this situation is not a perfect situation. And so we put up this new block for ourselves of, okay, well, I can't create because things aren't perfectly lined up and ready.
Speaker 01:You're speaking about me, aren't you?
Speaker 00:Guilty. Well, totally. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Me too. And so I just... We will get, we will talk about, we will talk about our retreats, but I feel like this is just, it's been bugging me since we recorded the last episode and I just, it's like, okay, I need, I need to address this. Otherwise I can't live with myself. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, I, I'm
Speaker 01:so glad you brought this up because I, As you very well know, that was my block for so many years, so long, was like, well, I don't really have a space, and I don't have a studio, and I don't have, you know, I need this, I need that, I need this before I can really start. Right. Yeah. There were a lot of conversations about that.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I went through this too, or it's like, I don't have what I need. And, and I mean, it's really more just wants. Yes. Yeah. Then needs. Well,
Speaker 01:I feel like we, I feel like when you decide, you know, that you kind of want to start getting back into creative things and you, you start by you looking at the people around Right. Right. They don't, I mean, it's starting now more, I feel like in social media, but oftentimes people don't show you the messes. They show you the perfectly curated, you know, the little pockets of where they have, where you can, you know, it looks amazing and beautiful. And then, but behind them is a huge mess of their like living room or whatever, you know, you just, you don't see the rest of it. But when you're in that beginning, you know, to dip your toes back into it and looking at all of the people doing it, I think that's really the way most people start getting back into it, you know? And then you see it just being so beautiful and so perfect and everybody. And so you think, oh, well, that's how I have to do it. If I'm going to do it, then I have to have it that way because that's how you do it, right? Because that's what you're seeing.
Speaker 00:Right. Yeah. Because I mean, I think last time I mentioned like getting back into creating again and I don't know if this was last episode or before, but it was like I had my daughter and that's when I was like, oh, I need to start taking myself seriously and believing in my dreams and stuff again. And I, at the time, was living at my parents'. I just had a baby. I was living at my parents' house. And I didn't have a studio space or an office space or really any space that was my own. It was my husband and I were... We had one bedroom that we shared with our new baby in my parents' house. I had nowhere to go that was private or just for me. My art time was I finally got her down to take a nap and I would just lay on the bed next to her little Yeah. Bassinet. Thank you. I lost the word. And, you know, as she took naps and sometimes it was, you know, five minutes of just really messy doodling and that's how it started.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:There was no perfect office space. Like, yes, now I am very privileged and very blessed to have my home studio and office space. And it's not perfect. It's not, it's not beautifully designed and like put together. Yeah. Um, but it, it works for where I'm at right now.
Speaker 01:Hmm. You know, I love that. I mean, I was just, that made me think about my, my experience with that too. Like in high school, I was in all the art classes, right. And I like art was my life for, for those, you know, four years. And, and so I had, I had space and then I went off to college and it, I didn't have space and I didn't know how to actually create without like, Hmm. time and space and, you know, like how to, how to create in those little pockets instead of like dedicating a huge amount of time and then, you know, becoming a mom and getting married and like all of those things. And so getting, so I let go of it. Right. And, and getting back into it, it was with coloring books. Like that's what it was. I didn't have a, I didn't have an office. I didn't have a studio. I didn't have anything. all of my things set up and beautiful. You sat on the couch, you shared with me. Yes, I did. Didn't even have a couch. I had my one little coloring book and my colored pencils and we just, you know, and a blanket like on the couch. And that was my, that was, that was my time, you know, that was my art time and my creative time like that. And then, you know, eventually it led to into me wanting to do it more and getting out sketchbooks and, you know, actually making– my own art and, and dedicating a space and creating that space, you know, but it was a gradual thing. It was not like, Hmm, I want to do this. And then boom, it was done. You know, like it took years to build up that. I have arrived.
Speaker 00:I'm an artist now. It's official. I decided one day to the next because I have a beautiful, uh, beautiful space. I am now an artist. That's not how it works. You creating is what makes you a creative. Having the perfect space, having every situation perfect is not what makes you a creative.
Speaker 01:It's showing up in those little Little pockets where you can and, and, and showing your, your brain and your, your nervous system and that it's important, you know, that you're, you're continuing to do those things. So then, oh, that must mean it's, it's
Speaker 00:important. Yeah. You got to crawl before you can run. Exactly. You know, and like give yourself that grace and that compassion to, to crawl, to, you know, like have those imperfect, moments and they can be little and yeah that's and I don't say little in like any kind of negative way like it's a beautiful thing to
Speaker 01:yeah
Speaker 00:to have those moments for yourself and to let yourself start that growth so anyways and another thing too is I feel like when we start embracing the creative side of us and wanting to start this process and this journey it's art and creativity is an expression. It's one way that we can express things. We've talked about this before, but I feel like there's this natural progression of us trying to convince ourselves that we're allowed to take up space. And so it feels very natural and real to me that A lot of the creatives I've talked to have that block of, oh, but I don't have space for this. Do you have it? Right? Like so many of us have that and it's very real. And so, you know, be gentle with yourself. Be gently curious and just dig into the like, okay, what is a need? What is a want? What little step can I take today to get me towards where I want to go? And it doesn't have to look like, like my life right now doesn't have to look like where I want to go. Just what little moment can I have today that I can give myself to go in the direction? Yeah,
Speaker 01:to get... That started in that direction. I love that. That was so good. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 00:you. I mean, I told you it's been bothering me all week. I'm like, oh, I gotta talk about that. So it's been like, oh, I can't, I can't just leave that episode alone. We gotta, we gotta address this. We gotta talk about that.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Cause yeah, absolutely. So true. I, yeah, spent so much time with that block and just worrying about it and being like I but I can't do it because I don't have the space like you said that was such a good connection um yeah but you you don't have to take a lot of space to show up
Speaker 00:that's right right and
Speaker 01:then at first you know like you you don't have to you don't have to have everything in place just have to start
Speaker 00:Yeah. I love that. Okay. So you get a double, double whammy today. That feels like a whole episode in and of itself. So
Speaker 01:good. We can
Speaker 00:just keep dying forever. Now I know, but now, now we get to talk about the art retreat and how that went. And did you
Speaker 01:create this week? You know, I love, I love segwaying off onto that, you know, from, from what we just talked about because the artist retreat, I mean, we, we could have done so many things with our time. But we chose to do, to do our artist retreat, to prioritize ourselves and our art. Love that for us, by the way. I know. I feel like that was such a big step for us. I know it was for me. That was a big step. It was hard because I started– Right. Yeah. Yeah. to take up space and it's okay to show up for yourself
Speaker 00:in that way. Right. So I had an interesting experience because right before starting my retreat is I had this very triggering thing happen. And I'm not going to get into what it was, but it was very triggering for past abuse and different things that had happened. And it's interesting because when you start learning about the nervous system and all of that, when you get triggered, it's like you're You're put back in that time
Speaker 02:and
Speaker 00:that place. And so this thing that happened, it put me back to when I was not free to create and it wasn't safe in my life to create. And it was like right before I was like, oh, I get a few days to myself to just retreat, to paint and have this freedom. And I haven't felt creatively blocked like that in a really long time. Because I've kind of, you know, moved through it. Yeah. In a lot of ways. But then this, you know, this thing happened that was kind of major and was very... You know, yeah, it kind of put me back into that place. And I was like, oh, what? But, you know, coming back to that again, once again, like having grace and compassion for yourself. Yeah. And I almost was like, I just want to like watch TV all day and like not make anything. And just, you know, I could just sit here and feel sorry for myself. And, you know, I had these sketches that I had gotten done and I had been really looking forward to like finally having the time to sit down and paint because it's been such a joyful experience. part of my life recently.
Speaker 02:And
Speaker 00:I procrastinated. I ended up procrastinating by creating a new embroidery pattern instead of painting, which is a little bit a little bit less intimidating. Less intimidating to me. It's a little bit less involved with my brain. The way I think out paintings and stuff. It's a little bit less involved. It's a little more furry. It's a little more just sketchy doodling kind of stuff. It's interesting because embroidery for me is something that my grandma taught me. And You know, I think sometimes things like embroidery is kind of frowned upon as like this, you know, like, oh, it's the only thing women were allowed to do for so long. Yeah, kind of symbolizes like the, now
Speaker 01:I can't think of the word,
Speaker 00:like the oppression of women. Yes. And now in today's world, like we're actually get to like, own our own our own power and our own beings yeah um for like the first some of the first times in history which is incredible um and for me you know I I didn't do embroidery for a while because I like went into that like I allowed that belief to um I don't know. Be a belief. Right. Right. But, you know, recently I've, I've started picking it up again and, and it's got like really great mental health benefits and all that and all of that. But then also it's something that was passed down from the women in my family and there is power in that. There is beauty in that. And so, you know, this past week it was like I procrastinating, like, procrastinated painting by, um, by this other craft that it just felt like this generational strength that I leaned into without, you know, I wasn't thinking about it that way, but just afterwards it was like, oh, that was actually powerful. Like it was fun and it helped give me some of that strength. It was, it's funny that I procrastinated being creative by being creative. Yeah. But that is so me too. Yeah. So me. Yeah. But I
Speaker 01:don't know. I know. I love that. That's really cool. I love the reframe on that. And, and thinking of it, you know, instead of thinking of it as like, that was the only thing they were allowed to do. And that was, you know, because of whatever and getting all upset, you know, or into, into that mode. But thinking of it like this, this was something that, took time and love and was passed down from mother to daughter, grandmother to grandchild, you know, granddaughter. And thinking of it as that strength and that community, right? And
Speaker 00:what an act of rebellion it is now to be like, yeah, I own myself and I can still do this if I want to. Like I can choose that. So there. I
Speaker 01:love that. Yeah, that's great. I love that. And it's so funny, procrastinating painting by doing something else. Yeah,
Speaker 00:but it really did. It helped build up my confidence and getting me, you know, when you sit down and you're creative, it helps take you out of that flight or fight zone.
Speaker 01:It
Speaker 00:helped get me back into my physical body and where I'm at today. rather than the past. Yeah. Which is really important for, you know, nervous system.
Speaker 01:Yeah. I remember hearing too, that something about how important it is to have like multiple creative outlets, not just, not just one, but, but multiple do different things and, you know, kind of diversify that. And I don't know, I was thinking with, with certain, creative things, like whether it's, you know, painting or whatever it was that, that brought up trauma or you felt like in the past and, you know, like whoever, if, if you feel like that certain creative outlet was frowned upon or you got criticized for it or whatever. And so it brings up trauma and then going to a, to a different creative outlet and how helpful that is to, to to negate the trauma and you know like calm the nervous system because like you just said creativity calms the nervous system and um you can't be anxious when you're creative right is that the thing it's like anxiety and creativity can't like be at the same time
Speaker 02:and
Speaker 01:so um being creative, whether or not it's the thing that you set out to be creative in. And then you had to like pivot and do something else because it was like too much, you know, at the time that that's still great too. You know, that's still is wonderful. And it's, and it's helping, helping your nervous system and helping, you know, your, you calm, calm down and regulate self-regulation and that, um, Yeah. And
Speaker 00:like, and like the whole, like being anxious versus being creative or, you know, it's, it's once you get into that creative flow state, you know, it creates these really healthy alpha waves in our brains. Yeah. that is that puts you in a meditative state and that's because I know like sometimes when we sit down to create we feel very anxious and so it's like no that's not true I am I am anxious and creative at the same time but it's like once you are really getting into it it switches
Speaker 01:yeah
Speaker 00:and you go into that creative state which is a very meditative state and it's very healthy and it's very good for us and like that's what that means. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 01:No, I'm glad you clarified that because there is that confusion. It's like, well, I'm creating, I'm anxious. But yeah, when you get into it, when you let go, right. When you let go of the outcome and the perfectionism and yourself
Speaker 00:just be in
Speaker 01:that moment, anxiety. Yeah. And you're just solely focused on what you're doing
Speaker 02:and
Speaker 01:the, and the, you know, senses of everything. And you're just in that in that zone I think that's really helpful too if I actually talked about this with my art therapist yesterday oh wow yeah because I was you know I was like I'm feeling really anxious and she was like oh Well, try, you know, maybe try just doing like some doodling, some scribbling or something, you know, like both hands at the same time and focus on, focus on the senses of it. Like focus on, you know, the way that it sounds, the way that it feels, like all of the things. Right. And just
Speaker 00:like sensory.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Focus on that. And then it kind of gets you out of that.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Because that puts you in your body, gets you out of your head and puts you into your body, which is such a healthy thing. Such a healthy thing we can do for ourselves, especially in the culture and the society that we live in. So much of us are just in that anxious headspace. Right. Because there is so much to worry about. So much to think about and so much to consider. Especially for those... Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 01:it is healing and it really is a gift because when, when, like when I am anxious
Speaker 02:and
Speaker 01:in that anxious headspace and not feeling my body and my, you know, then I'm not as, um, you know, not as sensitive to those around me and I'm not as, you know, uh, I don't know. It just, it really is a lot more negative and easier to like lash out exactly fly off the handle, whatever. Um, because it's not, I'm not in a regulated state. Yeah. Right. And so when, when we are in our, you know, in our bodies, like feeling our bodies and really in our sensory, paying attention to the sensory things around us, and that helps ground us, right. We're grounded, feeling grounded. And then that helps us feel regulated. And so we're able to like, we're able to, um, regulate our emotions and handle things a lot better. And so interact with the people around us a lot better too. So yes, it really is a gift.
Speaker 00:Yeah. So to our fellow women out there who have the guilt or the mom guilt or whatever, it's like, oh, I can't create. I can't waste time doing that. I have to take care of other people. Okay. Again, that's your nervous system saying that you are only worthy if you're taking care of other people, which is not true, by the way. But yeah, it's that it really is a gift. Taking care of yourself, putting beauty and good things out into the world. What a gift and what a blessing you are that you are here, that you are wanting to take these steps. and putting good things into the world. We need that. We need that so much. We just need an army, an army of people who are wanting to put beauty and light and good things into the world. And love. Yes, and love. It sums all of it up. It's just love, loving yourself, loving others, putting love out. Heal the world. We need you. Thank you for being here and for being a part of that, being a part of our creative army. Yes.
Speaker 01:And we, yeah, we love, we love this and are so grateful that you're here. 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.