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 18: Artist Check In | How Did You Create This Week?
At 18 weeks into this experiment, we’re realizing the importance of gentleness and balance. From candy bouquets to fish-themed surprises, from launch deadlines to pastel sketches squeezed into the edges of the week, creativity took many forms—but not all of them felt nourishing. We reflect on what happens when output starts to feel heavy, how accountability can help us keep showing up, and why returning to joy, play, and delight matters for long-term creative thriving. It’s an invitation to notice not just what you create, but how it makes you feel, and to allow language, awareness, and balance to guide you back to a more sustainable rhythm.
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 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 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. Week 18.
SPEAKER_00:Can you believe it? It's been 18 weeks. Yeah, like third of the way through the year. That's insane. Whoa, I know. And we're still showing up. I'm actually quite impressed with us.
SPEAKER_01:Way to go. Way to go. And if you're with us today, way to go for still showing up and being with us. Yes. So thank you. Happy and we're celebrating. We're our third of the way through our experiment.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We had a realization this past week that we need to change how we're talking to each other in these trick-ins. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Our shift. A little just a just a slight shift in language, and it makes a big difference. So we're going to instead of asking, Did you create this week?
SPEAKER_00:We're going to ask, How did you create this week? It feels so much more aligned and just with what we've been with what we've been doing. And when we first started, it was all like, okay, we're going to show up. This is an art challenge and we're going to make art, even though the other side of this has just always been about creating creativity and showing up for our creativity and building or like creating space and safety for it. And yet we were still just stuck in this kind of block of like, well, it's an art challenge and we're going to show up and we're going to make art every evening.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, I think I think, I mean, you know, being artists and wanting to show up consistently for ourselves with with painting and with art, I mean, I think that was kind of the just the natural, you know, thing that we fell into. And while still wanting to recognize all forms of creativity and everything, but for ourselves, you know, in this experiment for ourselves, we were really focused so much on on the art. And as we've gone and had our conversation, gone through it, you know, and had all of these conversations and insights and and sometimes not done the art, but then thought, well, what else did I do this week that was creative? You know, and just really tried to focus on creativity as a whole and not just as painting, uh, you know, the only valid way of creating is painting. You know, that's not what we're focusing on. And so we realized by asking, you know, did you paint this week? Did you did you create this week? It was very, it was still like funneled into the painting focus instead of, you know, how did you create this week? It might have looked different from week, you know, it might have looked different this week. So how did you, what did you do? Like, how did you do it this week? Yeah. So that's what we wanted to shift this time around. It feels better. And it does. Yeah, we had that realization.
SPEAKER_00:We're like, oh yeah, the power of words makes a big difference. It was a little less interrogating, too. Yeah. Did you create this week? Dun-da-da. Right. But how? So here we go.
SPEAKER_01:How how did you create this week? Well, so this week was really busy. Our kids, they were in a play this weekend. The summer camp. And we this is funny to be talking about because it's by the time you know you're listening to this, it's gonna be months into the whole thing. But we actually launched the podcast this week. The first episode, the first out. Yeah, and so people listen to it, which was wild. It's crazy. So there was a lot going on outside of you know just art and and things like that, but a lot of different ways that we were both creative. But I'll, you know, I'll speak, I'll let you tell how you were creative. Right. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Take it away. I'm just gonna relax. I'll just handle handle this episode.
SPEAKER_01:So it was a lot of creativity and figuring out how we were gonna launch, what we wanted to say, you know, the words, the images, the vibe, just the whole thing. Making posts for for Instagram. Yeah, right. How yeah, how we did how we wanted to do that. And how, yeah, so there was a lot of creativity, a lot of, you know, creative thought and and ideas bouncing around. And then for the kids, we wanted to do something special, not that was, you know, not just like flowers. And so we we for their performance. For their performance, yeah, sorry. Yep, as a as a congratulation. So we went to the dollar store and found a whole bunch of things and put it all together.
SPEAKER_00:And we set the bar really high high for ourselves because last year they were in, they were at this same summer camp and they did Wonka or Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory. And so we ended up making them like a candy bouquet. Yeah. So we're like, why would we take a bouquet of flowers to our kids when it's Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory? Like they need an edible bouquet. Like, come on, gotta be candy. And so this year they were like, What are you gonna do for us? This like, are we gonna get another candy bouquet? It's like, oh man, what if we started? So we had we had to figure something out.
SPEAKER_01:I was finding Nemo this time, so it was all fish themed. Yes, yep. So we scoured the dollar store for all the all the different fish themed things that we could figure out, and just we got a whole bunch of random stuff, but then it putting it together, you know, and figuring out how it could kind of fit together. It turned out really fun and really cute. And I love those kind of things where it's like there's a whole bunch of randomness here, and then you put it together and it's like, oh wow, that turned out really good, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they were happy, they were it was so funny. Completely delighted, and yeah. So one of those fun moments of being a parent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And lots of lots of creativity going on with that. So that was fun. I did actually also do a little bit of sketching and painting as well. Just I don't know how I fit that in, but I don't know how you fit that in either. It was in the in the margins of yeah, everything going on. Yeah. I don't even really remember fully what I did. I I started a pastel painting and maybe did some little sketches, but I do remember it's you know, sitting down and doing a little bit of something.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, excellent. I love that. Yeah, the last few weeks I have been feeling a little creatively drained from making so much stuff for Instagram and just like some all the graphic design. Yeah, a lot of stuff. It was a lot, it was a lot. I'm glad that not every week is a lunch week for for something because I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but I uh like getting ready for for you know talking to you today and like doing this check-in. And I was like, I the last few days have just been feeling sad that I didn't have like a full-on painting day this week. It's just been you know, it's been so crazy, and I and I miss it. Like, oh I just I just wanted a day to watercolor. Yeah. But there was no time. I I transferred a sketch and I did the first layer of like one section of it. Yeah. So I you know, I still did stuff. Yeah. It's like, you know, I but I feel like I'm like checking the box. And I was like, I wanted, I just wanted to paint this week. Yeah, that like freedom of yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I feel like I just had this thought, you know, in those times where it's so busy, I mean, because there's there's always seasons, right? There's busy seasons, there's slow seasons, there there are consistent seasons, right, and then chaotic seasons, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and being able to show up consistently for yourself in in that way is so important, but it's gonna look different in different seasons.
SPEAKER_00:I just had this realization. But I think the difference is is I was creating a lot of stuff this week, but none of it was for me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:And with doing this experiment the last 18 weeks, it's like I've actually shown up and made stuff for myself. Yeah. And shown up that were myself.
SPEAKER_01:Right. That was like full of joy and fun and just lit you up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right. Same. So even though I was I I enjoyed, you know, the stuff that I made, and I'd rather be doing, you know, graphic design over a lot of other things, it still was different than yeah, taking that time for myself and making something that excited me and delighted me and felt like, you know, I was important. Yeah. And I was worth showing up for. I kind of missed, missed that this week.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there I feel the same way. And I think that was why I came back to drawing and you know, like I in the margins, it was I had that need. It was like I I'm missing this. And I feel that like, I don't know, maybe dissonance is a good word for it. Like that just it felt I felt that need and wanting to express myself on the page or on, you know, somehow. But I feel like sometimes, especially when you're in that creative, like creatively drained because you're just outputting and outputting right. I didn't really have much like I didn't have much energy to make something perfectly beautiful, all that, you know. Yeah. But I want I still wanted that movement and to like move my hand across the page and to paint and to, you know, experience that. Yeah. And I think sometimes it sometimes just doodling or just like not how do I say this? Just doing something really free. You know, it can fill that need and and still help you express, like playing with colors and you know, just doing really something really abstract. Like that's totally not our like either of our styles, but sometimes I'm like sometimes I've had that, I've had that desire to just want to do something abstract, you know, and I'm like, that's weird because that's not like abstract stresses me out so hard. But you know, that's it's kind of it's a funny thing when it happens because I'm like, that's strange because I that's not my style, and I typically don't don't like it, right? But I think that's where it comes from is just that need to express, but also feeling a little depleted from from outputting or from whatever, you know, stressors, right? Yeah, but still wanting to to do that anyway. So I think I might experiment with that. Maybe okay.
SPEAKER_00:I'm excited to see what happens from that. Yeah, oh, I just realized I also I sketched with my daughter this week, but she wanted to teach me how to draw chibi dragons that were a little bit furry, a little furry, a little bit furry, yeah. Not not scales, but like, you know, fuzzy, soft, cute dragons. And that was fun. It was. No, it was. If she listens to this sorry, sweetheart. No, it was really fun. It was it was fun drawing with her, but it was also No, I was drawing something that she wanted to draw, and which I loved that she shared that with me. And I'm not so special. I'm not saying that that's not awesome because it is, but it was just another like, yes, I was creative, but it wasn't for me. You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and everything same thing with the designing and the other, yeah, the outputting, the other all the other outputs that we did this week were not just something that delighted us. It was like for an outside purpose or for, you know, somebody else. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I feel like it made all like all of them made me a little bit tired instead of leaving me feeling energized. And I don't know, like the mood was different. The way that I felt afterwards was different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like there you can be energized and it's so good to do things for other people, but there's like a limit. You s and you know, if you're not balancing it with doing things that are just for you as well, then it does get draining. There has to be that balance of doing things for others and doing things for yourself. Because if you're just doing things for yourself too, then that's that can also not be good, right? Right, right. And so yeah, balancing it, I think I think that's interesting because I think even in the past when we've been painting and things, it's also it's been for us, but there has been that little bit of a like, how can I how can I help others with what we're doing? Yeah, you know, and so it has been a little an outside perspective and not just singularly for us, you know, commercializing, making sure it it works for, you know, a certain audience or certain people, you know, like designing like wallpaper and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:It's about you know, like what would what would people want? What would people buy? What would yeah, so there is that element to it as well, and it's not just what do I love? What what is really speaking to me today, right now, in this moment? Like what's bringing me joy? Yeah, what do I feel really connected to? Yeah, and coming to it from that perspective, it's vastly different.
SPEAKER_01:It is, it is really different. It is really different. So it's interesting. I feel like sometimes for me it's helpful. It's most helpful to have the balance when I go into creating. Well, no, I take that back. When I go into creating, it's most helpful to think, you know, what's delighting me, what's what what am I drawn to? But then as a whole, I think some of what helps me like stay consistent and have uh is the accountability, you know, like that's been really helpful with the experiment between the two of us is is knowing that you were gonna ask me, you know, what did you create this week or how did you create this week? Right. And so it's just yeah, I don't know, it's just an interesting mix, and it's been interesting to see the difference this past couple weeks of doing the launch and outputting, outputting, outputting so much for others, and then yeah, the the difference that it's that it's made. And it's not gonna always be like that because it's it's launch week, and so you know, right, that's a whole different ballgame, but noticing noticing the difference of how how we felt was really good. I think that was really a good thing to to notice the difference of how we've been feeling and then the switch.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And I mean, in the past I've made things for other people and it's felt you know like energized, energizing and exciting and like feels good, but there was no deadlines or pressure, or like it was because I was in that aligned place of like, oh, I really want to make this thing because it's like it's exciting me and I want to make it for them. And it's like that's really fun. Where this the last few weeks have been like, okay, I gotta make this for this day and for this thing, and there's deadlines, and there's you know, I just gotta make sure that I that I, you know, have this done for these people and for you know, yeah, it's just it was a different feeling.
SPEAKER_01:It was still all stuff that I wanted to do. Yeah, and it was all still aligned with what we love and you know and are passionate about. Yeah, I think it was the deadlines was really stressful.
SPEAKER_00:The deadlines were stressful, yeah, yeah. Making sure it was all done amidst all the other crazy things going on in life.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's a little wild, but no, that's a very interesting realization of, you know, like it was kind of drain, like creativity was kind of draining in these ways, but then when I'm really showing up for myself, like there's a really big difference and shift, which I never really noticed before until we were doing this experiment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I think too, being mindful of the amount of output. Yeah. I don't know. That's that's been interesting too. Like what works what works for me, you know, like day to day rather than you know, having these strict expectations. And I think that's been really helpful in the whole experiment. Is is I didn't set up like, okay, this day every week is my thing. It's just been really like when I can when I when it works for me, you know, when it works for me with my life, with my schedule, with my health, with how I'm feeling that day, the emotions, you know, and what week of the month it is. Right, right. And making my creativity work with me, yeah, and not working against me, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that really makes a difference too, where with this launch week, two weeks, you know, we had two weeks of launch week. I mean, really three weeks, two weeks of like building up, and then it's coming, and then a week of like it's here. So it was a lot, it was a long time to just grind, you know. That's how it felt. We were just grinding, and every day had something that was nearly a month, yeah. It's a long time, and so no wonder it felt training, you know, and lots going on with the kids, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, all every aspect of life was just yeah, it wasn't it wasn't as gentle as it has been exactly the rest of the experiment. Has been.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I think that's what we were that's what I've been missing is the gentleness, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So now glad we've talked about it. Yeah, this is good. Now we can go move forward with the focus that refocus, you know, re-hone in onto gentle, gentleness and alignment, you know. I think that also was a little bit out of whack just with the expectations that we and it was good, they were good expectations to have, you know, and to stay consistent and to follow through. And that was a good experiment experience. I was gonna say experiment, yeah, experience to to go through and to build that confidence and you know, consistency and everything. It was good for us. Yeah, but it was a lot, and so yeah, now that it's over and we don't have to be in that mode all the time. Goodness, wow, yeah, coming back to alignment, to gentleness, to yeah, you know, to just yeah, realizing what works for us, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like we can go into that power mode if we need to, right, as long as it's got a time limit, not indefinitely, no, wow, no, but you know, it comes back to the small steps, right? Too, and like building up our tolerance of what we can handle and what we can do and what feels safe and what feels okay, right.
SPEAKER_01:Which I mean, we had a conversation where it was like, can you imagine doing this like six months earlier, you know, at the beginning of the experiment? We would have we wouldn't have done it, we wouldn't have actually followed through. Yeah, and we're talking about showing up online every day. Right. And and it's amazing because I neither of us had done that uh for that long, or I had never done that.
SPEAKER_00:No, not consistently every day. I have done some launch stuff, but I haven't shown up consistently, yeah. Uh like that's I don't like it.
SPEAKER_01:It was yeah, it is it was a it was a first first time for both of us. It was a lot, and anyways, and so but it was through the the steps of being gentle with ourselves consistently that built up that that confidence and that resiliency, I think that really helped us be able to actually to actually do it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, we've several months into the experiment, we realized how much it's actually been helping us. Right. And so getting to that point of like, oh, okay, I'm actually excited to share this with people. Yeah. Um because it's it hasn't been like a flop. Like it's actually like, oh, this has helped me. This has benefited me. Something to say about it, yeah. And so then it was exciting to to share it and be like, hey, look at this thing. Yeah, like yeah, this has really helped us. Maybe it can help you. Like that, it really built that excitement. Yeah, and made it easier to share. Yeah, yeah. So, well, we would love to hear from you. How did you create this week? How did you align this week? Come connect with us over on Instagram and um join the conversation. We'd love to hear from you. We'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_01: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.