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 19: When Anger Meets Art | Creativity, Emotion, and Self-Check-Ins
This week, we explore what happens when creativity meets big emotions—especially anger. Can art still bring peace when our hearts feel heavy? After weeks of busyness and big feelings, this episode is an invitation to pause and return to center. We talk about tracking our emotions, rediscovering what feels nourishing, and checking in with ourselves as part of the creative process. Through conversation, humor, and honesty, we remember that art—and life—both flow best when we come back to the basics: curiosity, joy, and care for ourselves.
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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.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So my primary emotion that I felt this week was anger. Been there. Uh-huh. And I realized I did not enjoy watercoloring. Oh. With that being the overwhelming emotion that I was experiencing this this week. And I haven't really dived into this yet, so we're gonna kind of discover this in real time. Excellent. During this conversation. So it's fun. Yeah, but I I was reflecting a little bit just before we started recording about different weeks of this experiment. I've had different primary emotions that primary emotions are like predominant emotions that I was feeling. And you know, when I was dealing with grief or sadness, joy, curiosity, these different things. When I came to my art practice, it was like it was it was good. It was helpful. I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the process, it helped me feel better, but with anger, not so much. Interesting. Not so much. And I don't know if it's because I didn't want to put that energy into the painting I was working on, or if I just needed some other type of health or like not health, um, like self-care outlet. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I I I didn't want to this week.
SPEAKER_01:It was it was a little it was a little tricky, it was a little hard for me. That is fascinating. I love that realization. What an interesting realization. It's making me think, you know, hmm, what have I been feeling when I greet what what am I what are what are the feelings that I usually uh have when it's like, nope, I don't want to, you know, what am I what am I feeling when that happens? So I yeah, I think I think that's also true for me. I think a lot of times grief is another one that like keeps me from wanting to create. But anger, yeah, I don't want to create something pretty when I'm angry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, it's interesting because I did I did do some sketching this week. My daughter really loves taking like two or three different things and like meshing them together and creating something new, like two different animals, or she's so good at it. She's amazing. It's so fun to see what she comes up with. And so this week she's like, Mom, you should you should combine snails with different desserts and just make dessert snails. And I'm like, that's disgusting, but let's do it. And so we sat down this week and we we sketched, we did a a black forest snail. Um so chocolate and cream and cherries, and it was really fun. So fun. And it was it was kind of fun because I you know veered into my more like children's illustrative kind of style that I haven't done in a really long time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like your first initial kind of style that you played with.
SPEAKER_02:That's so fun. And yeah, we drew we drew some funny little snails together this week. And she wanted a a popsicle snail for the fourth of July. It was like red, white, and blue, like striped, and yeah, I may or may not share that shows online, those may just be for her, but it was fun. Like it was fun this week. And I I think you should share them. I think they're so fun. Yeah, I'm I might, I might. We'll see. Super cute. Yeah, but it it was interesting because I went back to working on my iPad. Like I started out sketching in my sketchbook, like sitting beside her, and we both worked at our sketchbooks, and and then you know, I got out my iPad and did really simple, you know, just put through in some color, not polished, not finished, and kind of just like got some of those like angry strokes in where I didn't need to be really precious and careful with it. And that was that was more helpful. That was more like, yeah, this this feels good to me this week.
SPEAKER_01:Scribbling, yeah. Yeah, it didn't didn't matter if you scribbled or not. I like that. Yeah, I think that's often like the urge that I have when I'm angry. I just want to like scribble, you know, get people out of pressure. Yeah, which I think is you know, that's a very common urge for for anger because you have all of that energy. It's like you want to like, yeah, you want to move it, you gotta like either fast or you know, like running. People love running when they're angry. Yeah, I like biking or biking or you know, working out, and it's it's that physical release, you know. And so in like the art world, scribbling is also really really great way to to do that too, you know. If you don't want to go work out or something, but yeah, that's that's a good that's a good realization. I like that. That's cute that you made those snails with her and yeah, indulged in the in the idea that's so inventive and like playful, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, and it was fun. It was fun connecting with her, and it it was a little more grounding having you know my little noobdy to create with and and having you know those pockets of just fun and connection together, and and it was helpful creating something for somebody else this week, yeah, which is interesting because I think it was just last week that I was like, I haven't been creating for myself and it's been throwing me off a little bit. And then this week was like, I needed to create for for somebody else.
SPEAKER_01:It was helpful. That's fun. Well, I think I think it's a little bit different though, because you were involved in the playfulness of the idea, right? You know, and it was and it was a creative thing for for you as well, and and a connection point, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, she was doing it with me, so it wasn't like just purely for her commission or something. Yeah, like we were just working on it, on it together. So maybe I'll maybe I'll share hers too. She lets me.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. Oh, I love that idea. That's so fun. Yeah, we later this week we we were together and she wanted to she was asking me to come up with combinations that she could draw. And then she wanted to do a a con not a contest, but like she wanted both of us to draw the same thing. So it was a dragonfly seahorse.
SPEAKER_00:So great.
SPEAKER_01:And we had like a little book for a divider on the same page, and we were both drawing at the same time, but we couldn't look at the each other. So and then and then had the reveal, and it was just it was super fun. It was, it was really fun to just get in that childlike playfulness, you know, and not worry about the outcome, but just right be in the creativity of it, you know, and creation of it.
SPEAKER_02:It was I love making with her because it just the pure joy of just being together and making something and being in the moment and in the process of it, she really embodies that and it like the outcome doesn't matter, not that she never gets upset if it doesn't turn out the way that she wants, but it's just it's playful and it's fun and it's curious, and and she just loves having you there with her in that process, and she's so delighted by whatever you come up with, even if it's terrible, you know, and like is just cheering you on.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, I have a lot to learn from her. She's awesome. Yeah, yeah. Coming back to that childlike wonder and joy. Oh, so good, so good. I love that. I also did something that wasn't what I have been typically doing this week. I for I think for Christmas or my birthday, my mom she gave me a a pack of bookmark watercolor paper. So it's like watercolor paper that's just cut as bookmark size.
SPEAKER_02:Fine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so I've been saving it, you know, for a rainy day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But this week I was I found somebody new on Instagram and I was looking at their stuff, and it's and it was it was really beautiful and really inspiring. And there is this one painting of a of a sea and sea and sky whoa, sea and skyscape that words are hard sometimes.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That was just so beautiful in the colors and everything. And so I decided to like play around with it a little bit and wanted to get out my I have like metallic gold watercolors too. So fun. I know, so I wanted to try it out anyway. So I played around with that a little bit. I haven't finished it or anything, but it was fun to play with watercolors again. And that was kind of one of the first initial mediums that I got got back into with like landscapes and everything too. Oh yeah. I did watercolor landscapes and so that was really fun to play around with a little bit and just you know, I was just pure play. It was not for anything or anyone, or you know, just like I want to experiment, yeah, and play around with the colors. So that was fun. Yeah, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I moving forward am kind of like maybe I should document my primary emotions every week and see how that affects you know, showing up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I haven't been journaling. Me neither. That was my goal to journal every week, to journal every week, whatever we create. Yeah, yeah, that was the the intention, but uh practice. Consistency of that has been a little tricky.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, just showing up to record and get some creativity in it in each week over the summer and launching has been it's been a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That goal's kind of got out the window.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it would be good to kind of come back to that, come back around and and practice. And you know, it's okay that we haven't been doing that, like we don't have to get down on ourselves or you know, anything. I think it would be helpful though. Returning back to to center, to base, you know, and the pillars, uh, reminding ourselves what the purpose is and checking in with ourselves and you know, doing all of that, and seeing looking for the patterns, you know, seeing what's what's correlating with other things, right?
SPEAKER_02:And dealing with like the anger and like those big feelings felt that need to, you know, come back to some of that gentleness and those moments of just being really honest with with myself. Like it's not for anybody else, that is just purely for me and to feel more just okay, and like I can breathe and just be, and it's you know, like things are gonna work themselves out and it's gonna be all right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I'd sent you a text yesterday or the day before that was like, I am feeling like the personal check-ins need to start happening again. Yeah, it's like, ooh, I am feeling that lack, you know. I'm I'm not checking in with myself and I'm not I'm not really paying attention to what I need to align myself with or what I need, you know. And I'm just like pushing through and it needs to come back to okay, what do I need? What is feeling good, what is not, what is working, what is not, what is, you know, like what do I need in this moment?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that will really, I think that'll really help because it feels like a little bit of the dip, you know, where things are feeling overwhelming and not as fun. And so it's like, okay, so how do we get back? How do we get back to the the joy, the fun, the less pressure, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:While still showing up and being consistent and and working towards goals. And I think that's really the key is the check-in and and asking how can I make this enjoyable? How can I make this fun for me? Yeah, how can I delight myself? You know, all of those questions. Because this isn't meant to be go, go, go, work, work, work, you know, strict structure, like right, hard. It's not meant to be hard, right? No, it's not so yeah, coming back to those questions I think will help make it feel feel easier and lighter.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Which I love because art is often about coming and coming back to the basics and then going off and exploring and playing, and then coming back to the basics and going off and exploring and playing. And yep, and then there's growth in that cycle, just just like spiraling up.
SPEAKER_01:And I think we've with with like social media too, I think that's kind of what we've been doing. We've been trying out different things, and we're I think just this week we're we were talking about, well, let's try this way and see if this is fun or see if this works better. What do we need? And so it can kind of go into all certain, all certain, all different areas of life. We're tired, so tired today. It was a holiday weekend. Oh boy. Yeah. But coming back to that play and that joy and you know, the purpose, the purpose of it. Like, what is the core? The pillars.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, I guess let's move forward this week and this next week and see what happens. Yeah. We'll check in again and let you know how it goes. See if we follow through with that self-care and if it helped.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Right, we'll see you next week. 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.