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 20: When the Spark Fades | How to Fall Back in Love with Creating
Ever hit a creative slump and wonder where your joy went? In this episode, we retrace our steps—back to library aisles, childhood wonder, and the playful beginnings of our friendship—to rediscover why we create at all. We talk about reconnecting with the feelings behind your art, gentle nervous-system resets, and finding your way back to delight.
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.
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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_00: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_01:When we first became friends many, many years ago, I had just had my daughter and you were pregnant. And we'd known each other for a few years, but this is like when we first became friends. We started connecting over books. Children's books. Children's books, yes. I remember, you know, I wanted to take my daughter to the library, and she was like two, she was like six months old. Okay, she's like she's quite young. But I was so excited to start sharing stories with her and books and the illustrations and all of that. And you and I started connecting over that. So I invited you to come to the library with us. And we just had a blast in the children's book section. We did like look through the pages of the books and we checked out all of the ones with the illustrations that really just grabbed us. Yeah, we're so fun. Yeah, that just made us so excited. And then we would get together again outside of the library and read the children's books together and then sit and draw. Yeah, and then we started sketching. We were like sketching, dude. Let's get it back into sketching. And it was like the funnest two-person book club ever.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think it was like that permission slip to uh to delight in the things that we because we picked books that would be like, I would have loved this as a kid, you know? Yeah. And so it was kind of uh having it, having a, you know, a baby to pick them out for. Right. Right. Or something else.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Even though it was a hundred percent for us. Yeah. Yes. And but I was like, I want to find all of the books that I really, really love that I can't wait to share with my daughter.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:When she's old enough to actually appreciate them. Right. And so the ones that I ended up really loving, I bought and put in my library. Yeah. Yeah, my personal library, um, to share with her. I mean, not all of them, but a lot of them. Yeah. It was like a slow progression of like Christmas gifts. Yeah. Always a few children's books in there. But it was really fun because neither of us had been drawing for quite a while. Yeah, for a long time. Um, before that. And that was kind of like the first steps into getting back into being creative again and remembering why we enjoyed it. Yeah. So it's interesting because we both you know, throughout the art piece experiment, I mean, we're on like week 20 now, and we, you know, started out excited and scared and had all of these different feelings, but wanting to cultivate more peace and safety and to coming back into ourselves and wanting to explore that. And throughout, you know, week to week it it was happening. Yeah. And it was like wonderful and exciting. And then it was like, you know, two steps forward, one step back. We kind of go into this, into the dip, into the rut, into the creative slump. And things got a little bit messy and harder. The last few weeks have been a little bit rough. Yeah. But this past week, we took our kids to the library for they having like craft days over the summer. Yeah, so fun. It's so fun. So we got to take them to the library and watch them get really creative. There was like a group project that the kids were doing together. And so it's just like this community of kids coming together and being creative together, which was so fun to watch.
SPEAKER_00:It was, it was fun learning how to share space and materials and work together on the same project, which I would have hated as a kid. Yeah, that would have stressed me out. But it was fun.
SPEAKER_01:We did great. Yeah. And, you know, the different ages, a range of different ages, we're working together, you know, and different artistic, you know, abilities and and everything. It was, it was great. I loved, I loved seeing it from, you know, the kids who don't even quite have the uh the ability to hold a brush. Yes, thank you. That's the right word. The dexterity to like even hold a paintbrush. Yeah. So little. It was so fun. And then after that, we went into the library and we're in the kids section looking at books, and we were watching our kids, you know, get excited and look at books and just looked at each other and we're like, we should, we should go look at the books. Like back to our first days of our friendship. Yeah. And actually, enjoy that together again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Not just sit there waiting for them to pick out a book, but like go, go enjoy it together as well.
SPEAKER_01:Just like lean into that delight, like we've been talking about the last 20 weeks. Yeah. And really lean into that again and remember why we're doing this. Right. Why we started this, why we were excited about it, why it was helping us, you know, just get back to the why.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I feel like this is such a normal like flow of any kind of long-term, especially right thing that you're doing a project.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Is you start out really excited and then you kind of get into the middle of it, and it's like, ugh, you kind of fall off a little bit or feel discouraged, or there, you know, like there's ups and downs throughout any kind of thing. And so it makes sense that it's been like that. But yeah, the the coming back, I'm so glad that you brought this up because this is what I wanted to talk about today, too. Because it has been, it's been really hard to feel that creative inspiration and feel excited, yeah, and like keep going, right? And so coming back to that first initial why and that and leaning into just that, I don't know, childlike whimsy and fun. It really helped, I think, both of us. I yeah, it really helped both of us kind of lighten up again and feel like, oh, it was just a breath of fresh air. And it was so good to come back to uh it was like such a full circle moment, you know, come back to our beginnings and come back to what really lights us up and and just really embrace that. Because I feel like for me, I have been kind of going into wanting to focus solely on one thing and then, you know, I don't know, it's just been kind of a journey coming back to like embracing all of what I delight in. Yeah. And and not just focusing on landscapes or you know, focusing on one art medium, even. Right. But remembering like all of me, yeah, you as a whole being.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, creativity influences so much of that.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So looking at those children's books, it was so fun. It was. It was so fun because the stories were fun, you know, and then it reminded me of like childhood and like what I would have loved to read as a kid and what I was gravitated, you know, have always gravitated to. Yeah. And then looking at the artwork and being able to appreciate it and be like, ooh, this is so fun. This is inspiring. I want to do something like that, you know, just like all of the all of the inspiring things. And so I think it was really good practice to come back to delight and come back to the why.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. And I think it all comes down to the feelings that we want to cultivate.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:In our lives. You know, every experience that we have, every goal that we set is we're chasing after a feeling.
SPEAKER_00:We're chasing after something, right? And so often we think that we're chasing after the thing, but it's actually we're chasing after how it makes us feel how it makes us feel, the feeling that we want to feel when that thing happens. Like I love traveling. I love traveling and I love vacations. And I like always want that, right? But it's, I mean, I want to see the things, and that that's really interesting to me. But it's also it's like that freedom and it's that like joy and it's about connection. And I don't know, it's it's it's about a lot of feelings, right? Right. And if I were to go on a vacation and be super stressed out, even even though I was in that beautiful place or wherever I wanted to go, it wouldn't feel fulfilling if I if I was stressed out or if I was sick or if I was, you know, like looking at all the negative things and focusing on the negativity. And so it's really, it's really not about the thing, it's about the feeling that we want to experience.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. And that's part of why we called this the art piece experiment. Part of it is because the play on words was fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But the other part is because it is coming back to the emotions. Peace. Yeah. Seeking peace. Seeking peace. We wanted that more of that feeling in our lives. And so this week was coming back to what do I want to feel? And is creating helping me? Like, is my art practice, my creativity, is it helping me achieve that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Am I using my creativity and my art practice to help me achieve that? Or am I using my creativity and art practice, you know, to do something else? Am I what how am I focusing my my mind, my efforts, my, you know, what is my focus on?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Is it on the thing or is it on the feeling?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think having that mental shift is is gonna be so helpful in the coming weeks too. I mean, it's it's uh we gotta be gentle with ourselves too. When we uh whenever we go into a backslide or a dip or you know, a rut, it gentleness, I feel like, is so essential. Yeah, it's essential because we all do it, it happens regardless whether you intend it to or not. Right. It's not a failure, like it's just a natural rhythm. Rhythm, exactly. I love that. And so just being gentle and and realizing, oh, this is what's happening. It's the natural rhythm. I'm in this part now, and so what's gonna help me get out? And yeah, I think focusing on the feelings that we want to feel and how and having that as the as like the guidepost, you know, right? That's gonna help us make decisions based on those those things that we find.
SPEAKER_01:So this week I didn't end up painting. I didn't either. Oh my gosh. Yeah, for me, it was more about the other two pillars of the experiment. Yeah, about aligning and connecting and more leaning on those. And I'm I'm starting to get the feeling of, oh, I want to sit down and paint. Yeah, I want to sit down and paint again. But I really needed to just nurture myself, my soul, my whole being with okay, I need to like come back to myself, figure out what I need, what I'm missing, like come back to that gentleness and breathing and just you know, slowing down a little bit. I've been so in my head and just like hustle, hustle, hustle, trying to get so much stuff done in the chaos of you know, summer and launching a podcast and yeah, right. And and yeah, all the life stuff going on in the background and realizing like, okay, what do I actually need? And and who do I need to be like connecting with and reaching out to and nourishing and nurturing myself that way. And sometimes I feel like our creative practice helps us align and come back to ourselves. And sometimes we need to align and connect to come back to our creative practice. Like it all works together, yeah. And sometimes you just gotta be really honest with yourself about what you need, and it's it's all okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like I don't know, I just have this image in my head of like a circle and the creative practice and the nurturing and the connection, you know, like the align. So like with the three pillars, if it's all within the circle, right? And it's kind of you go around the circle. And sometimes you need the the creativity, like the art practice first, and then you go to the align, and then you go to neck the connect. But then sometimes you're at the connect part, and then you need to go to the align, you know, and so sometimes you're at a line and then you go to connect and then you and then you work together. So it all works together and it's just it's fluid, right? Yeah, it's not always this set like this first, then this, then this. It's it's what you need in the moment, and it's and it changes because our lives are fluid, right? They don't just stay the same, they're not just on a schedule that works out perfectly all the time, right? Right. We don't operate that way. We're not robots, right? And so it's not just some programming that we uh put into a computer and this is how it works every single time. It's we gotta embrace our natural rhythms. Yeah, we have to embrace where we are, where we're at now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then ask ourselves, what do I need right now? Right. What do I need right now? I was listening to a previous episode that we had recorded, and I I had been asking myself that like pretty regularly, almost daily, I think, for a while, and it was so helpful. And I heard myself say that and I was like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I haven't been doing that the last little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Asking myself that question. Yeah. I've just been going through, you know, just go, go, go, go, and in survival mode a lot of the time too, you know. It's just kind of which sometimes you gotta be in that. But coming back to that question, what do I need right now? Like in this moment, what do I need? Or what do I need today? What's gonna help me most today? And what am I, what is my intention for the day? I think that's a really helpful question too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And that can come back to the feelings like how do I want to feel today?
SPEAKER_01:I actually saw this morning on on Instagram from a like neuroscientist that you can't heal if you're in like survival stressed out mode.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. 100%. I feel that. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. So it's like, what like 60 second thing can you do for yourself that helps get you out of that? You know, and sometimes it's breathing or stretching or I don't know. Yeah. Something else. But you know, and and the post was about like, you know, even in just 60 seconds, you can help help your brain and your body reset.
SPEAKER_00:Reset. I love that. I heard once that something that helps I feel like I may have talked about this before, but something that helps reset your like body in your nervous system is to breathe in as far as you can. And then breathe in a little bit more. And then hold it for a few seconds and then breathe out long. Yeah. And then doing that, like, is a switch in your in your body, in your brain, and it and it signals, I mean, breathing out slower signals to your body that you're safe.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Too, because when you're breathing out quickly, that's like, oh, we're in panic mode. We gotta run. We're running, you know, something's not safe. But if you're slow breathing, that means that, oh, we're we're relaxed, we're in a safe place. Yeah, you know, and so, anyways, that that can actually like do physical, like a physical change, a neurological change. Yeah. And it can help calm your your cortisol levels, you know, and and all of that. And so it, you know, there's there's truth to these things, and I think it's come become a little taboo, or just like everybody does it, whatever, you know, but there is actual science behind it, and it actually can help. And so doing things like that, that and learning about different techniques that can help you calm yourself, calm your nervous system, calm your your body down, can help. Yeah, can just help. And then trying out what feels right for you, what feels good, because I've had recommendations of things that it's like, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_01:You know, that doesn't feel good. So and I've had ones like that that in the moment was like, oh, I don't like this. I don't feel that feel this is good or helping. But then like a year later or a few years later, I come back to it and hear it and get it again and go, Oh, oh, I'm ready for this now. Yeah. This is actually helpful to me now because I've done the other groundwork of of healing and working through things that I no, it's just it's all a process. Right, right. It's fluid, right? It's fluid, it's fluid. Yeah, moving forward with intention and coming back to the why is sometimes necessary.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because that's gonna that's gonna guide you. If you have that in your sights, then then you're gonna walk towards it however, however you need to, right? And you'll you'll find the things that help you get there. 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.