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 21: When Rest Becomes the Way Back
After weeks of feeling stuck, something shifted. Through play, poetry, and reflection, we remembered that fear isn’t a stop sign—it’s an invitation to listen. In this heartwarming conversation, we talk about the tender process of returning to creativity with compassion and curiosity. From painting mugs with our kids to writing morning pages and dreaming in color again, we explore how childlike wonder, rest, and imagination can rekindle the spark within. This is an episode about grace in the in-between—about honoring the quiet seasons and trusting that even in stillness, your light is never lost.
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.
SPEAKER_02:The last few weeks, I feel like we've unintentionally done a little mini-series of creative blocks or creative rut because we've been struggling a little bit. Yeah. And we're gonna talk about that again today.
SPEAKER_01:Part three or four or five. Who knows? I lost, I love lost track at this point.
SPEAKER_02:But we've come back to, you know, like discovering our whys. Like, why are we creating? What are the emotions that we're wanting to feel? What coming back to what's exactly what delights us? And we talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and we went to the library and and did our children's books, you know, some of refilling the creative well, which is necessary.
SPEAKER_02:So the question is, did it help?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I think it really has helped. I felt so much more inclined to want to be creative this week. I didn't create fully, like I didn't always act on what I wanted to do, like, but I felt inspired and I felt like oh, I I felt more drawn to creating patterns. I felt that little like inkling of a desire, yeah, that a little excitement, and I don't know, kindled up that that fun fireflies in your belly. Exactly. And wanted to get back into doing other things too. We went to the pottery place this week. We both of us we went together with our kiddos and we painted, painted mugs, and it was super fun. It was fun and not at all stressful.
SPEAKER_02:No, with the time restraints of painting with children and brushes. What? We're already done. That splay and don't keep a nice point. It's fine.
SPEAKER_01:It was really fun. Even though we had to rush a little bit because our kids were like, We're done already.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:As it always goes. As always. But it's okay. It was really fun. We thought that we had picked something simple to do. We're like mugs. Why not? You that fast. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:At the end, we looked at each other and was just like, your design was not simple. How did we fool ourselves into anyways? Going off on a tandem. We pared it down. We had fun. We did. We did. I'm trying really hard to convince you otherwise, but no, we did. We had fun. It was it was. It was really fun.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it was fun to see our kids get creative and play. And yeah. And they just were so free.
SPEAKER_01:And that was that was really fun to see too. They did mu they both did mushrooms. Yes. And we both did mugs. I love it. There we go. I didn't put that together until just now. Tea and mushrooms. Love it. Force themed. Let's go. All right. Yeah. So that was fun. And I feel like before, if we had tried to go while still kind of in that rut and it wouldn't have been fun. It wouldn't have. It would have been completely overwhelming and just devoid of very forced. Yeah, it would have been really forced. Yeah. Yeah. But there was there was fun and play involved this time. And it was enjoyable. Like I left feeling like that was fun, you know, which was good. Even though we did have to rush. Even though it was okay.
SPEAKER_02:I get really stressed out about time things. And like feeling like late or it's just it's one of my quirks. Yeah. I struggle with time a little bit. But yeah, I also was feeling that same way of just like getting excited again. I tend to have like dreams about things that I want to create like before I make them. So I started having those dreams again of like, ooh, I want to actually like make something. I was dreaming in patterns and uh a few paintings that I wanted to do that I haven't sat down and sketched at all. But you know, the excitement, the idea that's kind of how it often starts. Uh-huh. Yeah. Not just daydreaming, but actual dreaming. Actual dreaming while asleep. I need both. Just infuse me in all in all the creative thoughts and feelings and desires and dreaming all the time 24-7. Let's go.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
unknown:Back. We're back.
SPEAKER_01:It's turned on. The light switch is on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's awesome. Uh yeah. So yeah, I've been thinking about starting a new pattern collection and some more paintings that I want to try, like going in a slightly different direction than what I've been doing. Like I want to play a little bit more. Yeah. And I I wrote a poem.
SPEAKER_01:Which you shared with me. Yeah. Oh, sorry. And you painted. And I painted. You shared the poem with me. And it is like, where's the publisher? Because it needs to be out there. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Really? It's so good. Well, it goes with one of my pattern collections that I made. Yeah. That's for this fall. So it'll, yeah, I'll be sharing it on on Instagram. You guys will you'll get to see it or read it probably before you even listen to this episode. Excellent. I love it. So good.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So it's fun. Yeah, that was so inspiring. And I actually journaled this week too. Oh, nice. Which has been a huge, huge blocker lately. Like I haven't I haven't wanted to put my words on the page at all, even just like thoughts and feelings. And let alone like creative, you know, creative thoughts. Yeah. And so this morning I was actually able to uh to write. And I did. If you've ever heard of the what's it called? The artist way with Julia Cameron. Is that the right one? Is that the right one? We always talked about this before. Cause I always want to call her Julia Child, but I'm pretty sure it's Julia Cameron. Julia Child is the one who cooks. Yeah. Anyways, she does the morning pages. She likes teaches all about that. And you write like three pages in the morning, just thought blurbs, like whatever stream of consciousness, you know. Let it let it free. And I've been wanting to do that for a while and thinking this would be good for me to do. This would be good. I think I should do this. But there's been such a huge block. And so this morning I finally just got out. And no, I was like sitting in bed and not wanting to move and thinking about it. Like, I should, should, but I don't want to. I should, but I don't want to. But I finally got out of bed and got the notebook and did it. And it was good. Congratulations. That's amazing. It was it was hard. But I did it. And so silent clap. Thanks. Yeah. And so I felt like that was also part of the part of the block release, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So oh, for sure. I felt that way because I the beginning of this week is when I wrote the poem. And I've been trying to write it for the last few months. Because my last collection I did, I also wrote a poem for it. And that one just like flowed and was fun and it was fine. Because I was in a state of emotion, not emotional, uh creative flow. Yeah. And it just like kind of just happened. I don't normally write poetry for my pattern collections, but it was fun. And I was like, oh, I want to do this again. Yeah. But it should become a thing.
SPEAKER_01:I love that.
SPEAKER_02:I yeah, I mean, we'll see. I'm not, I may not force it every time, but we'll see. Because normally you'll do it feels right. Yeah, because a lot of the time with collections, you'll do like a collection story. And it just felt right to do it in in poetry. And this one was for fall, and I just wanted it to feel very cozy and nostalgic of you know, like, I don't know, just those cozy vibes, like snuggling up and reading stories and then snuggly blankets. Yeah. Always more Beatrix Potter vibes and just all that. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I love that. So well, nailed it. It's I can't wait for everyone to read it for it to be out in the world. I'm a little nervous, I'm not gonna lie, but also excited. Yeah, no, it's great.
SPEAKER_02:Because it was it was really fun. But I feel like I was going somewhere and then I completely lost track of block.
SPEAKER_01:Being blocked, but then finally being able to write the poet poem. Oh yes, yeah, yeah. And it just came.
SPEAKER_02:It just like the words just started to flow and it just came together. And it had several stanzas? Is that what they're called? I'm like writing poetry. I don't know the terms. Paragraphs. Several, yeah, poetry paragraphs. They have a name, right? The stanzas. So that it had ended up having several stanzas. And yeah, I just all the thoughts that I or the concepts, ideas that I wanted in there, I was able to include, and yeah, just came together. And it ended up being really fun instead of this like daunting task. Yeah, like it it suddenly wasn't hard anymore, where before it felt like this monumental, exhausting, yeah, impossible feat. And it it it just it was just fun.
SPEAKER_01:I love that so much.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I love that so much.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sitting down to paint with the pottery was actually harder. Yeah, I struggle because it with painting pottery and doing the glazes, you have no idea what it's gonna look like.
SPEAKER_01:And you can't really, I mean, I guess you can kind of erase, but yeah, you can't can you? I guess you can like can you get it? You can't quite erase it, but you can with I guess you can like you can wipe it all off, right? Oh yeah, that wasn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02:Wipe it all off, but also the paint is harder to work with too. It's hard to work with, and they have terrible paintbrushes in the place that we went to. Yeah. I was complaining about them the entire time. I'm a joy to be around.
SPEAKER_01:All rainbows and sunshine, it's fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep. There's a lack of chocolate and terrible paintbrushes okay. It just so I'm just kidding. It was it was really fun.
SPEAKER_01:I promise it was really fun. We had a good time. You're really selling it here.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh. Why am I like this? Yeah, no, it was fun, but it was challenging to sitting down because I hadn't really like I didn't paint last week. And the week before that, it was like, I don't know, five, ten minutes of painting. And so it felt intimidating. I felt that too.
SPEAKER_01:I was like, do I even know how to paint anymore? Right. Same.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, this morning I sat down and I watercolored, did some watercolor painting for a few hours though. Nice. My daughter was with me and she was working with her markers. So fun. And it was oh, it felt so good. It was like, oh, I'm where I belong. Now I'm home. Yeah, it was it was really fun. Had some of those like butterflies feeling a little bit nervous at first of like because it's a painting that I'm coming back to. I've already got the you know first layer down, so I'm coming back to a new layer, and I'm like, what if I ruin it? Yeah, is it still okay? I had to like dust it off before I started. Yeah, but it what I did was not a disaster. It looks good. So it was I I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't that so funny though? It's so funny. I feel like that happens every time when there's been a little bit of time in between. It's like, do I know how to do this anymore? Am I still am I really an artist? Like, I don't know. It just kind of puts you back in that self-doubt, yeah, a little bit. I experienced that at least. And then I'm like, hey, I don't know how to do this anymore. I don't know what I'm doing. But I mean, I don't know, I guess it's kind of like riding a bike, you know. Sometimes you feel a little rusty, but then once you get back into it, yeah, you're like, you know how to do it. But you know what? Also the hours that and hours and hours that have already been put into it, it's like, well, of course I know how to do that, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Though as someone who went many, many, many, many, many years not riding a bike and then getting back on one, there was a bit of a like learning curve. Yeah, and like, how do I balance on this? Am I steady? Am I safe? Am I okay? There was actually some of that, but I mean it had been years, it had been a long time. So yeah, that expression bothers me now. I mean, it was probably easier than a little kid learning to ride their bikes, though my daughter was amazing when she learned how to ride a bike because she got on there, okay, it's a side tangent here. Go on the side quest with me. Um she got on her bike and we were. I was being really terrified and scared because I did not want her to fall because I do not handle injuries well or blood well or anything like that. Well, I will just like go into shock and be a complete mess. So I was holding her back and she was like, Mom, I'm gonna be okay. Just let me do it. I just I have stepped back and she she just went off. She just did it, she just did it. She rode her bike and it was like her first try, basically, without me just like holding on to the handlebars or like being right there, being really scared and not letting her try. And she she just got it like the first time.
SPEAKER_01:Here she goes. It was a good lesson for me. Those are sometimes, I mean, those are always good lessons, but sometimes hard to hard to take a little bit as a parent. Yeah, like, oh man, how long have I been doing this? I have been holding you back. Whoops. That's amazing though. She just like so confident, yeah, confident, did it, just went. Boom. Just let me go, mom. Okay, fine. And sometimes things are like that though. Sometimes you're just ready and you it just like explodes from you, you know, or you just like you just step into it and it's like this is where I belong. I know how to do this because it's so intuitive. Yeah, I feel like I've gotten to that place with watercolor.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. I held myself back my entire life. And then this year was like, you know what? It's time to get rid of the training wheels and just let myself try. And I'm so glad that I did. I'm so glad that we're doing this.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. No, I same. I am also very glad that we're doing this because it is so helpful to see, I don't know, when we let go of fear, how much ability, like how much possibility there is and how much we are actually capable of.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:When we when we let go of fear, because if we just let ourselves do the thing and and don't worry about it, then we experience so much more freedom and joy and fun, and we we do the thing, you know? Yeah. But if we're holding ourselves back because we're afraid of failing or afraid of, you know, whatever it is, then we're we're never gonna actually do it.
SPEAKER_02:Right, which is so silly too, because again, the example of the watercolor, had I messed up, had it been terrible, had everything gone wrong, nobody would have even needed to see that. Right. Like it's something I just privately did on my own time. Like nobody would have even needed to see it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Because at that point, at least with this experiment, we hadn't even decided to share publicly the art. Like the podcast, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The art though wasn't necessarily we were like, oh, we're gonna put that on Instagram every week. Right. We started doing that because we started getting comments and feedback of like, I it would have been really nice to see your art that you were thinking, like what you were actually working on while I was listening to this. And it's like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03:We'll share it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it really, there's like really nothing to lose, I feel.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, most of the time. Most of the time. Yeah, except for our own fear. Yeah, exactly. That we can normally ditch within reason.
SPEAKER_01:You know, you're not gonna get eaten by a tiger. Right. I mean, fear is there for a reason, it's to keep us safe and alive, but yeah, we don't have to let it dictate our whole our whole existence, which is great.
SPEAKER_02:Limiting belief shouldn't be a danger signal, yeah. And yet that's often what it becomes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Instead, we can reframe it as a signal of what like what we need to work on or what is going on internally and what direction we can go that will be more helpful. Like it can be that kind of a signal, but it doesn't have to be a stop sign, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because it's not it's we're not keeping ourselves safe, we're holding ourselves back.
SPEAKER_01:So it's figuring out the difference between the two. Sometimes I feel like that's the hardest the hardest part.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. And it sometimes it's a process, it takes time for sure. And to realize, like, oh like I'm going through something here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's you have to come back to it again and again, you know, or practice recognizing again and again, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's this is something that I actually really want, but I'm not letting myself have it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Why? And then why is that, right?
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna talk about that before about asking ourselves those questions. But yeah, it's coming back to that, coming back to understanding what delights us, coming back to seeing the blocks and understanding why they're there, and then what are you gonna do about it, you know? Right, right. And how to refill. Yeah. Because that's a big part of it as well. That's really good point. A really good point because when you let go of that limiting belief, yeah, you gotta fill it with a a new belief, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I was talking about like creatively refilling, but yes. Yes to what you do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I feel like yeah, I feel like when we're trying to change and when we're trying to like form a new habit or something like that, like I've heard I've heard science behind this too, where we uh or like other people talk about this. When we let go of something, often we feel like that's all we have to do is just let go of that bad habit or let go of that limiting belief and get it out of your life, right? But then there's that space that it's been hold that has been holding it, and that space is still there. And so it's if we don't fill it with something better, then it's gonna be easier for that old belief to come back.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, it's like the neural pathways of the brain, right? You need to make a new, a new pathway to follow, right instead and strengthen it and let it get stronger until it is the highway rather than the old road. Right, right.
SPEAKER_01:And so, yeah, ha having a conscious thought of what am what am I gonna think instead? What am I gonna believe instead? Having a purpose, you know, in that way and not just like not only the I'm gonna let this go, but I'm going to believe this instead as well, you know, both together.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Something that has helped us is we've been listening to our past episodes that we've recorded and discussions when we were really feeling inspired and excited about creating, and then we're like in this rut of uh creating is hard right now. And we're listening to these episodes of being so lit up and excited, yeah, and just oh, I want to get I want to get back to that place. Yeah, she sounds rather wise, dare I say, about past myself. Yeah. Yeah, but it actually was kind of inspiring. I feel silly saying that, like listening to our previous conversations, but it it was, it it did help.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think that's one of the one of the things too about like writing down when you're in a really good place, you know, writing down your feelings or your thoughts or your dreams or your you know, things that are inspiring to you and having them so where you can see them so that when you are in the dip, when you are in the rut, you can see that again. And it can help remind you, yeah. Like, oh, it was real that feeling. Yeah, it was real because when we're in that low, lower place, it it doesn't feel real, like we forget. You know, it's so easy to forget, and it's so easy to just discount whatever we were saying before because we're like, well, you know, we're so in it right in that dip, right?
SPEAKER_02:And so it's interesting because when I'm in creative flow, it's like I am instoppable, yeah, and I can do anything, and I can do anything that I if I can imagine it, I can create it. Like, whoo, power. Let's go. And then when I'm in the rut in this creative block, it's like I will never create again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was all in lies. Dreams are dashed forever. What is it? What is it? Anne Shirley says, And Shirley. The depths of despair. Yeah, the depths of despair.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's exactly how it feels. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I found like I making a Pinterest board, I made a like an inspiration board of things that inspire me, yeah, or things that make me feel like myself that connect me to myself. Oh, I love this. And that helps your delight board. Yeah, my delight board. And so that sometimes when I'm feeling lower, like going on there and actually seeing that too. It's like the words, the listening, you know, all of the all of the intakes process, process, the ways that we process. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, finding ways that that help me. And then also like coming back to the things that have I think that's why coming back to the things from childhood that were like so delightful and so inspiring is was so helpful, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, you know, going back, like the limiting beliefs often stem from childhood. Yeah. And so we're going back and trying to root those out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right. But we also need to go back to the childhood, like the good things that also informed who we are. I love that. There's two sides to it. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. It just blew her mind. It blew my mind.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Yeah. I feel like that is such a more whole like a holistic way of thinking about it because I feel like in the therapy age that we are in now, and you know, self-improvement, self-help books, and all of the things, it's there's so much talk about going back into childhood and and fixing all of your childhood problems, right? Yeah. But connecting with the childlike, with the good childhood things, the childlike delight and the wonderful. It's often a negative lens. Right, right. And so having that the two two sides of the coin, right? Right. Is so much more impactful, I feel. Oh, yeah. For growth. Well, after this past week, 100%. Yeah, coming back to who you to yourself, to alignment, to who you are. Yeah. Which best with children's books. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Children's books.
SPEAKER_01:With yeah, because you can't really have that without the the good things from you know what created you. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And this week I had another realization as well. And I was like, man, I've been in, I've had such a creative block and I haven't been able to paint. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Back up. Okay, correct. I haven't been doing the watercolors. However, I have made how many graphics for Instagram and Pinterest and you know, using some of my graphic design background for the past few weeks, like overboard. Yeah. Insane. I'm maybe this isn't a creative block. Maybe I'm just a little bit tired. Because I've been creating non-stop. Like that's the reality of it. I have actually been creating non-stop and then I've been beating myself up for not being more creative on top of that. And there is a difference between a creative block and needing a rest. Yes. Or a break. Or, you know, as I said before, filling the creative well. Yes. And it comes back to that. And so, you know, this past week, I let go of not this past week, but the week before when I didn't paint, I let some of that go. And part of the reason that happened is because I had scheduled to paint on the weekend and then our power went out. I don't remember if I talked about this last time.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if you did either. I don't remember. I don't think you did.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there was a huge storm.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The power went out. It was really dark.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I couldn't, there wasn't enough light to actually sit and paint. And then we ended up going to Brianna's house for the rest of the weekend. And so I wasn't even home with my art supplies. But we were waiting for the power to come back on. And she graciously hosted us. And our kids were very happy they had to have a sleepover. It was way fun. So ecstatic. But it was almost like the universe was like, you know what? You actually need a break. And you're like, you have to take one. You have to have a rest. You don't get to work on anything. Just go play with your friend and your kids and just rest and have fun. Yeah. And then I took too many allergy pills and was really out of it.
SPEAKER_00:And I didn't respect a lot.
SPEAKER_02:I couldn't actually do anything. I I don't do well on allergy pills, you guys, but Brianna has a dog, so I had to take them and I was out of it. It was a fun time.
SPEAKER_01:Which was probably also a good thing because it you did get some extra rest. Yeah, you like actually slowed down. I was given no choice to.
SPEAKER_02:And then this week was like, wow, I'm back. I can do things.
SPEAKER_03:This is fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So that's another that's another side of it. It's an important thing to note too is yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Is it is it rest that I need? Do I just need rest? Do I need to be filled filled again? You know, exhausted.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like that could be a whole nother episode is like how to refill the creative well and like how we maybe we'll save that. We'll save that for another time.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Stay tuned. It it'll happen sometime. We'll talk about it.
SPEAKER_01:We'll love that. But we did learn from this week that reconnecting with our childhood delights and filling up again helped us reset and help and resting uh helped us reset and helped the creativity come back and feel more alive again.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks for hanging out with us on this very rambly, very rambly episode. We're so happy you're here. We are.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see you next time. 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.