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I am no artist.

How I woke up my inner creative side

By JuliaPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
5

It was 2019. I had long been struggling to find fulfillment through my day job and yet kept over-focusing and stressing about being perfect at it. I needed to take a step away from it all and just find something to relax me.

I am no artist. Despite loving art, I had always thought I was just not born with such talent. One day, I ran into the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, and was intrigued by the author’s proposal that anyone could have an artistic side.

I decided to try out some of her recommendations, after all, it couldn’t hurt. Slowly but steadily, I started writing morning pages. Every morning, before rushing out the door, I’d wake up a few minutes early to make sure I’d sit down and write in my journal.

At first, it felt pointless and like a waste of my precious additional minutes of sleep: Much of my writing was plain rambling and complaining. I noticed this negative trend that would appear in my very first thoughts of the day. Gradually, my writing shifted onto focusing on sensations, like the smell of my freshly brewed coffee or the warmth coming from the rays of sunshine that came through the window.

Over time, my writing process evolved, and my thought process shifted alongside it. Even when my writing was negative, dumping the words into paper allowed me to move on from those thoughts. Similar to when you have a secret and you can’t get it out of your mind until you just tell someone about it.

My passion for writing started when I was still in high school, but I had never really allowed myself to be considered a writer. Or an artist. But I started to realize that you don’t need to be naturally born with talent or to have a formal education to be an artist. Art is messy and unique and special. In various forms and mediums and sources.

Besides writing, the book also encouraged me to try out different creative things, like getting some sparkly glue from the dollar store. My next realization was that I didn’t have to have a greater purpose to make my art, nor did I have to be absolutely amazing at it. I could just make art to relax, have fun, and explore it all.

So I started to paint with watercolour.

At the beginning, I sucked. I had never painted in my life before (well, I did a hand painting for my mom when I was 5 years old, if that counts), so I bought cheap supplies from the dollar store, which turned out pretty poorly. I reminded myself that this is the way it is when you start something new, and after doing some research, I invested a little bit in some inexpensive but beginner-quality supplies.

About a year later, I kept on practicing relatively regularly. Painting served as a refuge from my negative thoughts and stress during the uncertainty the pandemic brought at the time. I started seeing some significant improvement in my paintings!

From the beginning (left-side) to the most recent ones (right-side)

Over the last year, I also found out that some of my friends are also painting and doing their own art. It has been great to share a new passion with them, and we even started a weekly Zoom painting call. We keep ourselves accountable this way (raise your hand if you’ve ever said you’re too busy/tired to practice your creative skills) and catch up on life stuff.

While I am not a professional artist (and I don’t intend on becoming one), I learned that art is much more than having enough experience to be put into a category. It is a form of expression and liberation. I am forever grateful for the lessons I’ve learned, the friends I’ve gotten closer to, and the creative space that watercolour has given me.

art
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About the Creator

Julia

I am no artist.

• Bits of poetry, anecdotes, language learning, travel tips & mostly daydreaming.

🇧🇷🇨🇦🇫🇷

@julias_everywhere

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