How two simple things, over time, sustain a creative practice

I believe that the cornerstones of any creative practice are two things that whilst not easy, are accessible to everyone.

Curiosity and just learning new skills.

These are the things that start an interest, a creative practice or the spark of something. They are also the things that sustain a creative practice or creating art in any way. If you aren’t driven by curiosity it’s hard to sustain interest or follow new discoveries onto the next step in the creative process. Realising that so much of art-making was learning skills and not being magically talented was a game-changer for me. I remember as a young child being told by an Artist family friend that “90% of great art was just practice and learning”. That “no one is born a complete, fully talented artist”. It is something I still think about today and it helps when I start something new or learn something I’m not ‘good’ at. I’ve learned that you have to work at a skill in order to get good at it. It really is mostly practice.

There are elitists out there that disagree and believe art is only for the chosen few. But to me it’s always seemed weird (and boring) that so many ‘proper’ Artists were from the same wealthy and privileged backgrounds. It’s almost like if given the chance, the ability to fail without catastrophic consequences, some support and encouragement, humans will make art. When life doesn’t choke the art out of us by denying us any time or energy to devote to something creative and joyful instead of just surviving. If you want to see things from a different perspective, look for art that is made by people of different backgrounds, cultures and economic classes to you or to the majority of the art you are consuming.

I’ve spent most of the last 20 years focusing on surviving and yet it was the small windows of creative time and art-making that has sustained me. It’s why I’m so passionate about encouraging others to explore their own creativity. Exploring making something is an act of rebellion in this capitalist consumption-driven world. But it’s also an act of self-care. It creates a space within for you to self-soothe and acknowledge your actual feelings and identity in a safe space. Art expands your reality. Art-making doesn’t need an audience but it does require curiosity. An interest in exploring and seeing what happens next. What do you like? What doesn’t work? What little part of something you made sparkles with possibility and excitement to you in amongst those messy beginnings of trying something new?

If you are only ever consuming ‘content’, only ever reading, watching and looking at the finished product, it can be hard to believe that art is anything short of magic. The way art can connect and move you feels like magic. Seeing art that is beautiful, complex or unattainable can feel like only a chosen few or ‘special’ people get to make art. Only some people get to become artists. But the truth is that while everyone can’t make everything at the same level or in the same way, which would be boring anyway, making something creatively is accessible to everyone. Whether it’s learning a new craft like crochet, taking photos, sketching messily in a cafe over coffee, cooking or baking, or giving some old furniture a new coat of paint, when you make something new you are engaging your own creative joy. You are defining your own taste and ideas. The creative process is more accessible than most people believe. Curiosity and the knowledge that skills are something that can be learned and developed, are the only things you really need to get started.

When I realised that art-making, even if it wasn’t good or seen by anyone else, had great value in my life, my life improved. The value of making something is in the very act itself. The end product can be amazing or totally cringe-worthy but the process of making something creative was always valuable to me. To me it’s very sad how AI is stealing these core aspects of the creative act from people. Taking away their curiosity and the ability to learn and develop new skills. To try something new. Learn new things about themselves. It takes away their ability to discover their own happy accidents. To make their own magic. AI also only functions by stealing from real, live, human artists too.

I truly believe that making some art, imperfect and messy and weird, is so important. Get lost in the process and learn how much work actually goes into making something new. You will never think a handmade piece of clothing is overpriced again once you try making some by hand! Being curious and exploring new things is so valuable. You never know where curiosity and learning new skills will lead you. A creative practice allows you to be present with yourself. It brings to light things unexamined and challenging and sometimes beautiful. Making art isn’t therapy but it can still be therapeutic.

The act of making art creates autonomy and a clearer sense of identity. Through the many small decisions that you have to make in the creative process, the constant reflection and analysis of the decisions you are making, you learn what you like and don’t like. You learn about how you view the world and your place in it. Art-making clarifies so many things. To continue to engage in this sometimes uncomfortable process, I think it’s curiosity that carries you through. It’s interest in what you can do to change the current outcome? Curiosity about what will happen next? It’s the knowledge that skills are learned and over time you improve, grow and change, that keeps you going when you don’t yet have the skills you want, when you are still learning.

Something as simple as curiosity and the knowledge that new skills are learned, is transformative. It opens up so many possibilities. And it has sustained my creative practice when I’ve had very little time, energy or money. When I’ve only had five minutes in a day for myself for years at a time. When all I’ve had was a cheap notebook or art journal and my kid’s art supplies. When the art I made in that time wasn’t good or well developed or very interesting, it still fed my soul to spend five minutes making something. And those five minutes over time added up. My skills improved. My capacity to make art increased, along with my energy and time. My ability to more deeply explore and develop ideas increased, as has my skills. And my art has improved. But the cornerstones of my creative practice has remained the same. Curiosity and learning new skills.

The value making art and doing something creative brings to my life continues to grow. As I navigate this new stage of life where my children are growing up and my caring role doesn’t require as much of my time and energy as it has for the last 20 years, it’s curiosity and the knowledge that I can learn new skills as I need them, that is guiding me through this time. And it’s my little resilient creative practice that has taught me that.