The Power of Now (2)

One step at a time

Can you be creative right now, in this moment? Can you flick the switch to creative flow and make the outcomes that you imagine?

I think many believe that this is possible and that being an artist means clicking your fingers, a quick ‘abracadabra’ and behold, a new artwork appears.

The answer though is, of course, no! You cannot flick the switch and be suddenly at your creative best. Creativity is a muscle that needs exercising. But there is power in the now for small steps that build toward artistic output. In each moment you can choose how you spend your time, how to nourish yourself towards developing the tools of creative output.

In the preparation, there is dreaming, there is visualising, there is gathering. Being in the making moment, relies on the hours previously spent experimenting, sketching, trying and ‘failing’ at techniques. It relies on iterations and reiterations, discarded beginnings and frustrated outcomes. It relies on:

“…sheer will to get something out of the (creative) door” Claire Bridges, Creative Director

Living in the power of now is in showing up for all the small parts that make a whole-hearted creative life. But it is also bigger than now. Enacting these stepping-stones, leads to better creative functioning but hopefully to more than that. My aim is to be able to lessen the time it takes to reach creative spaciousness when timelessness, flow, and energy form an intersection where I feel connected to a larger life force and a sense of purpose.

It all starts with a single step. If you are struggling with that step, and need a springboard, you need to tap into your intuition to flex your creative muscle.

Choose 3 things. Gather items that may have a pleasing palette, or similar textures, or perhaps the connection between the items tells a story, holds a sentimental narrative. Art is in the collating and the editing. It’s in seeking inspiration and finding an intention for it. Then it’s being brave enough to take the next step, to choosing a technique to capture your 3 things, be that sketching, photography, collage, paint, or writing down the spark of memory those objects evoke.

Keep your soul open and listen to the connections that help you join-the-dots and play with the possibilities. Do not be led by the end result, do not let thoughts over take you, do not fall prey to self-criticism.

Make art.

One

step

at

a

time.

Keep in the now of creating.

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Find more courses that connect the dots and help you build a regular practice and keep evolving creatively at helenhallows.com

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Thank you for reading this. I post three free-to-read posts each month and a subscriber post that I publish on the first of every month. It’s a magazine style post where I share, over a three monthly cycle, inspirations, creative wellbeing advice, how to manage creative block and move to creative flow. I share lessons from my online courses in the form of a ‘dose’ of creativity to kickstart your sketchbook practice (next video mini-lesson in March). Coming in 2025 are interviews with other artists on how they use a sketchbook (February) as well as news from my studio and insights into my creative practice. Join my tribe for £5 a month or £50 a year and get access to all my previous posts too.