ART AND RECONNECTION

Hello everyone, and a warm welcome to new subscribers…I’m so glad you’re here!

Recently I have been reminded of just how swiftly things can change for us, and how that can impact our art-making. Life often surprises us with unexpected challenges, and opportunities, both of which can require us to take a break from our creative work.

Late last year my beloved studio cat, Ruby, was diagnosed with diabetes. As a result, she has needed a tremendous amount of my attention, requiring tons of intensive research on my part to learn how to manage this disease and give her the best possible chance of living with it. My focus has been pulled in an unexpected direction, and life has felt fuller than ever.

While art-making has always been a respite for me from the increasingly busy pace of our life, the constant interruptions in my studio time over these past several months reminded me of the need for a re-entry strategy each time I find my way back to the studio and reconnect with my work.

In this month’s blog post, I offer some suggestions on how you can reframe the breaks that might occur in your art practice. While consistency is ideal for our art-making, it’s not always possible. The good news is our mindset plays a significant role in supporting these absences and helps guide us back into the studio so we can reconnect with our art once again.

And since this month’s blog post is a bit longer than most, I want to remind you that it is also offered as an audio recording, allowing you to listen rather than read. To access the recording, click on the READ MORE OR LISTEN button in the ‘FROM THE BLOG’ section of this newsletter. You’ll find the MP3 file at the bottom of my written post on my website.

If you have any feedback, I always love hearing from you. Thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter—it is truly appreciated.

PS: For those of you who are new subscribers, I have included a link to previous issues of my newsletter, full of additional resources for you!

RETURNING TO OUR CREATIVE WORK AFTER A BREAK

Much like myself, many artists I work with have other demands on their time and energy. From family commitments to health issues, along with indulging other passions or occupations, artists are not always producing work full-time and need very real strategies for staying connected to their art-making and re-engaging with the work when they are able to return to the studio.

For most artists, art-making is a life purpose, which is why we feel the calling so deeply. Ideally, we want to consistently engage with our art practice, as it is through our creative work that we create meaning-making opportunities for ourselves and develop our craft. However, it’s likely not our only life purpose, as we may have multiple areas of focus in our lives that feed our need for meaning and connection. As a result, we may find ourselves taking time away from our art-making to serve these other life purposes. We may also be taking time away to deal with some of the very real aspects of life—family, health, financial stability, etc.

With that understanding, we can assume that having periods away from our art practice is likely to occur for us for various reasons. But why do we struggle so much when it happens, and what can we do to make this pattern more acceptable for ourselves? What helps us stay connected to our art-making when we experience these breaks?

Here are a few points that can help:

Reframe the feeling of absence

I learned a long time ago that I needed to reframe these periods of absence from my art-making as something more manageable and lower the volume on my anxiety around them. Being an artist and a coach meant that breaks from my creative work were inevitable.

When I wasn’t able to hold these times of absence in a healthy way, I would have so much negative energy to face and clear out before I could begin working once more. I would have to spend what time I did have in the studio trying to get ready to work, rather than actually working. This significantly lessened the quality of the time I had available to me and compounded the feeling of absence, creating a cycle that felt deeply challenging to overcome. And, like clockwork, resistance would arrive.

What I discovered, as I began exploring what was at play for me, was that reframing the feelings I was experiencing when I wasn’t able to make my creative work shifted things significantly.

As I dug deeper and tuned into what the absence was creating within me, I realized these feelings were actually a form of longing. And the mindset I was holding was overlaying that longing with feelings of frustration and angst. So instead, I leaned into how much I actually missed my studio work and allowed myself to eagerly anticipate returning to it, rather than shaming myself for not doing better. I thought about paintings, imagined making work and exploring ideas, and wrote in my sketchbook journal as often as possible to cement these feelings into my awareness. This made such a difference for me.

When we can affirm and connect with how much we are looking forward to our studio time—rather than focusing on lack—we focus on the sweetness of reuniting with our work once more. Where we place our focus, our energy goes.

How might you reframe breaks from your art-making?

INSPIRATION FOR YOUR ARTIST’S MINDSET

AN ARTFUL LIFE: PAT STEIR

Pat Steir is an American painter and printmaker, born in 1938. She first came to prominence in the early 1980s with her Waterfall works—large-scale canvases that utilized the power of gravity to form lyrical compositions of poured paint.

Steir passed away in March 2026, just before her 88th birthday. In this video trailer for a beautiful film about her life, made by Veronica Gonzalez Peña, we get a glimpse of what made Steir such a memorable and individualistic painter.

Her intention as an artist was to remove herself from the painting process. Steir states “…my idea was not to touch the canvas, not to paint, but to pour the paint and let the paint itself make a picture. I set the limitations. The limitations, of course, are the colour, the size, the wind in the room, and how I put the paint on. And then everything outside of me controls how that paint falls.”

In considering the value of an artist’s life and work, Pat Steir’s conviction in her own ideas about what painting can be is deeply inspiring. 

You can learn more about Steir’s process in this interview with Sylvère Lotringer.

YOU KEEP GOING, EVEN WHERE THERE MIGHT BE NO ANSWER: HENRY WARD

In this longer-form artist interview from Timestamp, we meet the British painter Henry Ward as he shares the compulsion and tension of being an artist. Ward emphasizes process over product and candidly discusses the challenge of not knowing the answers but staying with the questions, even as the purpose and meaning of the work seems elusive.

Ward offers wonderful advice to younger artists on how to build a sustainable art-practice through consistency and curiosity. He explains that daily practice and engagement with our art is how we stay connected—a form of maintenance that supports our creative work.

There is a tremendous amount of honesty shared in this interview—a thoughtful and insightful look at what being an artist is about.

NATURE, CREATIVITY, LOVE AND FEAR: RICK RUBIN

Every time I have the opportunity to listen to Rick Rubin speak, I feel more settled and expanded. He has such a beautiful way of connecting all things together and reminding us of our value as creators.

Rick Rubin is a highly regarded music producer whose book, The Creative Act, was published in 2023. His personality and sensitive wisdom made it both an enlightening and affirming read.

In this T&H video, Rubin reminds us that fear is the absence of love, and that our suffering comes from how we choose to respond to the pain or loss we may be experiencing. I think I needed this reminder in the face of my recent challenges in managing the intensity of this time. Perhaps you might need this reminder too.

OFFERINGS FOR ARTISTS

The 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course is an affordable, content rich, self-guided course that can be started at any time and is always available for purchase on my website.

Once purchased, you’ll have lifetime access to the course and can repeat the Challenge at any time in the future, giving your art-making the boost it might need.

This course also addresses essential aspects of the artist’s mindset—how we think about and approach our creative work in ways that move beyond fear and limitations and open us to what’s possible

You can find out more about the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course HERE.

You’re also welcome to email me at info@insightcreative.ca with your questions.

THE GIFT OF SHARING

For new subscribers – please enjoy these previous issues of my monthly newsletter. Links to additional back issues can be found on the right sidebar of my blog HERE.

If you know of any artists that could benefit from these monthly newsletters, blog posts, or any of my Course Offerings, please share this email with them and invite them to have a look. They’ll receive my free PDF download on ‘How to Make a Creativity Journal’ when they subscribe.

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