At the risk of sounding Super Duper Philosophical, autumn always gets me thinking. It gets me thinking about the ideas of change, of making space for new things by letting go of old things, of slowing down after a busy season, of focusing less on growth and more on nurturing.
The theme that’s been on my heart lately is slowness. When our lives and our creative practices are knitted together with cords of hurry and hustle, nervous energy and quick turnarounds, the joy quickly gets lost. We forget to stop and admire the beautiful leaves on our morning walk because we feel rushed to get to work soon. We forget to enjoy creating beautiful brushstrokes because we’re already four days past the painting deadline. We forget to find beauty in the simplicity of today because we’re too busy looking forward to tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but this joyless, rushed existence is not the vibe for me. I want to live and create with intention, joy, and peace. Not hurry, anxiety, and a desire to move on to the next big project.
So, I wanted to share with you three of the ways I’m making space for slowness in my creative practice!
1) Letting go of the illustration deadlines. Many of my Meraki Meadow paintings over the past couple of years take me about a week to complete from the time the brush first touches the paper. But I realized, these paintings don’t each necessarily take that long; I MAKE THEM take that long. Even the most involved paintings, I cram into one week because “that’s just the way I’ve always done it.” I’ve been unwittingly enforcing an unnecessary one-week deadline on my paintings.
So, when I came to my latest Meraki Meadow illustration, I decided to let that deadline go. I committed myself to letting the project take however long it took. And not only was the painting better for it, but I was better for it. I didn’t feel crushed by a looming deadline. I felt that I truly had space and time to make something beautiful.
2) Letting myself get lost in the process. Because there were no deadlines on this piece, I didn’t feel rushed to complete it quickly. And because I didn’t feel rushed, I let myself really sit with the painting and find the fun in every little detail. I spent like 40 minutes on this yarn-ball drawer, and it was truly one of my FAVORITE PARTS of the painting process! Every time I look at the painting, I remember just how much fun I had painting this little element.
3) Intentionally taking on bigger, slower projects. Sometimes it’s laziness, sometimes it’s wanting a quick win, sometimes it’s intimidation to start something bigger, and sometimes it’s a because we’ve gaslit ourselves into thinking we don’t have enough time, but I think we let ourselves reach for the low-hanging fruit a little too often in our creative practices. But when we do this, we rob ourselves of the joy of crafting something more substantial. Don’t get me wrong, bigger is not necessarily better, but faster is not necessarily better either. Big projects require me to slow down, to take my time, and to make every moment matter.
Lately, I’ve been turning my YouTube videos into Big Projects. Carefully compiling shot lists of story-telling b-roll, researching videography, implementing new editing techniques. It’s not low-effort or fast-turnaround by any means. It’s a slow and steady process to craft these videos, but I’ve never had more fun making them.
I want to encourage you to embrace a bit of slowness in your own creative practice this season. Whether that’s by letting go of deadlines, taking on bigger projects, or something else entirely, give yourself permission to embrace slow creativity and find joy in the process.