I work and have worked with many people over the years and the nature of the work has evolved and changed. One thing I would like to say right here and now is that I consider all of us to be artists.

Life is a work of art; it is a creation that stems from our beliefs, programs, ancestry, traumas and experiences. These are the materials from which we create as life itself is the canvas.

I have been thinking a lot about what makes one an artist, in the traditional sense of the definition, I mean. Making art, for me, is play and it is something I call my work. How can it be both? This is where I would like to dive in a little deeper as I know that this is an issue we all get to move through to thrive as an artist.

If you could name one thing that blocks you in your creativity what would it be? For many it is the ability to make money. We tell ourselves stories, based on what we have been told by our culture or maybe experienced directly of how it is. We have beliefs like: work is hard, your work defines you, time is money, etc. There are probably many more and are so varied and nuanced. Let’s consider time along with money as they are the two reasons I hear the most from folks as to why they are not diving deeper into their lives as an artist. The second reason is lack, which I always relate to the time and money thing (not enough - knowledge, skill, time, money, being not enough in some way).

Here’s the thing- if you had the money, and all the time, would you then get to the studio and play?!

I am creating my life right now to include more time for art. I have managed for years to find a balance between my work as a healer, then my work as a coach/guide/healer in an online format and my work as an artist. In the last year I found myself getting more and more frustrated at the amount of time my online presence was costing me.

I, like you, require resources to live. It is a huge initiation to shift the mind that holds the beliefs that get in the way of making art a priority. I got to work with my lack belief systems by experiencing, first, that I was not going to die; second, that I could actually experience my life in a way that feels good and juicy and third I can generate an income. It did take a little time to shift the outer experience–I had to shift my inner experience first. This too is an art.

It doesn’t take much to see where we begin our struggle with the lack mindset. After all, most of us went to public school where there was room for only a few good artists. It was not sold to us that there could be many artists in the class, or that everyone is an artist- sorry kids, we only have room for one- this is lack thinking.

In an abundant and diverse universe, how is it that there can only be one artist? Is there only one kind of flower in the garden? One kind of tree in the forest? You see where I am going here.

In an exclusionary way of thinking, we do only have room for the best, the best is limited and art has to be the capital A kind of art. That kind of art comes with a definition that quite honestly seems a bit arbitrary. Am I an artist if I make my art? If I sell my art? If I went to art school? Who gets to say?

I am because I say so!

Does making art make you happy? Yes and no. There is a challenge to creating it. Whether you are strictly representing an object that we all relate to or an image in your imagination that only you can see, there is the struggle of our emotions and beliefs of whether I am doing this justice. There is an inner battle between the child creator in us and the archetypes we acquired as we developed into adults.

What others think doesn’t matter in the studio process, only your thoughts matter. What are they? You do want to be aware as they do have an effect on the outcome. You can not, not make work that you are not in.

Only you will know if you are doing the work and doing it honestly. Yep, there are critics and judges–we conveniently employ them in our own minds-these are the archetypes I mentioned. They eat away at your confidence, they tell you you are wasting your time and your money. Most of all, they kill your love for the work, IF YOU ALLOW IT!

We do have the power to come back to ourselves and connect with the playful parts of creation. Can you remember being a child and playing? Do you remember how that feels as a memory? Drop in right now. Go back to a time where you can feel the joy of the moment of playing. Is the sun shining? Are you outdoors? Are you in your room, secluded with some paper and crayons? Feel that memory in your body and breathe it into the now.

In that space there is no one that is judging you or your creation. Your life or survival does not depend on what you draw or how you draw it. Can you create from this space? What would you create if you took the enormous amount of pressure to survive off of you and came back to play?

I know what you are thinking right now. I am thinking it too. Creating is a practice, healing is a practice. Let’s begin to shift the doing part by reframing how we think, approach and define ourselves as artists and how we actually do the work of play.

Let it be a practice where you create the rules of the game, let the voices just be the voices that you tune out (remember that you are making them up!) and just keep going no matter what.