Studioworks

I’ve asked my dear friend and fellow artist, Sarah Burch to share some thoughts about passion and her creative practice…

How do you fuel your passion for making art?

Oh my goodness so many things fuel my passion for making art,  where to begin? Curiosity, imagination, envisioning, play, exploration, mindset, quiet time, nature, meditation, taking breaks, spending quality time with family and friends, learning new techniques, journaling, being inspired and inspiring others, in-depth conversations. And probably many other things I’ll think of after this – ha!

Currently, I would say curiosity is high on the list for what fuels my passion the most these days. I’ve always been curious about life and our creativity. Exploration is huge as well! Being curious in exploring and playing, seeing and feeling my way while creating. Working on getting on board with my creative flow, tapping into my innate creativity. Which means working on shedding the thoughts of “will anyone resonate with my art”  and instead by making art that feels in alignment to me.

Inspiration but not always straightforward inspiration, as in “waiting for inspiration ” to create, or only creating when inspiration hits me. That definitely happens and love when it does, but not always. More like taking ‘inspired action’ or inspired ‘non-action’. It may sound counterproductive but taking spaces away from actively creating helps me get in touch with my innate creativity just as much as the process of creating a painting.

I’ve also learned to trust my intuition more – together with my curiosity. Being curious of how to push beyond my current skill sets and leaning into my intuitive creative side has been so helpful. It is a journey and I have way more “failures” than “successful” paintings that I feel are ready to sell. I practice a lot and most don’t make the cut for the vision I have for my art. I’m learning to embrace this part more, and I’m grateful for my failures and the struggles that come with creating art. I didn’t always feel this way I used to feel I had to create perfection somehow – ha! That’s funny because it really is the opposite of what and why I create now.

Spending quality time with my family, friends and cherished ones also is good for my Soul. Realizing it is the ordinary moments that become the extraordinary, these moments are priceless. Having deep conversations about life with either loved ones, friends or total strangers become beautiful opportunities for inspiration and catalyst for strengthening our passion to make art that feels so meaningful to me.

All these things and more bring beautiful awareness. You know that feeling of; connecting with others in a pure authentic way, creating a piece of art in utter alignment-flow or listening to music, the kind that touches something so innate within us, it’s soul-soothing and soul-shattering all at once. You really feel alive, connected to everyone and everything – it’s in these experiences that we are touched so deeply. When everything else suddenly falls away and we are truly present. It’s like we fall in sync with the rhythm or the frequency of who we really are. It’s this experience or happening that makes me more curious to push further. Glimpses into my wholeness, our wholeness, the wholeness of the universe, God, Goddess, Spirit, Universe, Creator, Mama Earth, oneness. It’s really hard to describe or fully grasp. This definitely is something that fuels my passion to create.

If all else fails there’s always Pinterest – ha! 

Have you had times in your life when it felt like your creative spark went out? How did you navigate or cope with this time?

Oh my yes, most definitely I have, many, many times. This happens if I’m neglecting a part of myself or if I’m on the verge of expanding. It’s actually quite rough – these spaces, but I try my best and trust the process, the journey. When this happens, as it does frequently, I try to get quiet and listen to what to do next. Sometimes it’s walking away, other times it’s pushing through to see what happens next. I use to automatically go to the place of self negative talk; like – “I’m not an artist – this is a total shit show.” Now, I am trying to be more patient and gentle with myself. Knowing life is always happening right now, every moment and not when I’m a “better artist” in the future. Also, I’m trying to instill more patience when this happens knowing eventually the creative spark always comes back.

How do you best flow with your creative cycles and do you recognize them as they occur?

For me this comes down to, am I in alignment? And trying to recognize earlier when I’m out of alignment. I know well the feelings of being out of alignment with my authentic self, this is what brought me back to art in the first place. I have sort of developed a checklist;

Where is my mindset? Am I forcing something or flowing in alignment? They both work right? I mean we can force ourselves to do many things, our will is powerful. So asking myself is this in alignment with me or is it something I’m trying to own that actually doesn’t fit me. Ha, I try to save my forced will of things like cleaning my house! When I make the conscious effect to be aware of when I am in alignment that crazy need to compare myself to others isn’t as present. However, when I’m out of alignment it is very present, backing up that feeling of lack, that I’m not good enough. This has been a beautiful gage of when I need to navigate back to my true self.

What happened? Why, when or how did I veer off course? What were the trigger points? For me it can be years back or 5 minutes ago. Was I trying to make something fit? It may, but do I really want it to? These are the questions I try to ask myself now. What kind of art that I make feels most in alignment with me? What flows the best, when am I having the most fun? This seems to change somewhat but there is a steady constant and that is, being able to freely express myself without restrictions. Why do I flow more when I have the mindset of “no expectations of outcome” in my work? Because I’m not restricted by any guidelines or outcomes I set for myself, or by any that I can feel others might have.

This helps me clear up space to flow more in my own alignment. As opposed to trying to force creative flow from a place that isn’t really in alignment to who I am, as a person and artist. So listening to what feels most in alignment, authentic to me, taking time to access and learning to embrace my intuition more is helping me engage with my creative flow.

So sometimes, I recognize and sometimes I do not, these cycles can certainly sneak up on me. Then there are these to take into account as well: Moon cycles, seasonal cycles and even the flow of the days have a cycle. I think these alone have measure with our individual and collective flows or ability to make waves. So there are times I have to ask myself how much of this is mine and how much is the Collective? This is a helpful discernment. Usually, almost always it is both, and when the Collective consciousness magnifies my own feelings, I know it’s time to stop, get quiet and pour some love, balance and harmony into her. The ebb and flow, a beautiful delicate dance, let’s just say, sometimes it’s graceful and other times I’m picking myself off the floor – ha!!

What advice would you give to a newer artist about channeling their passion?

I feel it’s important to remember to allow some room for patience (something I’m continuously working on ha) while we are starting out and all throughout creative life. Allow lots of room for play and exploration as maybe “a step in, or addition to” learning new skills and techniques in art making. This is helpful for me when I study the structure of the face. For example, we feel the need, desire and drive to learn as much as possible when we start anything new right? Which is awesome, but can be overwhelming or a feeling of “when I get there” so I think taking small breaks when or if we feel this helps.

Practice, patience and perseverance are great teachers to give ourselves when we are learning something new.

Find artists you love, study their paintings, what do you love? The colors, composition, style, the feelings and emotions you feel? What are these paintings, artists trying to say to you? And if they are living and you can learn from them in person or online do it, if you can.

But also remember the best teacher is YOU! Once you’ve acquired some skills and techniques lean into your own teachings, as well. Because in every one of us lives our innate creative being, that holds tons of wisdom! Follow your heart, your wisdom and your divine guidance.

And remember art is so much FUN and is soooo HEALING! When we channel these two things alone, I feel we can better handle the ups and downs that come with creating and daily life. They are beautiful reminders of why we were all drawn to using our creativity in the first place! Don’t give up!  Usually a  breakthrough comes right after that feeling 🙂 – another step in the journey and practice makes progress and patience is most definitely a virtue when it comes to art <3

“Create what you want to see in the world” is so profound! What are a couple things you would like to see in the world? A couple of mine are unconditional Love, authenticity, balance and harmony. All these feelings and emotions are infused in each of my paintings, no matter what it looks like. If we want to change or impact the world it literally starts with ourselves. So within so without. Be you…because that is what you were created for and we want to see it! <3

Best of luck and wishes to each of you!!! Thank you for using your creativity – it brings so much unique expression, healing, love and light into our world!!

To learn more about Sara and follow her beautiful creative journey, you can visit her on Instagram and Facebook

When one thinks of passion, many artists come to mind. When one thinks of passion with a generous dose of suffering, one can’t go too far without thinking of dear Vincent van Gogh.

Plagued by mental illness, epilepsy and addiction, he pummeled his way through life led by his heart and the unstoppable yearning to capture all the world in his paintings. He created in a mania often doing several paintings a day.

He created almost constantly – producing more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches! Despite this enormous body of work, he only ever sold one painting (The Red Vineyard at Arles) while he was alive and lived an impoverished, painful, conflicted existence. He died by his own hand, at the age of 37.

We can only be thankful that he was willing to suffer for his art, since he left a miraculous body of work, now treasured by the world.

I encourage you to do a few master studies this month. Vincent’s drawings and paintings are absolutely fascinating to study! Notice his use of movement in his strokes and his keen color sense.

Pick your favorites and try and recreate them in your sketchbook!

I decided to really sit down and define my own creative cycle. This was an excellent exercise and made me truly contemplate how creativity flows through me. I discovered I have 8 clear phases in my creative cycle.

• This is the mingling of ideas and imagery that begins to surface. My mind begins to string together the sparks of inspiration. 

• Emotions/Side effects felt during this phase – energetic, giddy, joy, fast thoughts, dreams, visions, many images in my mind, some sleeplessness.

• This is where I combine information and ideas. Sketches, small studies, doodles, playing with my materials. Preparing.

• Emotions/Side effects felt during this phase – excitement, play, energetic, happiness, some doubt, some concerns, more time alone desired, gathering, experimenting, obsessive.

• I call on my analytical mind and my discerning eye to step back and observe my creation. I question it and evaluate it. Where can I improve, what can I change? 

• Emotions/Side effects felt during this phase – doubt, (yes there is a lot of doubt), objectivity, observing, controlling, feeling a bit emotionless, subtle dullness, beginnings of detachment

• This is my period of rest and stillness. A quiet emptiness after the cycle has come to a completion. The tide going out to the sea. A death, only to be followed by a rebirth and reawakening. 

• Emotions/Side effects felt during this phase – Emptiness, some depression, wanting to “check-out”, be left alone, doubt, need more sleep, wondering what is next?, want to be comforted, detachment, sometimes feeling burnt out.

I illustrated this cycle in my sketchbook (as per one of our sketchbook prompts) and I found it very informative and healing to explore this. I highly recommend you try this. Be super honest with yourself. I believe these kind of exercises can help us relate to where we are in the present moment and be kinder to ourselves through the creative cycle.

Please remember, our explorations in our sketchbook are really just access points to get you into the flow. However, they can also be seeds for new ideas, concepts and themes in your art. Some of them will be more about writing and others more about drawing and painting. You will see below three prompts and exercises explained and photographed from my own sketchbook. You are welcome to expand upon, invent and experiment with your own concepts too. Use our color palette if you want to. You will see I stay in that theme for my explorations. These may feel silly at first but let your inner artist play.

Illustrate your own creative fire. When you close your eyes and imagine the creative fire within you, what images come to mind. Again this could be literal or very abstract. Collage, paint or sketch as you like to bring these images to the page.

****You will see me create my page in our monthly lesson!***