What Does The Art Process Mean to Me?

An Artist Conversation, Open Note

Recently, my boyfriend’s cousin came to visit us and while my boyfriend went off to work, his cousin and I connected over being artists. It got to the point that as an abstract artist, what does the creative process mean to me?

It’s a personal healing journey. 

I used to want to perfect my art pieces in one go, proportions of my characters, the tiny details. And that became a problem. Art was slowly becoming a process but not the good kind. It was exhausting and made me stop creating art. 

Using my own struggles as an outlet…

I have been struggling with burnout, depression, and anxiety more than I would have liked to recently. I wanted to get back into art but honestly, couldn’t feel it. I decided to start getting into abstract and instead of focusing on the perfection of a piece to go with the flow of my emotions. Anger, fear, depression, passion, love, enlightenment, happiness, whatever it may be. Art, specifically abstract art, became a diary of sorts telling my story of that day or week. 

By creating abstract pieces, I am able to be more playful yet meaningful with my piece. I look past perfection because you can’t live life always striving to be perfect. If you do, sometimes you end up stopping instead of going and believing in yourself in the fear that it’s not the perfect path. 

When it comes to a piece, I try not to spend more than a week on it, reminding myself an art piece is just like life. We can’t wallow in it. 

Moving Forward…

I’ve been enjoying my current creative process as it helps me heal mentally. Moving forward that may change but for now, my creative process? It’s a healing journey, it is my own journey.