I’ve had pockets of a creative life over the last 45 years. If you were to tally them up, they wouldn’t amount to anywhere near the majority. However, I like to imagine that I have the best years coming and you can bet they’ll be full of me expressing myself creatively. I have a lot of repressed emotion and ideas stored up and I’m hoping the release valve keeps me warm and toasty.
I was artistic as a child. I majored in Environmental Design and lived amongst the creative for a few years designing and making ideas come to life; those were my favorite years of my many years of schooling. I went through a scrapbooking and crafty phase when my kids were young. I’ve moved a lot and poured my ideas into my home by myself and along with professionals, slowly revealing myself with every house. But, it was only a handful of years ago that I really felt the itch to create something and it was specific. An idea came to me while making art with my son and I held it inside for about 5 years. I also carried some of the actual pieces of it through a move and from room to room, stored carefully in a sturdy zipper bag for several years until something finally made me BRING THE IDEA TO LIFE. That something was a cupcake.
It didn’t start as a cupcake. It started as the typical mid 40’s mom seeking ways to become more myself and be more productive at the same time. Not exactly a self-help book, but a Youtube video I stumbled upon of a guy talking about creating an art habit. A simple idea he learned from a boss, who learned it from someone else, and so on. I wish I had saved it to credit him, but I don’t save much of anything when it comes to technology. The big idea: draw the same thing for 30 days. Something fairly simple was the only rule. I choose a cupcake because it was 2020 and it seemed like something small I could celebrate and I thought it would be pretty simple with still giving me a little wiggle room for some variance and creativity. I’m not sure that was allowed, but it worked for me. I’m also not the most skilled at drawing and thought it would give me a chance to improve upon my skills while not making me feel terrible from the start.
This is a simple idea that is a piggyback specific to creative habits about keeping one small promise to yourself daily until you become a person who trusts yourself. I’ve heard everything from 21 days to 60-something days that it takes to create a habit, but this amount of time did it for me. After the 30 days, I pulled out the pieces I had been saving and created what would be my first Wild Woman. It was far from perfect, but I just kept making them. It’s been 18 months and I haven’t stopped, so I feel confident it’s stuck.
What would you choose to draw for 30 days? I would love to know.