Less of a list of things to buy and more of a list of things to try...

We all hold the spark of creativity inside us. To quote Maia Toll author of "The Night School",  “It's like making fire: you can wait for a lightening strike or you can pull out two sticks and do the work of creation" Maia Toll.

I think accessing this part of me and honouring it as a sacred space for healing has really helped me to love myself when I needed it the most. It's time to sit with myself and just feel into my body. The gentle motion of doing allows my mind to relax as I focus on my breath. There is no wrong way to create something. I think the magic happens when we get over that fear and just allow ourselves to create.

Creativity for Self-care

a woman pours the tea into a swirling circle around a nonbinary person, behing them is a dog and a woodburner. they are inside a red tent which is visible at the sides

For me art is is self-care

It comes in many forms; Painting, drawing, journaling, sewing and creative mending.

It's time to myself, to sit with my feelings.

Watercolour painting allows me to stay present and connect with my body.

It gives my brain space to just exist and not be constantly whirring.

I find it enjoyable!

Painting helps me to meditate.

Creativity helps me to think outside the box and with problem solving.

Art has given me a voice and help me to have the confidence I needed to advocate for myself.

Visual Journal

a person in a red jacket with a red bag walk towards an enclosed carpark. a truck sits on the land to the right. a cat is perched on the persons shoulders. they are smoking and the smoke joins to smoke billowing from a chimney.

Creating a visual journal is a great way to process emotion and has helped me personally to process traumatic events.

It has also helped to be able to go back and look at what kind of state my mental health was in at the time that I did certain drawings or just to see a visual representation of where my head was at.

Art has always been a way to explain my internal world. Using a visual journal helped me to see the problems as physical images rather than just as thoughts or memories.

Maia Toll's book "The Night School" has lots of great techniques to open up creativity and suggests writing our own heroes journey to change the narrative of our lives. The book builds up to this with several exercises aimed at connecting to the self. 

Playtime

a photograph of a desk. on it are glass jars of pencils and a sketchbook sits central with an abstract puddle of watercolour paint on it

Get messy!

Why play?

I find it very difficult to just play with art supplies. I'd boxed myself in by painting only on loose paper and my art became stagnant. It felt like there was no joy in it anymore and I didn't want to paint.

Allowing myself to play with my art supplies and be silly opened up my imagination. I stopped worrying about what to draw and just drew. Scribbles, doodles, finger painting, spit drawings, anything I could think of. My attitude became "why not", instead of telling myself I was too old to play like a child. 

All these little side projects feed into our other art by opening our minds to new possibilities. I find my ability for problem solving is vastly improved by these playful sessions. My imagination is improved and ideas flow more freely.

Low lighting or Candle light

a low wattage bulb sits central in the photo with plants and pots of pens around it.

I really struggle with ocular migraines. For me, having the option of soft lighting has really helped with this.

It's good to always check colours with brighter lights when needed.

Painting is an activity I can still enjoy without the use of screens and in low lighting. 

Scent/Incense

a small creamic house with an incense stick coming out of the chimney.its on a yellow shelf. behind is a black shelf with a whit jizo statue sat to the right of the incense

I have really enjoyed using incense as a way to calm myself. Finding the right scent that didn't set off a migraine was important and I try to stick to natural scents rather than chemical.

I struggle to sit down and focus, and found this was a skill I had to learn to be able to paint. Certain scents are known to have either relaxing or uplifting properties and I have found personally that it's a really quick way to shift my state of consciousness. This allows me to relax much quicker.

Music

a bust of a woman wearing headphones. she is infront of a beehive and has a crown of swarming bees.

I love listening to music while I paint. I have noticed within myself that music can have a huge effect on my stare of consciousness. It's one of the quickest ways for me to calm down or energise myself, depending on the type of music. I also try to be cautious with a heart condition to not push my heart rate up; I know some music can elevate it, if my heart rate is too high, I swap to something more down tempo or nature sounds. 

I have played around with meditation soundtracks as well as drum and bass, funk, Enya and nature sounds like rain/waterfalls/the ocean - I usually veer towards water sounds as I find it the most relaxing. 

 

SKETCHBOOKS

a set of sketchbooks with various images. an alien cat with three eyes, a tree, a calico cat. a rainbow

A game changer for sure.

I know how easy it can be to avoid working in a sketchbook. Accepting that I needed to show myself my workings out, showed me that sketchbooks are a very valuable tool when it comes to making any kind of art. Getting those rough ideas down onto paper helps to picture what the final piece will look like, whatever medium we work in.

I needed a space to be messy! My entire philosophy changes when I work in a sketchbook. I cease to care about neatness. Mistakes become flourishes.

The hard part for me is applying these thinking patterns to my final pieces. This is something I have been trying to work on through my art meditations.

Cathartic art

Scribble, burn, deconstruct.....

Drawing on the go...

a sketch of outside things in liverpool. buildings, one with a round roof. a drawing of a stone angel

Drawing on the go helps me to get ideas and inspiration for later.

It's good to refresh my memory of trips I have taken and places I have visited.

It is a nice way to keep a visual journal or diary. 

Art Meditation

Using art as a form of meditation has really helped me to understand myself and to create a place of calm and serenity in my body. The images that arise through connecting with my subconscious, tell me things about my current mental state that aren't on the surface. Connecting to my body has helped me feel safe within it.

This has helped me connect with my shadow and allowed me to start loving the parts of myself that terrified me in the past. Slowly I have been able to learn to sit with myself without the distraction of television while I paint. I still like to paint when I do watch television but now I also have a time to be calm and be with myself. I have used the app Finch, a self care pet, to help me with this. I like listening to the nature sounds on Finch while doing meditative art.

It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, the simple act of connecting mind to body can help us feel more present. For me this really helped me accept my current state of reality and whilst going through cancer treatments.

ART RESOURCES LIST

Bibliography

"Major arcana meditations" Audiobook by Kim Krans

"The wild unknown tarot deck" by Kim Krans

"Animal spirit tarot deck" by Kim Krans KIM KRANS

"The Night School"  and "Letting Magic In"  by Maia Toll MAIA TOLL | author, editor, book coach

"A course in High Magick" Audiobook by Damien Echols

"The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet" by Benjamin Hoff

Art Magick Cards: An inspiration deck for creativity  HOME | Molly Roberts Magick