Feeling Guilty For Making Art? Try These 3 Things | Art Lab Podcast
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Do you ever feel guilty for making art, or for wanting to dedicate time and energy to a creative practice? Let’s explore tools that can support your creative process, even when it brings up challenging feelings like guilt.
Find me on Instagram: / kendyllhillegas
Episode Outline:
01:12 Why our creative practices might spark feelings of guilt or shame
06:56 Tip #1: Lean into your community
08:22 How I make friends with other artists and creatives
10:58 Tip #2: Make it easier; do it more
14:15 Tip #3: Defusion
16:22 How to practice diffusion
20:20 An invitation to experiment this week
Laundry or painting? Admin tasks or creative writing? It can be a struggle to prioritize a creative practice that’s deemed ‘frivolous’ when other things seem more urgent or productive. But, if we start to unravel where those beliefs stem from, we can better understand why we feel shame or guilt for making art, and build practices to help us get used to taking action even when they’re around.
Here’s what I find supportive when those feeling come up:
Plugging into community:
Regardless of what you struggle with when it comes to making art, it’s vital to surround yourself with other people who really get what you’re going through. Whether it’s online or IRL, having art friends helps you get out of your head and normalize the sometimes intense emotions that go along with creative work.
Make it easier; do it more:
Sound familiar? If it doesn't, check out my episode on common creative blocks and how to overcome them. To recap, it’s all about lowering the barrier to entry and spending time with those uncomfortable feelings so they become more tolerable.
Defusion:
This is a technique from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that creates distance between you and your thoughts and emotions. It doesn’t make the sticky feelings go away, but it helps reduce the impact they have on your choices and actions.
Resources Mentioned:
The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris: thehappinesstr...
3 Common Creative Blocks & How to Overcome Them: • 3 Common Creative Bloc...
#ArtLab #OvercomingGuilt #ACTforArtists
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About Kendyll:
Hi friends and welcome to Art Lab! My name is Kendyll Hillegas and I'm a full time commercial illustrator and artist. I’m passionate about understanding the creative process, what supports it, and what gets in the way. So, when I’m not making work for clients, I love exploring the places that art-making and emotions intersect - inspiration, identity, self-doubt, and creative block. These are the questions I come back to again and again, and need to talk about more, so if you’re in the same boat, I hope you’ll join me!
Sign up for the newsletter: www.kendyllhil...
Watch video episodes: / kendyllhillegas
Find me on Instagram: / kendyllhillegas
"Creativity demands time wasting" - I love this! 100% true. Great episode Kendyll.
This episode feels like sitting down with a trusted mentor. Thank you!! 💚
I want to like this twice. Thank you so much for not only putting it into words, but offering real tips - a great podcast, and genuinely helpful ❤
Wow, thank you! 🥰
Creativity demands waste time, but you know what? So does a healthy life balance. Thank you for phrasing like that, is easy to forget that we are not just here to produce. Also, the approach you propose of making it easier and do it more is great. I did something similar to help me read more and it worked. I just did not thought of applying to art. ❤
YES! Absolutely! Everyone needs to waste time!🥰
I'm 60 and have always been an obsessive and highly driven artist... When I was young I had my first job the day after I turned 16 and usually worked 2-3 jobs at a time to "do the responsible thing" (I'm a product of depression-era parents: work HARD to support yourself and your future). Things did change a few years into having our four kids. I stayed home and freelanced a little bit while raising (and homeschooling) them. However, within about 6 years after that, we started a business based on illustrations I created while teaching history. Well, it GREW. 21 years (and several thousands of line-art illustrations later), my kids are all grown and in their own lives, and my husband and I are in "semi-retirement"... Now we have downsized and our business is somewhat on auto-pilot (I’m just creating social media at this point) and I have LOADS of time to pull out the fine art supplies, dust them off after 30+ years of non-use, and give them a go again.
And then came the guilt.
...but only in MY own mind! My kids ALL encourage me and my husband is my #1 fan-entirely supportive of me creating anything. He just wants me happy! I'M my own worst hurdle to get over! If it's art for fun that is not "producing an income," I feel like it's wasted time. I would always say, “I’ll have time to do ____ when I retire.” Well, here I am! I have to get out of this mindset, or these years will fly by and I’ll have *truly* wasted this time. I kid you not, it’s a daily thing I struggle with, but I’m little-by-little overcoming, and your words-the words from a young mom who’s acknowledging this very idea at this stage of your own life-are VERY encouraging to me. DON’T let the guilt or shame of being creative take hold in your thoughts! The wall can get difficult to remove in the future. I think at whatever stage we are at, it’s going to be about balance. It’s in our blood and our soul to create and we need to acknowledge and accept that it is what we need to breath.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Amy! It's such a complicated issue with many layers, and I really appreciate hearing your perspective!💗
I love listening to you while I work or create 💖 the idea of a podcast is great ✨
Yay, thank you!
This is truly helpful because the guilt of not earning from my creative task or process is truly crippling. Thank you for and this was another amazing episode.
I am so HAPPY and relieved that I found your channel. I have been struggling with mom guilt and selfishness lately. Well, I've been struggling since becoming a mom hahah I will admit it has gotten easier
but the feelings of guilt like to linger.
They really do linger, don't they? I'm with you there! Thank you for this sweet note.💗
TYSM, Kendyll, for the excellent and practical advice! I can definitely use it for more than just guilt/shame over time spent creating. As always, you are so articulate and thoughtful 😊
Literally listening to this while doing the dishes 😁
A joy only to be surpassed by listening and folding laundry 😉
@@KendyllHillegas Oh yes, I ho have a pile of laundry waiting to be folded, but I'm too tired tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head with what I am going through. I don't have a community to lean on, where do you find one. It is not easy to find and I have no idea where to look.
This was so wonderful and needed! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this series! Never thought about using CBT or ACT to help me with my thoughts around art!
I never did either to be honest! It was after the fact in talking with my brother (who is a CBT therapist) where I realized so many of the practices I stumbled into were basically just ACT/CBT in action! That's motivated me to dive in and learn more and try to understand it at a more structural level.
I feel guilty making art now after losing my mom 'cause we did it together so intwined. but overall it can also be in a "worldly" sense as you said because I may spend money on a certain supply that should be going somewhere else for the household ya know?
Thank you for sharing, Nicole. Sounds like you're dealing with all the feelings most of us do related to creativity, then that added layer of complexity since it was something you did with your mom. I'm so sorry!💔