I took a year off school to do an apprenticeship with a potter and quickly learned that also wasn’t for me. The potter I apprenticed with wasn’t happily expressing himself, rather he felt trapped making the things that people wanted to buy. This wasn’t what I wanted either.
I spent the next few years trying to make a living from my creative work, but it wasn’t working and I constantly struggled to make ends meet. I felt defeated and started believing that if I couldn’t make a living creating art, then maybe art making didn’t have any value at all.
I ended up taking a job in my family’s small business and struggling to have time or energy for creativity. Once I became a mom, I pretty much stopped doing art altogether. While my dream of being an artist was forgotten, my creative soul still longed to be expressed and while I wasn’t expressing myself creatively I was deeply depressed.
One day I finally decided it was time to make creativity a priority again no matter what. It wasn’t easy to reclaim my creative life. It took me being more committed to my vision and the life I wanted than the stories and limitations that were holding me back. It took me creating over and over again even when it felt like what I was creating was horrible and I might never make anything worthwhile.
To reclaim my creative life I had to let go of all of the reasons why I couldn’t, all of the excuses about not having enough time, not having enough energy, not being good enough or talented enough, not having the right skills. I had to start believing that I was a priority worth investing in.
As I reclaimed my creative life I rebuilt my belief not just in what I was creating but also in myself. Creativity gave me a sense of purpose. Being creative made life feel worth living. Expressing myself creatively gave me a deep sense of satisfaction.
This experience awoke in me a passion for helping people have their own creative awakenings. Now I help women who have become disconnected from their creative selves or have always wanted to be creative but haven’t known where to start experience the joy of creative expression.
