And why they are not good for your inner artist

I haven’t posted in a long time and that was never my intention. I looked back at some of my work and luckily it put me right back into that happy mode of creation. I am a creator. And everything that prevents me from creating, wherever that might be, in my job, with my friends or in my art, is actually not healthy.

Last year was the most challenging year in my life so far. The pandemic year cannot compete with it because the pandemic started the world to change which I embraced and always prefer, whereas 2022 was the year of getting “back to normal”. And that was a struggle, especially for someone like me who embraced the change and saw new great opportunities. Realising that the work environment for example did not go along with that change as much as I hoped was a revelation, and partly a shock. Because they preached to go along with new ways of doing things and in the end, they did not. It’s not only frustrating, it made me sad.

The one thing that can truly lift me up, is creating. Why?
It’s giving me the feeling of accomplishment and control in times when I might not have that in other areas of my life. The piece you can see here is called “Flying High” because I created it whilst being on one of my over 25 flights last year. I’ve seen a lot, I learned things (maybe not the ones I anticipated but hey I still learned). I had wonderful moments and met inspiring souls but I also found myself in situations I don’t want to be put in ever again. They distracted me from creating art because I had to put in extra energy to make things work, or because we went a bit bonkers after all the lockdowns, and our immune system needed a whole year to get used to being in crowded loud places again. Being sick, too busy with making chaos work or recovering and healing from infections and Covid itself has taught me the following:

• Feel okay with being selfish and protect yourself and your health because that health can be gone quicker than you think.

• Fight, fight, fight to keep being that artist and creative by creating something when the moment is there. Catch it, create and recharge through it.

• Spend time understanding your deep-rooted fears and trying to get rid of them. I have leveraged a coach and psychology to deal with that and get clearance.

And do you know what the most important message is that I received? Take it easy, be playful, light and carefree. There is only one artist life you got. Level up by enjoying the creational process and being playful. Create and leave those beautiful “footprints” that will inspire others.