How to become an Everyday Artist

It’s Self-Care September!

One of my favorite ways to care for myself is to make sure I have time to be creative. It just fills my gas tank, even if it’s been a rough day. I call it “my other vitamin C”. LOL Since it’s “National Live Creative Day” today, it’s the perfect time to stop and think how creativity and imagination can make our every-days works of art.

Did you turn to crafting or hobbies during the pandemic? Everyone in my family did! My husband learned leathercrafting. I started a digital printables shop. Our daughter built intricate models. And we baked…. boy, did we bake! These activities calmed us and reduced the stress of uncertainty that swirled around us in those lockdown days.

You know, dipping into our creativity and imagination can reduce stress and increase happiness at any old time. You might not think of yourself as someone that’s creative or artistic, but you’re wrong. We all have the ability to make art in our every-days.

It doesn’t have to be anything crafty – being an everyday artist might look like comforting a friend going through a hard time… capturing your days by writing in your journal and snapping pictures of life as it happens. Or making a favorite dessert with the anticipation of happy faces and lots of “yummmmms!” It might be attending an art exhibit and finding inspiration there for work or home. It might be thinking outside the box and providing the solution to a problem your team at work needed. It might be as simple as sharing a smile with a stranger, or stopping the world to put your arms around a crying toddler and magically kissing boo-boos away.

Every day, you create something beautiful that wasn’t there before. You bring your own unique creative energies, talents and love to the person, projects or ideas within your sphere.

The woman who works with her hands only is a laborer.
The woman who works with her hands and her head is a craftswoman.
The woman who works with her hands, head and heart is an artist.

St. Francis of Assisi

So much of being an everyday artist is being mindful, having a sense of gratitude and infusing love into what you do. Center yourself for a few minutes and see the “why” of the task in front of you, or the project you’re working on.

Celebrate the gifted artist you are! You are magnifique!