This year has kicked off with some serious vengeance. Amazon on fire, Australia on fire, tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, Covid-19 pandemic, and now a continued fight against racism and injustices. It’s ONLY JUNE! In each of these horrible events, I have seen creatives use their talents to show support, raise awareness, and/or raise money. To me, this is a beautiful adaption of creating through the pain. I’ve always admired those creators who can take their pain or grievances and channel them into some form of visual display. Not only be able to create something from their pain but also do it quickly. Whether it’s painting, writing, film, digital graphics, etc to see that form of expression makes me appreciate them even more.

You see, I’m creative, but during challenging times, my creative light dims. It dims because I really do take on a range of emotions from being sad, upset, angry, hopeful. Don’t get me wrong. when my creativity is not coming through, there’s this attribute called support that shows up and I usually send my energy that way. Not to say you can’t be both creative and supportive. You can! And in some ways, I have been. I just know that when it comes to creating art, it’s not easy for me because I like spending time with my projects (if possible), and spending time with them allows me to mentally deep dive into my creative thoughts.

Creativity through pain doesn’t happen instantaneously for me. I’m in a totally different headspace thus making it hard to feed the creative gremlin inside me. I’m ok with not feeling immediately creative when tragedy first takes place. I need to allow myself in those moments to be present and to feel all the emotions that I need to feel. My creative spark will come back, but if I ignore my feelings and try to push through I’ll be drained and my best work won’t come from it. This isn’t a complaint or me trying to figuring out how to make this about me. This is an acceptance post. I create in a space that works for me and I would hope that you do the same. When I’m not feeling creative I allow myself to pause and just be. I’ll return when ready, and right now I’m back to feeling creative.