My Creative Journey ~ Where I Was & Where I Am Today

Hey friends,

I was just re-interviewed by Emily Kerr-Finell from Wholesale In A Box about my journey as a creative business owner and am finding it interesting how much has changed for me in the 5 year span between interviews!

For more background you can read this post too, about how I quit my day job. Look how tiny my art studio was when I first started! That was my entire line of greeting cards and prints inside a converted closet. Literally, if you were to turn right in this photo you would be perusing my sweaters and shoes.

And in this post I talk a little about how I rediscovered my creativity after many years.

I think the takeaway after having had this creative business for 8 years is that I no longer try to grow like I thought I SHOULD be growing. Maybe I don't have to go to stationery shows and conventions in order to grow. Maybe I don't have to hire employees in order to scale. Maybe I don't have to ___________ (fill in the blank) in order to be successful. There are plenty of ways in which we compare ourselves to others and then decide we're lacking or falling short (Social media, right?) and for me, I feel liberated when I shake off those "shoulds" and do my own thing. Maybe this is a product of where I am in this season of my life. Midlife has a way of helping you prioritize and shed the expectations you might have been carrying for awhile.

These days I find I'm much more interested in talking about my journey starting out as a non-creative person and my desire to have more meaning in my life. To me, the intersection of creativity, mindfulness, joy is what really interests me. Right now I'm taking a creative biz class and the part that is most illuminating so far is the introspective exercise designed to uncover what really gets your creative juices flowing. That resulted in this statement:

I said I am an artist and writer but really I am passionate about noticing the sacred in the mundane, encouraging others to live a life rooted in mindfulness and gratitude because paying attention will cultivate a life steeped in meaning and joy. And what particularly lights me up is the transformative power of midlife, the reciprocal process of learning and unlearning, and infusing creativity into all aspects of life.

So this. This is what I'm coming at ya with in 2023! I am so beyond excited because I am taking that statement, digging deep and making some really beautiful, meaningful, and transformative offerings for you my friends.