Picking Up the Bread Crumbs
Have you ever found the time to do some art but ended up just staring at a blank white canvas? You know you have the skill and talent to be a successful artist, but just feel energetically stagnant at the moment? Let me tell you, you are not alone! I have been there and still do from time to time, but I found a ways to reignite my creative flame. So what is the secret? Sometimes it takes just looking outside of yourself for the world to reflect back what’s important to you. I hope these ideas compel you to take a step forward towards your creative process, because even one step today can lead to two, three or four steps tomorrow. Before you know it, you’ll be running with excitement and paint in your hair! Or maybe that’s just me lol.
So if we don’t know each other, yet, my two favorite things to dive into the rabbit hole about are art and health/wellness. A small slice of my life involved health coaching with an online health and leadership company during the pandemic. What I thought was an opportunity to not only get super healthy myself, but to coach others how to do it as well, because what better time to do it then during a pandemic, right?! Lol. I would spend once a week getting on zoom calls with my coaches and leadership team to be inspired by others stories of personal growth and community building opportunities. A phrase I remember my coach saying to us was “successful people leave breadcrumbs”. I sat with that statement for a moment, and decided to observe how my coaches picked up others’ breadcrumbs to get to where they are at now. I wanted to use this philosophy for my own business, and now I am offering some breadcrumbs to you!
The breadcrumbs weren’t so stale…
I started with buying or renting books my leadership team mentioned in meetings. Whenever a successful person name-dropped a person that inspired them or learned from I would immediately take note of it or do a quick Google search. I’ll list some of my favorites below.
Podcasts also became a daily ritual while unloading pallets of product at my part-time job at Trader Joe’s at 5am. My earbuds became my bestfriend, and let me tell you they have been through thick and thin for me! I’ve must’ve washed both earbuds in the laundry four times now because I forgot I left them in my jeans pocket, and they still work! If you must know, they are Samsung. Podcasts usually host guest speakers, so they open a world of opportunity to learn from many teachers their experiences.
I also took a couple of good risks and invested in online courses held by fellow artists and surface pattern designers, or a marketing agency. I registered at my local city college to take an online business class, because in order to grow your business, you must properly know the basics first. I lacked business information, because well, back when I went to art school (many many years ago), no one really taught me the business side of art unfortunately. I explicitly remember my art history teacher telling me I could either teach or work at a museum with my art degree, and I didn’t want to do either of those at the time.
I observed and listened carefully and read in between the lines of other artists and designers. I would find myself looking into what email marketing sites they used, apps for better social media marketing flow, or how they’d mockup their art onto products for their portfolio. Free webinars are a great way to get to know the strategies of other artists too, and you can sign up to be on their newsletter for future information. There is always little tips, tricks and short cuts to make the flow of your art and business run more efficiently. Listening to others give their two cents on what they use and worked with helps you to begin somewhere until you find your own comfort zone with what works.
When I worked for a regenerative landscape company, I had to teach myself (with some help from the owner) AutoCAD design. AutoCAD is used amongst designers in the architectural and design field. I used it for planning out drought tolerant landscaping with California native plants for residents. AutoCAD was helpful when I painted murals. I could draw out the dimensions of the wall and place points where I needed to drop a line or a shape, etc. I used this tactic when I created a long, colorful geometric mural around a pool about two years ago. I couldn’t project my drawing onto the wall because of the pool and L-shape wall, so that’s where having the skill of designing in AutoCAD came into play. It saved me a lot of time!
Here is a list of a few things I mentioned above to get you started if they resonate with you. Remember, one breadcrumb always leads to another, so keep your eyes open and ears listening and watch the lightbulb in your head turn on! Once you feel that internal ping to take action, don’t wait, do it!
Here are a few breadcrumbs to get you curious….
Books
Your Brain on Art, How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross
The Twelve Shifts by Jamil Frazier
The Mural Artist’s Handbook by Morgan Bricca
Visual Intelligence by Amy E. Herman
Podcasts
The School of Greatness - Lewis Howes
Art + Audience - Stacie Bloomfield
Artist Academy Podcast - Andrea Ehrhardt
Online Marketing Made Easy - Amy Porterfield
Online Courses
Immersion - Bonne Christine
Leverage Your Art - Stacie Bloomfield
The Artist Academy - Andrea Ehrhardt
The Studio Membership- Liz Kohler Brown