CREATIVE INSPIRATION

Ups and Downs along the Creative Path

This week I’m sharing the ups and downs of my creative process for a painting I started back in August, 2025.

I’ve been working on this painting for months, off and on. I’m currently “on” with it. My process began without a concept, but I did have a strong emotional connection with the landscape where I was painting at the time. The rocky cliffs, summer air, fields of flowers, sea and sky . This is where it started last August. Acrylic on a 24 x 24 canvas.

Then I returned home, and put the painting in a corner of my studio. Fast forward six months. Now it’s in a new place, a different space, and winter time. And I’m different too. I painted it to this next:

Am I connected to someone or something in this painting? That was the key question for the dialogue I wanted to have with this work. Looking back now, I suspect I didn’t give myself enough 1:1 time with this iteration. Instead, critical inner voices kept after me, telling me it was ugly, unfinished, boring, etc. I felt like I was drowning in self-criticism. I turned to old habits, including other, more intellectually-grounded projects. Feeling stuck, I turned away from the conversation with this painting.

Eventually I felt the urge to DO something. Anything just to get moving. I painted another layer, which produced this:

In retrospect, that impulsive decision wasn’t the best thing I could have done. This time there was very little that I liked about my painting. I felt like I was struggling with it, and treading water creatively. The conversation I’d wanted had become an argument.

In the life span of a painting, there are stages of development, just as in the life of living beings. Maybe that’s why artists believe their work is never finished, because a finish is an end like a death. Better to acknowledge the work lives on in an unfinished state, forever hovering but never quite landing. Yet sometimes the painting is far, far from close-to-landing.

Here is my painting at the time of this writing. I’ve banished the inner voices, which is letting me sit patiently with my painting, listening. Up to this point, I’ve been doing most of the talking with my brushes and paints.

This painting is teaching me a lot. It is now talking to me about strong women, resilience, and mutual respect. I’m going to let it talk some more before I consider my response.

This wonderful poem came to me today, very relevant to this part of my process. From her book, Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015) by former poet laureate, Ada Limon.

Sometimes creative acts heal, at other times teach, and still other times guide us to other worlds. If you think it’s hard traveling to another galaxy, try going deep into your own inner world. Ultimately it is rewarding if you don’t give up.

Wishing you easy traveling this week, wherever you are going. Thanks for reading this far. Sharing my creative process with you helps me, and I hope it inspires you. Feel free to leave a comment or a question. I read every one. I’d love to hear about your creative ups and downs!

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One more thing to think about: