The prodigal Shine has returened

After a terribly long hiatus I have finally returned. And those of you who came here from my Facebook-- first of all welcome-- you will know that I blogged for a bit during that hiatus. Unfortunately, I am still trying to work towards my career, so I found myself busy with school and work. However, I have at long last found a schedule that allows me to create! And so with my digital pen and my keyboard at the ready, I plan to give weekly content on Thursdays. This day may change in the future what with school and work, but for now I will try and stick with every Thursday as it’s my favorite day-- it gets overlooked so often because it’s so close to Friday, however sometimes later in life it can be some people’s last day of the week, and in other cases it’s the day for winding down a week of work.

I digress. I shall also take this time to iterate a couple things that I have already learned the hard way as a creator. The first is, as the saying goes practice makes perfect. When living the life of a creator of any type, most of your free time is devoted to creating-- whether it’s making public pieces, practicing techniques, or learning. And honestly, this is a good thing, because creators should always be looking to improve, even when they have reached a point where the masses acknowledge their work as perfect. Unfortunately this means I keep myself very busy and often find myself feeling guilty when I do something besides create with my free time. While it’s important to invest time in your skills, it’s also super important to invest in you and your health. Breaks are good because they help prevent burn out, revitalize you, and sometimes can help when in the midst of a “block.” It is more than okay to take as long of breaks as you need. I am putting this here for fellow artists like myself that are in a similar headspace as myself, and just need an external confirmation.

The other thing I learned is that all creators hate their work. And this is not only normal but makes perfect sense. Creators are the only ones who are with their pieces every single moment of its creation. They recognize all of its weaknesses. They also are painfully aware of what’s behind the “curtain”-- so to speak-- of their creation. While the consumer/ audience member may only see/ hear a finished work of art-- an exquisite forest scene masterfully painted, for example-- the creator may be more likely to see it for what it literally is: a piece of cloth stretched over a frame with various globs of color meticulously placed in certain spots. And there’s too much of a glob riiiight there… This is another reason why it’s so important to take breaks, or at the very least switch to a different project. Sometimes, when too much time is spent at once staring at a project, one becomes detached from it, and loses their original passion and inspiration as to why they created it in the first place. But after a while of being away from it, if the project spoke to a creator in the beginning it will most likely speak to the creator again.

As always thank you for following me on this journey, and I can’t wait to see where I’m headed next.