Navigating the Seasons of Creativity

Alicia Tormey

As artists, we must learn to recognize our natural rhythms and nurture our wide range of creative energies if we are to produce our best work and avoid burnout.

This means tuning into our unique creative seasons. While our inner seasons don’t always align with the timing of the calendar, creative seasons do align with the characteristics of winter, spring, summer, and autumn.

If our creative inspiration is truly to flourish, then it requires the following:

Space to enter - WINTER

Time to germinate - SPRING

Energy to create - SUMMER

Reward to thrive - AUTUMN

Creative Winter

Creative Winter is a time of rest and creating space for new ideas to flow. This is the time to reflect and plan. During Creative Winter you may feel called away from your art practice by other interests or feel a lack of motivation and low energy. Many artists struggle during this season because they feel that this may be a permanent state or that they should be producing more artwork. Have faith that your Creative Spring will follow and give yourself permission to rest and reset during this period of dormancy.

Creative Spring

Creative Spring is a time for germination. A time to nurture the seeds of inspiration.

During Creative Spring new ideas will form and inspiration will come easily for you. This is the time to set goals, dream big, and collect the abundance of ideas as they begin to flow. Be sure to capture your inspirations in a notebook or record them.

During Creative Spring you may also find yourself experimenting more in the studio, trying out new techniques, or having the desire to take a class.

Emergence

Encaustic, shellac, ink on panel 48 x 24 in