Creative rest

A talk about rest, Healing my inner child, experiencing play and getting back to creating

This post is part of a newsletter called Creative Snippets where I (Sodapam) share about my art journey as I explore my creative self. It's sent out monthly so if you enjoy this post consider subscribing to know what else is going on in my art journey!!

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Ok I’m gonna be honest..

I personally hate resting and taking time away from creating just feels extremely unproductive.

Yet because I don’t rest I also have trouble letting that inner child & imagination loose due to the fact that I become so focused on making things perfect in my creative process that it’s no longer fun.

So to resolve this I’ve been finding different ways of resting during times of burnout.

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How I’ve been resting

I’m sure we all get tired. You don’t even need to be creative like me to get burnt out, literally, all you have to do is be human.

I think a lot of the time I get burnt out because of all the information that I take in but never truly take the time to process.

I’m really surprised that the roses still look so pretty even thought it’s basically winter.

So I’ve been going in my backyard and just letting my imagination run wild.

I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s almost like for those few minutes I’m out there I’m in my own little world and I completely forget everything else.

I felt really cool when I was taking that photo..

If you don’t want to go outside, you could probably sit in a silent place, without any distractions, to allow your mind to breathe and wander that way.

(That’s probably something I should try to do more often..)

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Changing mediums

Learning to take a break and rest has also led down a rabbit hole of exploring new/old mediums, For example, photography!! (and a little bit of editing..)

So basically, I got my broken tripod and tried to take a photo of a really cool mirror. Honestly, this took forever because the position was so hard to get, but I think I got a really nice photo. (after I doodled all over it!)

Before and After!

It probably not a surprise that I’m going to talk about zines next but before I do I just realized that I’ve been blabbing on and on about “zines” for probably over a month now and you might not even know what I’m talking about.

(Sorry about that..) So here’s what I know and have learned about zines:

• Zines are a self-published booklet kinda like your own handmade magazine or blog

• You can basically write about anything you want and then distribute it to others so they can read about it.

• They come in any shapes and sizes and all you need to start is a piece of paper.

So anyways even though I have been into zines lately, I’ve been having a hard time making them. And I didn’t know what the problem was until I saw a video about making scripture zines.

That’s when I realized that I found the blank zine pages very daunting to create. I think it's because I’m personally afraid to make a mistake.

Yet when the whole paper was “messed up” with a whole bunch of paint splashes I’m not trying to avoid the paper. (Anyone else relate?)

I found this video to be really cool because you can make a scripture zine and give it to your friend, but also I just really like the way to customizes her zines!

I also ended up printing a whole bunch of zines. Out of all the zines I printed and then folded there are probably three that I really like.

1. Five Art tips fom Nation’s Leading Expert Sam Spina

   1. I Loved the doodles and I found it very informative!

2. What does a seed look like by

   Austin Kleon

   1. I love how tiny it is and the storytelling makes it very fun!

3. 6hrs + 40minutes by

   Andrew Lavers

   1. The first zine I printed and also very informative.

If you know of any zines that you love, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Personally I haven’t really worked in my sketchbook but I do currently have about four work in progress zines that I’ve been switching back and forth on.

The one I’m actively working on is related to this newsletter and it’s all about burnout.

But I don’t know if I’ll have it done by the time this newsletter comes out (or even this year.. I’m probably being dramatic). So here’s a sneak peak:

I’m probably hafway through this zine.

In the end I didn’t really end up resting I more like played around with other mediums but I’m working on it!!

Ok that’s all for the moments of my creative life! How do you rest?

(P.S. Sorry for writing such a long newsletter. I did not think I would have that much to say but hopefully it was interesting..maybe?? Anyway’s thank you so much if you read all the way through!!)