Showing up matters. I’m a big believer in sitting in the seat, lowering your expectations, and being willing to make imperfect art. But I also want my studio time to count.

"I used to make art." Sometimes it's painting. Sometimes quilting, pottery, sewing, knitting, or keeping a sketchbook. The medium changes, but the sentiment doesn't. I've heard that sentence hundreds of times. People think they’ve lost their creativity. I don’t think that’s what’s happened. I think they lost their rhythm. I know, because I did too.

Quick note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no additional cost to you. I only share products I personally use, love, and would recommend anyway. Whether you're building a home art studio, taking your creative practice and supplies on the road, or looking for the books and tools that have genuinely improved my own creative practice, these are the products I reach for again and

For a long time, I treated studio time for artists as optional. It was something I would get to after I had taken care of everything and everyone else. In other words, I treated it like leftover time. The problem was...there was rarely anything left over. The Real Problem With “I’ll Get to It” Creating is a form of self-care, and that kind of time tends to be the first thing to go when life gets busy. Why? Because studio time is usually beholden to no one but o