Aside from being the official blog to my creative studio, ARTLABkma–the ARTLABguide is a place to document the business of design, creativity, entrepreneurship, and everything in between.
If I were to describe my creative and business practice it would be this:
The business of design is to make the world a better place.
If you’ve followed along on Instagram, I hope you’ve enjoyed my long form content. After my participating in #The100DayProject over the course of the year, I decided to switch gears on Instagram and my content. There will be some upcoming changes and experiments I will be trying out, and I’ll be creating my longer form posts on the blog from now on, focusing on my portfolio work, inspiration, and day to day documenting on Instagram. The blog will be weekly writings, documenting my work as a creative and entrepreneur, insights on both, and sharing anything I’ve found helpful along the way–these can be productivity hacks, design tools, great reading, and even articles on wellness and travel–anything that would feed your creativity and the artist within you.
I first really got into diving deep about creative practice, when oddly enough, I was going through a creative rut–I felt super stuck, and talked to old classmates and fellow artist friends about what it was like to be out of school, trying to find work, finding yourself, all while trying to earn a living.
This is when I stumbled upon The Artist’s Way–and my life hasn’t been the same since. At the time, I was very much into self-help and personal development–books, blogs, you name it, as I’ve always been throughout middle school, high school, and much of college. If you know me, you’d know I’m a huge Elizabeth Gilbert fan, especially “Eat. Pray. Love.” It was a book I’d often give as a gift or even give my own copy away (and I’ve had several copies of it). One of the many FAQ’s that Liz received was what inspired her EPL journey,–I wish I knew where I read it, most likely a FaceBook post, forum, or blog I’d read–and Liz said that without the book “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron, there would be no “Eat. Pray. Love.”
Since I could not (at least not yet) afford my own EPL trip, the first thing I did after reading that post was pick up my own copy of “The Artist’s Way.” It’s now the book I give as a gift or recommend, hands down, especially if you’re a creative and haven’t come across it yet. I’ll write more about this in an upcoming post, because it deserves its own book! I secretly think this is what one of Liz’s follow up books to EPL is about–“Big Magic.”
In my own way, this is what I’d like the ARTLABguide to be about. Mainly, this blog will be something I wish I had when starting out as a young artist/creative/designer–a source to fuel your creativity; articles, resources, and tools for your creative journey, and documenting what it is to have a sustainable and thriving creative career. So whether you’re trying to hone your craft, or maybe need some help with marketing and branding, we can figure it all out together.