Ep 3 - Your Motherhood is your Superpower as an Artist
Sometimes, the very thing that we think is holding us back from achieving what we want, can be our secret super power. In this episode we’re talking about the power of daydreaming when mixed with motherhood.
In This Episode Keita Discusses:
· Day dreaming + where your best ideas come from
· Fine tuning your creative process to fit with motherhood
· Trusting your brain more than your habits
Mentioned in this Episode:
Keita’s painting inspired by the goddess “Banba”
How can you reframe your beliefs to open up your daydreaming mind to bigger amounts of creativity?
DM Keita on Instagram @artbykeita
Hello and welcome to the painty mama podcast. We're taught that artists to poor, through kids in the mix and it seems impossible to thrive, while balancing motherhood creative projects and building a business along with everything else is hard. I believe the universe gave you your unique talents and children, so you could live a full inspiring, creative, beautiful life together. Join me for conversations about creativity, motherhood, business, and finding calm in the chaos. I'm Keita Thomas, and this is the painty mama podcast.
Hello, lovely! I'd like to talk to you today about how what we as mothers, can perceive as limits, in achieving creative goals and business dreams. Sometimes those very same limits can actually be your secret superpower, how you duties and life as a mom can inform and help your ideas along and can actually be more helpful than if you had the abundance of quiet time I know that you're longing for, and think that you need in order to be successful. I'd like to flip back with you to a few years ago, I remember standing in my kitchen, it was messy. And I was rinsing dishes in the sink with a mountain of laundry in the corner by the machine and a couple of other clean baskets to put away that I hadn't done yet. And I was thinking, How the heck am I going to get working on my new painting idea, I have no time to sit and think or sit and sketch and plan it all out as I usually would do.
I used to have a creative process that I always went through. And it was pretty habitual. It didn't matter if it was for a painting or, I have a background in set design. So if I was designing a show, or anything kind of creative that I was going to be making or drawing or designing, I'd first of all come up with an idea or I'd be given an idea. Like it came from an intellectual place. And I'd sit down and figure out what the project required of me - what it was asking of me. And then I'd sit in a quiet room and research all of the subject matter and my ideas flow like colors and symbols and everything that I wanted to include either in the painting or the project. And I just collect all the ideas, and then I'd sit down again, probably on a different day, and I'd sketch out possible compositions. If we're talking about painting, maybe I'd try out a few different ways of having the head tilted this way or that way or try different body poses. And that was all work that came before coming up with a final sketch or final layout that I was happy with. And then a might want to paint it. If I had enough drive left, after going through that whole process, and finally got to the painting stage, if I was happy with the ideas that I had. And if I hadn't talked myself out of it yet, then I would crack on and then I would start painting it.
And that is a lot of work. And a lot of hours were taken up with all the pre-work. And that was what I was struggling with. With the shift of becoming a mum. When I first became a mum and my oldest was really little I went through a few years where I didn't do creative stuff in like a fraction of the capacity that I used to do. And I didn't really realize how much of a big part of my life that was, to constantly be creating and sketching. It was just a way of being for me before. And then all of a sudden, I didn't have time for it. And I felt like I was really lacking a piece of myself.
And the thing about ideas is I don't think that they are like a solid thing that sits there hanging out waiting for you to, you know, get to it when you can I think of them more like clouds. Like if we don't capture them in the moment and we wait too long, then they disappear as fast as the weather changes. And suddenly, the magic behind it seems lost somehow. And I've always thought of ideas that way like after, grab on with two hands and wrestle them down to the ground and try and make something tangible out of it right then and there. So that's what my sketching process has always been about when I'm creating or designing a painting. And for some reason on this day, when I was up to my elbows in suds and bubbles and sippy cups, I just went over my usual creative process in my head because I couldn't sit down. I couldn't stop what I was doing and caring for my family.
So I just imagined it and I didn't do it on purpose. It just kind of happened and instead of researching the crap I have a subject, I just felt into what I wanted to communicate around the idea that I'd had and the way I wanted it to feel. And things just kind of flowed into my head because I've picked things up about different pieces of knowledge. And it was a subject that I'd already kind of known about. So I went more with a gut reaction, I guess, not really a gut reaction, it was more just like letting the ideas flow. I wasn't trying, I just picked up ideas and went with it in my own brain and didn't feel like I was wasting paint or paper, which is some reason helped me?! I was just forming and free flowing and following this train of thought, as far as it would go.
And a thought about colors that would work together and the setting I'd want to put it in, and how I achieve the little details in the face and the portrait I wanted to create. And I imagined myself painting it and editing it and doing layer and after layer of oil paints and how those colors would react with each other because I kind of already know how that would go. Because I've worked on it for a while. And as I'm sure you have as well, the skills are already in your brain. If you've already painted a few paintings before, or you've written songs before, or you've done something creative before the skills are in you. They're not on the page, they're not on the canvas, they're in you. And it's you that brings that onto the canvas.
By the end of that busy day when the laundry was done. (I mean, mostly, is it ever really done? It's definitely not done in my house, ever. But it was mostly done). And I sat down that night after you know, a basic clean through and painted the first third of that painting. And I finished one of my favorite goddess paintings within a few days. And that hadn't happened for, I think years at that point. See, the problem with those years before is that I'd trusted my tried and tested process of creating anything more than I trusted myself. More than I trusted my own skills and my own mind to come up with ideas without anything being in front of me.
I think the very definition of creativity is taking an idea and making it into something tangible. Maybe that's not the definition, but it's one of my definitions. It's such a beautiful process. And I'd broken it down in such a way for so long. And I just thought I can't do that anymore. I'm too busy. I can't do that I can't be creative anymore. And I was wrong. I'm glad I was wrong. It's like the best thing that ever happened to me is that I was wrong. And I just wish that for those missing years, I'd trusted myself more. I trusted my mind's ability to multitask and conceptualize a finished painting in my head. I didn't even realize that that was a thing that he could do, and even now saying it. It sounds like: A) silly, because it's so cerebral and we don't often hear artists talk about this part of their process like the" How do you come up with ideas?" stuff, because I don't think a lot of us really know how we come up with ideas, they just kind of flow.
And as moms, we've got busy hands full hearts. And, I'm just gonna say it, my mind is the thing that I miss, I miss the intellectual challenge. And I found it now in myself. And I found it a few years ago, after missing it for so long. I found a way to go into my mind and have it there instead of having to be sitting in writing or sitting in reading or sitting and doing, I can be doing with my hands busy and my heart full, and my mind can be also doing things while I'm busy. It's just it's a full life and I feel so much more fulfilled.
I mean, where does our creativity come from anyway? If a million people (and like definitely a million people) on this planet in the history of the earth, have drawn a flower before, but the way that you would do it is completely different from the next person. It's got your flavor all over it.
It's unlike anyone else's, even though it's come from the same idea. "Let's draw a flower" and then that's been filtered through your mind what kind of flower? What colors? What layout? How do the petals go? What do I want to use for reference? Do I want to use a reference? Is it impressionist? It's like, there's so many things that it gets filtered through your lens of imagination. And that's where the beauty lies anyway, so why don't we just skip to the end? Well, I don't know if this is like, obviously, this is not going to be for everyone. And maybe that isn't part of your process. And that is totally okay, too.
However, I just think if you're a musician, why can't you edit a melody while folding laundry, if you can do it while you're sitting at a piano or a desk? It's no different. It's just that your hands are busy. But your mind is still free when you're doing mundane tasks Can a writer to come up with the perfect sentence while vacuuming? I think they can. In fact, research shows that idle minds come up with the best ideas when we're daydreaming. Because we access memories, emotions, and other random bits of information and are disjointed pieces of information like puzzle pieces sometimes find something to fuse together and two of them come together. And it helps us to come up with something completely new and original. There's a quote I really love by Einstein, who says "logic will get you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere" and I think that's really what I'm speaking to is how do we talk to our imagination through daydreaming? When do we Daydream? - When we're doing mundane tasks.
If motherhood allows us the space to repeat tasks constantly, like all of the home duties, then we have such a gift in daydreaming. I'm seriously not making up this research, by the way, like you can Google it. If you're doubting me right now! Like, have you ever been in the shower and come up with a solution to a problem that's been bothering you for ages, and you've been really sitting and trying to think your hardest about, how are you going to solve this problem. And then when you weren't even thinking about it, just in the shower, minding your business, washing your hair, the solution pops into your head. Or like you got an amazing idea for something creative, or just a problem solving idea, I come up with so much problem solving things when I'm in the shower. And there's never a pen! It's the worst time because I could never write anything down, can't touch my phone to put it in my notes or anything, but yeah, but at least I come up with the solution. And if it's a good one, I'll stick in my brain. And I'll remember it till the end of my shower.
All this to say, you have an amazing mind. Our brains are capable of so much more than we even use or are aware of, so please let this podcast episode be encouragement to trust and use your big noggin for lots of things! We've got to adapt, and I'm constantly learning new ways to do that. But this was huge for me. And I hope that it helps you to feel like some of the barriers you might be perceiving in the zone of, "I don't have time for creativity". Or "if I start a creative business, that's selfish, because it takes away from my kids", or "I've got too many kids, so I can't be creative anymore", Or "I chose this other path and now this creative side of me, and this dreaming side is just like dead and gone and waved goodbye" with the, you know, birth of your first child.
No! I'm just here to remind you that no. You are a person with many facets. You are a three-dimensional person. And these barriers that we perceive they're not really blockades for your success whatsoever. It just depends on the way that you think about them. And can you reframe some of these ideas to open up your daydreaming mind to bigger amounts of creativity? In fact, your busy mama hands might just be your secret superpower.
Thanks so much for spending time here with me today and feel free to message me on Instagram to let me know what great ideas have come to you while you've been daydreaming. You can DM me @artbykeita if you enjoyed this podcast, please don't forget to subscribe for more episodes and leave a review as it really helps other Painty Mama's like you to find us. And you can find all things Art By Keita, including the "Banba" goddess painting mentioned in this episode, at keitathomas.com. Until next time, have a dreamy week!
