So there’s a question for you! Do you know the answer?

In my experience there are levels of this. A first level example might be suddenly wanting to make art, even though you never have, or haven’t for years, and don’t really know how or even believe you can. The urge is there; your creativity is making itself known.

The thing about that one is, there are so many barriers to entry. Without going to level two, three or a hundred, it’ll be easy to talk ourselves out of it. That’s how so many people end up not using their innate creativity for decades.

To make our art and keep making it, we have to be deeply connected to that creative heartbeat.

Are you doing what your creativity wants or what you think you want {or even ‘should’ be doing}? Are they the same thing? Are you really listening?

Initial idea

I first had the idea for Touchstone a couple of years ago. I didn’t know what it was or would be then. I only had the name, which just arrived and then wouldn’t go away. {Classic sign of your creativity bringing you something and asking you to trust it.}

All I knew then was that something wanted to be created {through me} that would help people not just to take in and absorb information in the way a course does, but to actually be at cause in their creative lives.

Something that would give them a touchstone, or touchstones, which would act like bedrock, that they could deeply trust and rely on to bring them home to themselves through their art.

A solid, lasting means of connection to self, through your art {whatever that may be}, that wouldn’t come and go, or get tangled up in judgements or doubts or fears.

I suspect it took two years because I wasn’t ready; there were things I needed to learn in order to make it as valuable and useful as possible. I knew I could do it because I was already living in harmony with my creative self. I knew my touchstones; I no longer experienced blocks that held me back; my inner mean voices no longer had a hold over me. But more was required.

Testing formats

At first I thought it would be a membership site; that quickly got vetoed as creating to order is not one of my touchstones! Then it lay quietly for a few months while I worked on other things.

Then I started thinking, maybe it wants to be a series of smaller courses, or a set of modules, like building blocks people could choose according to where they wanted to go with their art.

I loved that idea; I wanted that to be it. Creating full and in depth courses takes a huge amount of energy and focus and can be quite exhausting {never mind all the marketing and planning}, and I wanted a way to offer depth and value without that. Ha.

The universe wasn’t having it. 😉

Breakthrough

And then earlier this year, after a personally significant trip, more or less without my deciding, it started coming together. I wrote and wrote, ideas started generating more and more ideas, and I could see this thing coming to life, and that it was after all going to be a big, meaty course. {And possibly a book, but that’s for another time.}

It contains the module element, with various multimedia pieces so you can pick and choose what will work best for you on your own unique artist path {and satisfying my need to create in segments}. It also acts as an actual part of the original modular idea, as I see it in a larger context of a ‘school’ I’m dreaming up. So no part of the ‘journey’ was wasted or wrong. {That’s important to recognise.}

The main point is that there’s a pathway here, just as there is for any creative idea.

An initial idea with no substance, a period of not knowing, a time of dormancy, smaller ideas to test out and keep or reject, all the while knowing and trusting that something is being created beneath the surface. It’s like the name was the tip of the iceberg, and the iceberg itself was what needed exploring and bringing to the surface.

Our creativity asks us to trust it.

I see this pattern all over the place in my life. Sometimes it’s an idea for a painting, when I have a single word to go on and the painting itself doesn’t show up for months. Sometimes there’s a vague feeling with no explanation of what it wants to become, just an inner pulling towards … something. Sometimes it’s an idea for a project that feels excruciatingly slow to come together.

Many of us, myself included {in the past}, ignore or suffocate that inner pulling because we don’t know what it means, or it’s uncomfortable, or we feel unsafe in the not knowing, or we’re not well, or we have so many other things going on there’s no space for it to grow.

But I bet you know what it feels like, that inner tug. That random idea that won’t go away, even though you have no idea what it actually IS. That feeling that’s like an unarticulated question you carry around, unanswered.

I invite you today to check in on that question. Maybe it’s not even an actual question yet; maybe it’s more of a glimmer you only see out of the corner of your eye when you’re not trying to.

The thing about creativity is we have to be available to it.

We have to give it time and space to explain the ideas it presents us with, and often that’s going to be in fragments over a period of time. Even my more fully formed ideas need evolving.

Touchstone is, among other things, a response to that. To knowing that we have busy lives but that we need this; we need to honour our innate desire and requirement to express ourselves through some medium {or many!}. It’s a rich course, and one I intend to keep evolving, according to what I and those who decide to join me in it learn and need.

Even if you don’t feel called to jump in with this offering, there’s still a part of you that wants your attention, and unless and until you honour it – not now and then but in a fully integrated way – there’ll always be that nagging sense of a question unanswered.

Whether it’s your next painting, a creative project, an actual studio, or the big one – to make your art your life’s work – there’s a cost to not listening, and not responding the best you can in the moment each time you hear it.

That’s why I started the #happyartistmovement. We need – and the world needs us – to listen inside and answer the question, repeatedly.

What is your creativity asking of you? And what one thing might you do today to show it you’re listening? Tell us in the comments!

If your curiosity has been piqued by the idea of Touchstone, I invite you to check out the information page by clicking the image on the left, or HERE. It’s a four week course designed to help you find clarity and purpose as you cultivate the artist lifestyle that’s going to suit you best, whether that’s making art now and then for pleasure, developing it into a career, or anything in between. Click the image to find out more and sign up for updates.

This course is so content rich that I know I will be going back to review many sections. Tara is a kind and encouraging teacher who gently pushes you to create as only you can create. This sounds simple, but it is actually a huge challenge when there is so much “out there” to compare yourself to. Touchstone helps you plan strategies to tackle the obstacles (real and imagined!) that get in your way of doing your own unique creative work.

Alison Kaczmarek