We all know 2020 has been a ridiculous year- and while some people were able to really explore their creativity in a whole new way during the “Q” I ended up in a wild whirlwind of cloth mask making (I’ve made over 1000 cloth masks to date!) combined with one month working at a local grocery store (you can listen to my adventures on my podcast) which had me grinding out 100-120 hour work weeks and sliding into June utterly burnt out and in dire need of a 2 week nap. Then my dog died and the whole world caught on fire. I took my weary soul and broken little heart out of town for a spiritual Retreat where I did a LOT of work to heal and re-orient with my purpose as an artist and a human. Then I went to California to see my family and went of the grid for a week to backpack in the Desolation Wilderness with my sister and her fiancé.
Self Portrait in the Desolation Wilderness
When I arrived back in Nashville I thought I would just turn into a magical , refreshed little butterfly. I was filled with a world of ideas and exciting new work projects- but I felt… sticky- like tire stuck in the mud- spinning around furiously and getting nowhere. That’s when it hit me- for most of the Q- I have actually felt like it wasn’t okay to create or I have just been so emotionally overwhelmed that I didn’t want to (more on that HERE) Funny I know- but all of the issues of the world have seemed so gigantic and overwhelming that I have felt like my voice isn’t relevant, significant or important. Yes- the masks I designed were creative- but they also had a distinct purpose for the pandemic. So whereas pre pandemic I was filled with this boundless permission to just create and have fun- 2020 really created an environment for me creatively where I felt confused, inhibited and most of all out of practice on the simple joy of creating. There is also a phenomenon that can happen when you create art for a living- you forget to create art for yourself; and since everything starts having a deadline, an expectation and a dollar bill attached to it, personal creativity can start to disintegrate. I decided that in order to unstick the gears and get the flows going I would give myself a personal creative challenge every day for a week- starting now. I’m inviting you all to join me!
A major realization I had during my retreat is that art- in and of itself is ENOUGH. You don’t have to create some huge testament to the issues of our time- the simple act of creating, communicating and putting peace, beauty, hope and FUTURE out into the world is enough. Furthermore- even if the great testament to our time lives within you- it may never have a chance to see the light if you are suppressing your creativity because it “doesn’t seem relevant.” Todays challenge was a simple Self Portrait. Self portraits for me are nothing new- which is why I felt like it was a great way to just get back in the game of creating for the sake of creating. In Nashville it’s Thunderstorm season- so I knew I could most likely get a pretty sunset on the lake near my house. I’ve done portraits for others in the water- so I thought this was something I could easily experiment with as a self portrait, using my iPhone on a tripod with a self timer. I had an appointment near the thrift store close to dusk so my plan was to quickly find something to wear, run home and throw on some makeup and then dash off into the literal sunset to snap some photos. Well- at the thrift store I found nothing inspiring- and then at the very last minute I thought to myself, “If I snag a cheap mens blazer I can just throw it on over some neutral undies- and not worry about ruining it with water!” With a few minutes to spare I bought a Gigantic dusty blue blazer that I thought had a great color as well as a High fashion vibe-since it was so massive. I ran home and threw on some super fast dramatic blue eyeshadow, a neutral lip and a lot of highlighter. I literally spent 5 minutes on my makeup and the whole time I was thinking “maybe I should just do this some other time.” But I’m a sucker for a target so I threw on some flesh toned grannie panties and a t-shirt bra and got my ass to the lake while the sun was setting.
Some technical info: I shot all of these images on my iPhone 8 Plus. I mounted it on a tripod that was about 2-3 feet high- for some shots I angled the camera straight out, some I angled it a tad down and for some I increased the height a bit for an overhead shot. (I’ll probably do a how to with some proper BTS in the future- but I was in a HURRY) I used a flash for all of the images to compensate for backlighting and low light. All photos were edited on my phone with VSCOcam as well as some additional effects from PicsArt for a few images (with PicsArt you can add dust, and fun flares and lighting effects etc. If you want to REALLY get wild- it has an entire WORLD of effects, stickers, etc that you can use to create amazing and artistic images)
All in all the whole thing took me 1-2 hours from start to edit. For me- it jumpstarted my creative freedom and productivity- plus if you’re an artist and you need content- this is a great way to take things into your own hands. I’m suuuuper happy with how these images turned out.
Here is how you can play along- I’ll be doing a daily creativity challenge on my instagram- with a new challenge posted every day this week at 8a Central Time. Check in daily for the rules of the challenge and then post on your feed or stories with #EDCreativeChallenge and tag me. I’ll reshare your awesome creativity and pick my favorite of the week for a virtual coffee.
I hope this post inspires you to get out there and create for the joy of it. I’m excited to use my fresh creative energy for todays work.
XoXO,
Elisabeth