I’m really happy you’re here. There’s always a sense of anticipation when I start a new project and this blog is no different.
The journey which brought me here started around 15 years ago on DeviantArt where me and a couple of my friends were posting fanart, chibis, portraits and so on. It might not have seemed as much at the time but it got me going and my interest in art grew over the years until it became one of the most important things in my life. However, for a while there it seemed like being creative was pretty much unachievable for me.
During my 20’s I went through a rough patch when it comes to my mental wellbeing. A lot of things happened – from the usual family milestones as well as the worst kinds of relationships – and it took me years to heal from burnout and force my mindset to steer away from the general sense of dread and indecisiveness the circumstances created. And the first thing to be put on hold during those times was creativity - the joy of making art and the sheer gusto of painting something that you really like.
To put a long story short – I didn’t really like what I became. I felt empty not being able to draw which was basically letting my negative inner critic win the day (to use the words of Julia Cameron). So, I did the only thing I thought I could – I challenged myself to do baby steps. I went into full research mode and found other artists and hobbyists with good advice on how to tackle the issue. I started drawing again, slowly but surely, and most of all I let myself experiment. Art journaling (and junk journaling) – a previously unknown method to me – was a major help. It led me away from my expectations of what a drawing had to look like and made me enjoy the process, which was something I instinctively knew how to enjoy as a teenager but lost somewhere along the way.
The next big thing for me was writing. I kept a separate journal in which I wrote just about anything I could think of. Eventually it became a tool for documenting my life and at the same time served as a personal compass showing me who I am (which turned out to be the best thing I could do for myself).
In the end I did manage to find motivation and resolve to continue creating. Sometimes it’s still a struggle, but it’s not nearly as hard as it used to be. And that is how I arrived here. In a way it’s a challenge for me to put my experience into words and to develop as an artist, but in another way, if I can lend a hand to someone in the future on a similar journey, I’ll be really happy and all of this just might be worth it.
Topics that you can expect to find here are about the creative process, art, art history, all kinds of journaling and my own experience of dealing with art block so if those are things you are interested in, you're very welcome to join me!
Have a lovely day,
Vanteri, March 2024
A disclaimer:
English is my second language and though I do mostly read English books, I understand that grammatical errors will inevitably be present in my texts so I apologize in advance.
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