Jenny Grant Art Mixed Media Artist

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My First Art Studio

How are you feeling today? Are you full of energy or is your energy level low? Crazy times absorb energy. Make sure you keep doing small, tiny things to feed yourself emotionally, spiritually and physically. This is more important than ever.

One of the ways, I think, is to find the small things that makes our heart tick and do those things a tiny little bit more. The key to keep doing the things that we know are good for us, but that we down priorities because it is just for our selves, is to make them into tiny habits. The key here is TINY!! When it comes to change and new habits, “tiny is mighty”, as Stanford behaviour scientist BJ Fogg says. Do you want to exercise more - do one sit-up before you go to bed every night and then extend it SLOWLY.

Let me tell you a story...

My journey to let my creative spark take more space and lead the way in my life started with one very small step. When I was in the middle of being a mum with one new born and two kids in primary school I was in a huge need of some space and some me-time. I had neither. I wanted to paint but I never got the time and I did not have the space.

One day my husband bought a tarpaulin (big plastic sheet) for a project he was working on. He realised that it was way too small and asked me if I wanted it to paint on and I decided that YES, that will be my space!! I got a plastic box out of the garage and I packed it with the tarpaulin, some paints, a bucket and some small canvases. I wrote on the box with a big sharpie “Jenny’s Art Studio”. The box was sitting on a shelf in my kitchen. I saw the box every day and I could simply pull the box out, spread the tarpaulin onto a table or the floor, paint for an hour and then put it all back in the box again. No need to clean anything, I even propped the water container up in the box and kept the brushes in the water without cleaning them… not good for the brushes but good for my creative soul.

Just by letting go of the thought “...when I get more space I will …” or “...when I get more time I will… “, I had taken one tiny step towards my dream of having my own art studio and I gave my inner spark tiny sections of my time to shine and lead the way… and that was enough to feed that spark and let it grow... slowly. When it got that tiny attention it started to lead the way on the journey that I am still on today!!

Do you have any "tiny habits" och ways to organize your art supply so that you make sure you do more art? Please comment below.