embracing creative seasons + listening to the process

I will be honest; I struggle with not overwhelming myself by doing every. little. thing.

I have become a collector of hobbies; my hands have never been busier now that I am learning so many different ways of making and creating. With this also comes a lack of self-control, I feel like if I am not doing the things then I’m wasting time. I haven’t given myself time to rest and process my learning and knowledge, which has exhausted me.

After spending some time reflecting on my art practice, The Humble Wolf’s future, just life in general, I found myself considering the creative flow and how it might work in seasons just as things are in nature. The natural world is always in flux, ever changing and adapting. So why do I feel like I’m a fraud when I start changing?

It seems as though because we live our lives showing the world all the good things through social media that I struggle to show the messy, chaotic side of change. When I post about that change it just seems so distant from what I was doing before and there was no in between when in reality, it was all in the process. I’m rolling my eyes writing this because to think that my worth and value can be measured by what people think of me and what I create from what I post is just… silly. This is sort of the reality of being a creative in this day and age, everything has to be shown otherwise it is not authentic, but really, we only choose to show the aesthetic authentic parts of it. Little do many of you know, I am a mess. My ideas and thoughts are thrown all over the place, I have failed (not actually failed because I learned how NOT to do something) projects, my projects that feel too far away from my “usual” makings, my mind is constantly on the verge of sparking up in flames from over working itself.

I am tired of trying to fit into a small space when all I want to do is explore and create things that I enjoy doing. And these things change and adapt throughout the seasons, my creative seasons. For example, years ago all I would do is paint. Now I rarely pick up a paint brush. My latest creative obsession is finally giving into learning beadwork, something that has been on my list of things to learn for ages but I was always so scared to try. My mind is racing with ideas from this, and actually, picking up beadwork has helped me ground myself in why I started making things in the first place.

I want to make beadwork pieces, paint when my body tells me to paint, knit and sew when the season calls for it, try my hand at candle making, all of the things. It is with this post I would like to announce that The Humble Wolf will no longer just be focusing on handmade art supplies but whatever the creative season calls for me to make. I will be having limited edition plant pigment art supplies, beadwork pieces, sewn practical items, paintings, drawings and whatever else I can teach my hands to make.

I would like to thank each of you for following along with the journey so far, I hope this also inspires you to think about your own creative process and flow. Do you notice times of year that you feel pulled to create things outside of your normal mediums? Embrace it. 

my life lately:

Chi Miigwetch and all the love,