What if I just blogged about my Creative Life?

A mini art portfolio. 2023.

When it comes to having my own little space on the internet, I sometimes forget it even exists when social media sites keep drawing my attention, but what if I shifted my focus to here instead? What if, instead of vying for attention on Instagram, I came here and posted my work?

It's a scary thought. At the same time, it would cut out the gaggle of voices all competing for a chance to get noticed to be the next star influencer. I never wanted to be an influencer anyway. I wanted to create stories, and make beautiful artwork that people could resonate with. So, I decided to give this corner a little dusting off, and start posting more frequently. Welcome to the unedited version of me. In the age of AI generators, human voices are important. Also, I need more writing practice... (perhaps, the real reason I want to open up my blog space again, haha)

So, buckle in, and get ready to be taken on my mostly daily journey.

The Summer of Lazy Days and "Procrastination"

As I begin dusting off this blog, I realize that there's so much to say. Where to even begin? Well, let's start at the end of MERMAY. In case you're in the dark about MerMay, it's an art contest/challenge where you draw mermaids for the month of May. You can choose to draw any one of the prompts you want. I discovered MerMay the day it started, so, while other artists had about a month to prepare, I was winging it from day one. I also decided to do as many prompts as I could.

I powered through the month sketching out ideas in my sketchbook and drawing on my iPad. I posted the finished work daily on my Instagram complete with a process video, in the end, I was only able to finish about 3/4 of the prompts. I had ideas for the last 1/4, but my motivation slowly fizzled out. Younger me would've continued on through the prompts and burned out, but I decided that the artwork I created was enough. Not only was it enough, but it was inspiring. I had created another character for my story in the "Night Mage" series.

A series of prints from my MerMay adventure. May 2025.

I shifted gears. I opened up a document on Google Docs, and began planning out my series. Today, I'm still working on ideas. I'm filling in the gaps of my story, but there's still so much to build, my writing skill especially.

If you know me, you know that I love to game, and one game I enjoy playing is "The Sims". I find it funny that a sim can sit down in front of computer, write a book in a short time, and publish it quickly to make money. If only writing worked like that in real life~! I mean, some people try! Only some succeed. I don't want to write and hit publish. I want to work out the kinks of my story and send it out into the world as a polished product because it deserves that. Not only that, writing is not always a straight line like sitting at the computer and spitting out beautiful prose.

The funny thing about writing, though, is not every idea is gold, but in the moment of writing the idea feels like it is. You've been hit with this perfect little light bulb moment, and you think you can polish it only to realize that it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Well, I stumbled into a few of those types of ideas while writing in June. I slowly lost steam. When my little ones finished up with school, I latched onto that excuse as a means to ignore my creative duties.

"Snail Bubbles" August 2025. Created originally with ink pens and shaded using Krita (a digital art program).

Duties... Like I'm some soldier in the creative world tasked with writing stories and creating art! -laughs at the image of self in a full suit of armour-

Anyway, let's get that image out of my head. I decided to give myself a long break. No art, no writing this summer. That didn't mean that I'd do nothing at all! I did little projects here and there. I even wrote a few ideas down, but for the most part, I let myself reset. Isn't that the whole point of a holiday?

The hardest part of this summer holiday was NOT working. Some days, I stayed in bed and binged a show, other days, I tried gaming, but mostly, it was me feeling lost. The unexpected loss of purpose or value nearly suffocated me the first couple of weeks. Then, it got better. I could feel the benefits of rest restoring my imagination. I began dreaming more and feeling that sense of inspiration fill up again. I started to have this itch to be creative again. Not only that, my motivation to write this blog started to take seed.

Closing...

Hustle culture tells us to power through the fatigue, and our bank accounts tell us to power through burnout. Doing MerMay and interacting with Disney artists has taught me many things about the art industry that I don't like. The art industry isn't for me, but I'm not giving up on my art or my writing. From now on, I'm forging my own path. Good bye social media and welcome to Chickenator Studios! (A work in progress name -nervous laugh-)