You can draw or paint or sculpt or write or dance.
You can use the prompts for inspiration or do your own thing.
I believe we were created to create; so whether you are an artist or just like to make beautiful messes. Go for it. Create wildly and with abandon. And share your creativity with us.
Tag us on Facebook or Instagram or use the hashtag #xangelleartchallenge so we can see your creativity and celebrate you and the beauty you bring to the world.
There is only 3 days until the start of the next Art Challenge and I do hope you join us. It’s such an incredible and soul filling experience to purposefully engage your creativity for 30 days.
One thing that’s so valuable as we start this journey is COMMUNITY. It’s amazing to join in with others who are expressing their creativity; to be encouraged and inspired by them. You are also part of the encouraging and inspiring process for others. It’s this incredible loop that cycles around and fills your soul. So if you don’t already follow my Facebook Page, click on the link below and follow me.
I’m going to send you there right now to follow or like or whatever it is that you do to join and see posts because that is where we will be sharing our daily art and creativity. Each day there will be a post with the Day and Prompt. We will be sharing our art in the comments of each day’s post.
That way we can all see who is playing along with us in this Art Challenge . It’s a great way to collect the art for each day and we can encourage each other as we go along. Think of it as a virtual gallery. I’m excited to see what you create.
So if you haven’t already, go give my page a follow. I’m so excited to start this art challenge and to see where our creativity leads us.
What if I’m more interested in writing than I am in drawing or painting?
That’s AMAZING! Just like the picture says above….words are art, too!
If I could encourage you to do one thing, it would be to listen to your heart and create. Your heart might be desperate to draw and you’ve not done it because you’re not very good. If you’ve always dreamed of writing poetry or stories, do it.
Very few of us humans start out naturally good at anything. But if there’s a small voice inside of you that has been desperate to do something creative, listen to it. Start now. Start small. Let the beginning be just that. A beginning. Take those first few wobbly steps; and soon you’ll be walking steady and sure. It doesn’t happen over night though. Just acknowledge that and know that it’s part of the process.
I’m planning on writing some for this Art Challenge. It’s another creative outlet that I’ve always dreamed about. I’ve have written some, here and there but recently I’ve embraced creative writing along side drawing. When I do express myself through art or writing, it feeds my soul in ways that very little else does. There’s a satisfaction in doing something that the very core of you longs for.
Is there a part of you that desires to create in a way that you’ve been denying yourself? I’d totally encourage you to join us as we spend the month of September creating.
You might be wondering what kind of commitment this whole 30 Day Art Challenge is.
Honestly 30 days is a long time.
Will you be kicked out of “the club” if you miss a day?
NOPE
Will you be letting someone down if you miss a day?
NOPE
Will you be shamed or called out if you miss a day?
Also NOPE!
I would strongly encourage you to join our 30 Day Art Challenge with every plan of creating art every day.
Purposing to do this will allow you to get the most out of the process. It will also encourage you to get creative with finding ways to fit creativity into busy days. It could be a quick 5 min session while you wait for a bus or a kid. It could be drawing while you sit in the waiting room at the dr or dentist. It could be on your coffee break at work. We waste so much time but the more you realize that. The more you purpose to fit creativity in to your day to day life , the more ways and times and places you will notice that you can fit it in.
If you get to the end of your day and realize that you forgot or were too busy…..take note of that. Use that information to give you feedback. If you had the most soul fulfilling day packed with love and joy and people, then call it a win and have a good nights sleep. If you think back and feel like the day was tied up in fruitless busy-ness; think about how you can make changes to be living the life that you want to and make one plan to do so the next day.
If you choose to invest in a month of adding creativity to your life, make that month count. But don’t feel like a failure if life gets busy. Just come back to it.
Live life with the passion of a baby learning to walk. They try. They fall. They try. They fall. They keep trying and trying and trying and trying until they’ve got it.
This also means they fall and get up, over and over and over until they walk.
Also think about the fact that we say they are “walking” when they manage to stumble through 2 or 3 steps. We don’t run them down for falling. We cheer and squeal and shout and encourage them on.
Be your own cheerleader on this artistic journey. Speak gently and encouragingly to yourself. Let us, also, cheer you on. The more steps you take, the more you will be confident in your abilities. But it’s not about the finished product. It’s about the journey.
We’d love to have you join us from September 1-30 for our 30 Day Art Challenge. Stay tuned for more details.
I think one reason that doing art and especially sharing art is hard is that it’s a piece of you. You are essentially “creating a piece from yourself” and if you expose it or share – the hope, the wish, the prayer is that people will be kind. That they will see something good. That they will accept and love and value the pieces of yourself that you put out there.
And that’s hard. Because not everyone will see or accept you. Sometimes we feel like it’s easier to protect or hide those parts of ourselves. To not expose or (even safer) to not even create.
But we lose out on something incredible when we stifle or repress the creative parts of ourselves that long to be expressed and seen.
It feels easier to deny our creative longings than it does to express them. But vulnerability is critical for both artistic and personal transformation.
But ironically, it’s when artists are courageous enough to tap into their vulnerability, they also tap into the healing power of art for themselves and the people who view their art.
I’m on an artistic journey. I’m on a personal healing and transformative journey. I’m on a vulnerable journey; and if you are interested in walking along side of me. I welcome you. There is no judgement here. You will be seen and there is space for you.
Our Art Challenge starts on September 1 and goes for 30 days. We’d love to have you join us in whatever way you can. I’ll be here in all my glory and chaos. The mess and the wonder is invited to just be present.
You don’t need anything special. Paper and pen or pencil works but I would suggest some kind of a sketch pad, just so you have a journal of your journey.
I thought it might be fun to have a practise round before we get going, so that you have an idea of how this process works.
Starting with the prompt “Flower” create something and either tag me on Instagram ( @pattic ) or post it in the comments of this post on Facebook.
You can draw, paint, write a poem, a song, take a photograph, sculpt, do whatever you want. But create your interpretation of the word flower and share it with us.
The word is just a prompt so create what that prompt sparks inside of you. It could be a flower, it could be multiple flowers, it could be a bouquet, or a field. It could be a flower dress or a flower tie or flower sunglasses. It’s up to you. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want. I’ll probably take about 5 mins to draw and paint mine.
I can’t wait to see what you create.
I’ll post mine as soon as I do it. Happy creating!
We’d LOVE to have you join our art challenge in September. Keep following for more details!
But I can’t draw/paint/color/etc; “I’m not an artist.” you might be saying.
You might not be selling your art, or hanging it in a gallery but that doesn’t make you “not an artist.”
That was an awkward sentence.
I remember when I changed the title on my Facebook Page from Blogger to Artist. I most definitely did not identify as an artist. I felt like the hugest fraud putting that on there BUT……the fact was that I made art and crazy enough, I even sold my art…..even crazier, people had been buying my art on greeting cards for years.
But I wasn’t an artist because I wasn’t very good. I most definitely wasn’t as good as “them”.
Imposter Syndrome is that uncomfortable feeling that you feel when you think you are unqualified and incompetent. If you manage to do something well, you might chalk it up to good luck.
After much therapy, I figured out that feelings of “not being good enough” weren’t really serving me and I wanted to live life differently. That involved redefining how I saw and spoke about myself.
Art was a big one for me because I’ve always felt called to create. But I spent a huge portion of my life doubting my abilities and denying myself the right to try and fail while still having fun.
If I can, in some small way, encourage you to try – knowing that failing is just part of trying; and encourage you to have fun while trying – I honestly believe that if you want to, you can create art to spark joy, too!
Not everyone wants to draw or color and that’s fine. But if there’s a part of you that has always wanted to but hasn’t given yourself permission to – for whatever reason……know that this is a safe space to start.
Calling all my fellow artists and creatives, we’d love to have you join us as we do a 30 day Art Challenge from September 1-30.
