With the rapid improvements in AI, it’s more important than ever to keep your creativity alive as it’s one of the best defenses against the rising trend of automation. Even if you don’t buy into all the hype around AI, keeping your creativity alive has always been a challenge and as so we’ve connected with some of the most creative folks in our community to discuss tactics and strategies for keeping your creativity alive.
Shanequa Moultrie
I keep my creativity alive by watching the world around me. Most of my work comes from real life experiences and emotions whether it’s mine, people I may know, or know of. There’s always a reaction to something. Whatever I come up with I think to myself “how would a person respond to this” and it comes naturally. There’s a lot to life and there’s always a story to tell whether it’s through writing a book, photography, music, painting, acting, etc. Read More>>
Brianna Warren
I value the importance of staying true to myself, being in tune with God and my spirit. I also choose to constantly surround myself by things people and places that inspire me. Read More>>
Daeil Kim
As filmmakers, our drive comes from discovering stories to share. Crafting content gives us a sense of vitality, while also connecting with those who support our vision is vital. It’s a symbiotic relationship of support and inspiration that keeps us moving forward. Moreover, recognizing our own growth holds significance, as no one else can truly appreciate the sense of accomplishment that comes from continually bringing films to life. Read More>>
Paige Tinnel
Keeping creativity alive is not a simple task, especially with the everyday events that can make life even more overwhelming. Prioritizing time for yourself is the most important thing to keep in mind. It’s something I struggle with currently and am working hard on everyday. One of the best advice I have heard is to at least work on whatever it is for some time every night. When you’re sitting and starting to scroll online, try to pull yourself out of it and work on your creative art for that time instead. Even creating a daily goals list is less stressful and more motivating to complete than looking at a ‘task list’. Read More>>
Kyla Hope
I have been writing songs since I was five years old. At a certain point you start to ask yourself what else you can write about. I learned that as a singer/songwriter, the best thing you can do is to write what you know. Most of my songs come from my life experiences and then I try to use my creativity to expand those stories in hopes that everyone can relate to them. Read More>>
Skylar Saba
For me, working as a creative can be challenging. There are a lot of ups and downs that can happen when you are making money via your creativity. There is pressure on your creativity that can really suppress the reasons you fell in love with creativity in the first place. Read More>>
Ali Kates
Hi! Thank you so much for having me. This might sound like a backwards answer, but I listen to what my body needs. A friend asked me this the other day, and I told her that I rely on when I am feeling creative to set aside time for creation. When my body requires rest, I choose to listen to it instead of pushing myself to be creative. I think many people, including myself, who create content, often feel the need to be in a constant state of creation. Read More>>
Savea Kagan
What I remind myself of is that as long as we are alive, so is the concept of creativity; there is nothing to calculate, compare, or enforce. Inspiration lives and breathes inside of not only us, but also everyone and everything around us, if we dare to welcome it with open arms and youthful eyes. Ideas rarely materialize when we deliberately concentrate on dragging them by the ear. That’s because our focus is then fixated on the possibility of a polished product rather than the present moment. Read More>>
Jac Benford
I find that talking to other creative people encourages me to chase my inspirations. I keep my creativity alive by reading, learning, or doing something new. For example, I have invested many hours sketching on Procreate, using this software to allow creative aspirations to blossom. Read More>>
Tiana Austin-Gardner
Being creative is no challenge for me. As a crafter and professional DIY’er, I have always been a very creative person. With charcuterie companies on the rise and becoming more popular, trends and certain things get old pretty fast. You have to be creative and be able to stand out in order to get customers. I try not to let what is trending or what others are doing influence me and my creative process. I stay true to my style and techniques and always come up with a finished product that I am proud of. Of course, there are trends that I’ve followed, but it’s important that I always add my own special touch to it. Read More>>
Rosa Murillo
I really don’t look at trends when it comes to jewelry design. I find that trends can be fleeting and often don’t reflect my own personal style. Instead, I look for inspiration in my surroundings. I love to travel and visit new places, and I always find that the architecture, landscape, and culture of a particular place can spark my creativity. I also love to collect finds, such as vintage jewelry, antique finds, and stones. These items can provide me with unique materials and inspiration for my designs. Read More>>
Katie Fee
I think it’s important to take breaks to avoid burnout. If you work and create constantly, you’re bound to burnout eventually. By taking breaks, you allow yourself to rest and get back into a headspace where creativity is able to flow freely. Read More>>
Scott Eakins
Being creative is a big part of who I am and inspire to be. Staying creative can be tough especially in your low points. In the past I pushed myself to create one art piece a day. Somedays it was a photograph, a drawing, digital design, or even sculpture. This brought stress at times but also brought me a lot of joy and often good results. It was the ritual of the daily creations that always had my mind spinning with new ideas and concepts. I continued to make these daily creations for about seven years creating over 2,500 different pieces of art. Read More>>
Julz Laforest
Self-care is an important practice in keeping my creativity alive. I believe that taking time to care for ourselves and relax creates the free space in our minds necessary for the creative spark to ignite. Space allows us the necessary room to experiment with ideas and the freedom for our minds to wander. Through that practice, I’m often reminded of how much joy is in my life which helps me stay in tune with the flow of life, which is where I draw much of my creativity from. Read More>>
LaSheba Boyd
I must say, it’s my clients! At the initial consultation, not only am I getting to know the space, I’m also taking the opportunity to get to know my client. I’m paying attention to all the details they mention without knowing and use this knowledge later to create a space that has their desires represented. Read More>>
Peter-John Campbell
It’s funny, I’m actually in the middle of a creative dry spell. We’ve all been there and are familiar with these frustrating feelings. You want to get back at it, but it all seems to distant and daunting. Any idea you come up with seems stale and over done. This use to defeat me and I would beat myself up for not being able to create anything of value. But in time I’ve learned this is part of the natural course of things. You can’t always be cranking it out, you have to allow time for your brain to rest. Or as a friend of mine would put it, “you can’t get water from and empty jar.” Read More>>
John Yates
After working in the creative industry for more than 12 years I definitely have experienced times of burn-out. It has been important for me and my business to keep my creativity alive. I have done this by continually looking for new challenges to take-on. This can look like trying new techniques within my industry or stepping completely outside of my industry to challenge myself in new ways. Read More>>
Paige Rochefort
I have found the more that I choose to slow down and allow myself free time within my schedule, the more I feel my creativity has space to breathe. Those moments of inspiration can turn into nights and even seasons of creative exploration. Read More>>
Rafy Ibrahim
By learning more and never give up on myself, also surrounding myself with supportive people who I trust and care for me. Spending time with family and doing things that I do also give me more opportunities to think and creat. Read More>>
Anna Gygi
Keeping creativity alive is one of the hardest but easiest challenges when it comes to makeup. Sometimes it sparks on its own, from a random object or thought. A lot of the times thought it come from others, where trends come into play. In the lowest moments of not feeling creative enough and having no spark looking into what’s fun and trendy. Recreating others looks (with credit of course). There’s so many talented artists, on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, that all share their art. Not even just makeup creators, all forms of creative personal. Read More>>
Sarah Sanville
One of the ways that I choose to keep my creativity alive is by constantly exposing myself to new design books, magazines, online resources, etc. It’s easy to get busy and not take time to feed my creative nature. However, I’m learning that spending even small amounts of time each week doing something creative or learning a new thing helps my brain me more creative in general. This in turn, keeps me motivated on my work projects and ready to come up with new designs and ideas for our work. Being outside in God’s magnificent creation also feeds my desire to see beautiful things. Read More>>
Veronica Mentor
As a creative individual immersed in serval creative spaces for several years, there are a few key methods I’ve kept to keep my creativity alive. The first is viewing everything through a creative lens. As a creative, you almost have no choice! When you apply your creativity to all aspects of your life you, see the beauty of how Sometimes your creativity may not come up in the usual aspects of your life. Your job may require one sense of creativity that has resulted in writer’s block. That’s okay. This is your chance to take a break and explore another form that may inspire you. Read More>>
Aline Giampietro Trifonov
As an artist and teacher, I think it is very important to find different ways to keep our creativity fresh and alive. I am fortunate to have a full piano studio and one lesson can be very different from another. Every student is different and I always work on adapting my teaching to each student’s learning style. I have to remain very creative because one approach in solving an issue might not work as well for another student. I read a lot about topics in my music field, but also in other fields, especially learning skills and psychology. Read More>>
Maria Quesada
I try to take inspiration from nature, other artists, pop culture. I try to not stay in a bubble of looking for nail art only on nails. It can be very easy to re-create sets that people have done but the best part about my job is the creativity part so if at all I can make something my own or come up with something completely custom for the client I definitely get a lot more satisfaction out of my job. Every now and then, of course I have a creative block which is where I will try to find inspiration through media, like cartoons or fashion and other random things. I’ve created sets based off furniture so it’s cool to see what gives me inspo. Read More>>
Worada Beau Lehman-Elchert
As an experienced makeup artist, I have never thought to myself that I already know everything there is to know about makeup or being a makeup artist (that would be presumptuous!). I feel there’s always room to grow and improve my skills; being open-minded to continuing to learn and accepting challenges is what keeps my creativity alive. I feel I am constantly growing as an artist. Whether it be trying or mastering new skills, learning from other artists, or keeping up with newest and latest makeup trends. Read More>>
Gefei Liu
In my creative journey, I’ve often doubted myself. I went through a typical Chinese education for 18 years, where creativity wasn’t encouraged. I ended up in the arts by chance, studying “creative producing” at CalArts. Yes, I’m studying “management” in an art school – an odd combo. My old way of thinking made me doubt: I hadn’t read enough, watched enough films or art, so how could I make meaningful stuff? Even if I did create something, why would anyone care? But then I realized something. Read More>>
Kia’ Cooper
As an individual who thrives off ideation, even I have struggled with creativity in my journey as a business owner. In what some may call a “saturated” market, I often find myself developing ways to set my self apart and stand out from others. There are two main ways in which I do so, one of which is remaining authentic. As hard as it may seem, I don’t force myself to come up with ideas surrounding my business. While I may have an overarching theme or concept in mind, I allow my ideas, designs, labels, marketing, ect to come to me naturally and jot them down as they come. Read More>>
Joy Naughton
I consistently find ways to alchemize my emotions. When I feel something, I ask myself, what would this look like outside of my body? Sometimes it looks like scribbling, crumbling paper, dancing, etc. It reminds me that I always have access to my creativity. Read More>>
Aniket Patel
For me, creativity is something that I derive from the people I follow, watch, or the art of those I admire. Keeping creativity alive is tough, especially after creating numerous artworks and covering various topics. However, I haven’t worked extensively yet, so I can explore different topics and ideas. Still, there are times when I face an art block, wondering what to tackle next. I might have just covered the space topic last week and now seek a different subject to work on. Read More>>
Anthony Zamora
By always trying something new, going the extra mile, there is always something new to learn, something new to see, everywhere at anytime. Read More>>
Hanah Glimpse
I think it’s natural to not always have to keep creativity alive. Everyone needs breaks from everything, even the things you love the most. It’s how we keep ourselves our best at work, with peers, or a task; by taking a break. I have felt my best creativity after taking the time to step away, but knowing that my creativity won’t leave me. It’s an integral part of my art. By using a break or moment to take in the world or other views helps to really fuel my creativity again. I find my best solutions or idea by stepping away and exploring something else, maybe a different hobby or take in other people’s works of art to be inspired again. Read More>>
Matt Larson
I feel like keeping one’s creativity thriving (and not just surviving) is something that requires a delicate balance between community and solitude. I think far too often, creatives like to wax poetic about time spent in isolation, crafting their various magnum opera, to the extent that we romanticize or even fetishize working alone. Read More>>
Rachel AO
I’ve found that experiences, especially ones that push me out of my comfort zone, help me have interesting stories to tell. I try to keep myself busy by traveling and meeting new people to collaborate with. Writing songs with other people is a good way to cultivate creativity collectively, rather than individually, and helps my music become relatable and stick with the audience. I love collaborating with various artists, producers, and musicians when I am able to find good creative connections. Read More>>
Adrian Ferguson
Music is a huge source of creativity for me, so I collect vinyl records. I like to go to local record stores and thumb threw their collection. Often times I buy records from artists I’ve never heard of and take them home and listen. In addition to discovering great music, I research these artists, how they got started, who they were discovered by, their inspiration behind songs and titles, and it gives me fresh ideas for exhibitions and events. Read More>>
Danielle Cook
A piece of helpful advice that an art teacher gave me when I was a kid is that being creative is a skill, and like any other skill it needs to be consistently practiced over time in order to develop. Although I only create using a few mediums (mostly photography and sketching), I get limitless inspiration from all forms of art, including movies, music, books, fantasy video games, fashion, as well as other photographers. When I feel that my creativity is going in circles, I lead myself out of my comfort zone and try something new, whether that be a genre of art that I’m not used to or an environment/experience that I don’t usually find myself in. Read More>>
Amanda Lacey
I keep my creativity alive, by allowing it to expand, I started out making jewelry, but I refuse to limit myself to that one outlet. Being creative is as essential as breathing if I held it in, I would burst. Letting my creativity flow freely allows me the opportunity to communicate to the world what beauty means to me. Being able to express my individuality through the things I create allows for therapeutic relief from life’s daily stressors. Being self expressive allows me time to process my feelings, face the obstacles in front of me, and figure out how to overcome them. If I am in a headspace, where I’m not inspired then I can use my previous work as a muse or just simply sit and appreciate what my imagination has already birthed. Read More>>
shugE
How do I keep my creativity alive? It’s funny, because I actually see this flipped upside down. My creativity & art is what has truly kept me feeling alive. Making my art (mostly songwriting) has been the most effective personal therapy for my mental health that I’ve ever found…& the fact that I had to stop performing for a decade in order to deal with life crisis’ made the struggles so much harder than it could have been. Now that I’ve returned to performing my songs for people I’ve rediscovered how miraculously helpful it is for my mental health, optimism, & hope. Read More>>
Madison Guthrie
I have always been a creative person, so it partially comes naturally to me. There are times when I get in a rut creative wise, but I tend to search Instagram and other social media platforms for new ideas or ways to get me out of that rut. There have been so many times that I have seen a reel on Instagram of a new technique for making a certain cookie design, and I’ve thought to myself, “Yeah, why not?! Let’s try it!” This is truly how I develop my skills. Read More>>
Nelson Cardenas
One of the things that many trained and technical artists do is to play it safe, I feel that being a self-taught artist has given me more freedom to venture into unusual techniques without restrictions or rules imposed on me by an art program. I’m sure that there are those particular art applications that I didn’t have the privilege of learning but perhaps I’m already approaching them in my own way. Sometimes in the process of researching techniques I discover that I’m already doing practicing it in principle but just in my own way. Read More>>
Calvin Leonard
When I first jumped into the game. Photography was my medicine for anxiety. I have always been into Visual Arts before I even picked up a camera. So there was always this curiosity about photography. A lot of people pick up the camera for all the wrong reasons. It’s either to clout Chase or try to be famous. I love everything about photography. Read More>>
Alex Barr
As a comic artist, and a freelancer who is often hired for long-term projects, it’s very important to me that my motivation to see through finished projects is maintained. I do this by turning those projects into whatever I need them to be, in order to stay invested. Read More>>
