We were lucky to catch up with Becca Dwyer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Becca, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
I usually feel a creativity block when I’m overworked or have just come off the coattails of a project that requires a lot of energy, either mentally or physically. Something I like to do to help with this is to take advantage of creating when I am inspired. For example, I keep a sketchbook of random ideas and paintings I want to do but don’t have the ability to start at the moment. When I feel blocked or can’t come up with an idea, I like to open up this sketchbook and see if anything sparks joy and expand on it. Recently, I’ve also taken up collaging, where I’ll include receipts, business cards, or other papers that I collected throughout the week. I find that this form of expression allows me to create without judging how “good” I am and allows my brain to enter into a flow state.
Something that also helps is that I enjoy creating in multiple ways. This includes writing blog posts, creating and editing videos, posting to social media, painting murals, photography, digital illustration, and more. I’ve found that usually when I feel blocked, it doesn’t affect all of my creative avenues at once. So for example, I recently haven’t felt as inspired to post as much on social media, so I’ve taken a step back and focused on writing a couple of blogs for my website. While I was in the creative zone of writing, I took the time to brainstorm future ideas so that when I’m feeling this way again I can pick a topic and run with it.
For those feeling completely blocked out of all creativity, it may be time for you to absorb instead. Rest and reflection should be commonplace in every creatives’ practice! I recently took about a month to recharge and for me that looked like reading fiction books, going to museums and art galleries, connecting with friends, going to the beach, on nature walks, thrifting, and taking naps. Recharging can (and should) look different for everyone, so maybe for you, it’s playing your favorite sport, traveling, or doing absolutely nothing! There should be no shame in the way you recover from a rut; it’s impossible to do all of the things all of the time.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an artist from Southern California who brings creativity to life by transforming blank spaces and ordinary objects with paint. I enjoy creating custom designs on vinyl records, shoes, and electric guitars, adding personality to everyday items. Utilizing my background in Art and Marketing, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with major clients like JOANN, Nekter Juice Bar, Disney+, and more.
With BeccaDwyerDesign, I enjoy creating custom works of art that make people happy. In the past, this has looked like an electric guitar covered in sea creatures or a nursery mural filled with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings references. My process is very collaborative, so I like to gather my client’s ideas and transform them into something personal and unique. My favorite part is watching their faces light up when they see the final product. I also enjoy sharing digital content like how-to videos, interviews with professionals, supply sheets, and more.
My goal is to help people feel like they can tackle an art or painting project and make it their own. In addition, I enjoy giving back to the community by donating custom-painted artwork to charity auctions, museum fundraisers, and electrical utility boxes. Through sharing my work, I’ve cultivated an online community of over 75,000+ on social media and enjoy inspiring others to create as well!
Professionally, I work at a nonprofit aiming to bring free arts education to youth throughout San Diego County. As their Communications and Design Coordinator, I’m responsible for promoting community events on social media, connecting with donors and the public, writing email newsletters, and refining branding. At the time of writing this article, I’m pursuing an MA in Museum Studies and hope to continue positively impacting communities via cultural institutions.
Graduate school drastically decreases the amount of projects I can take on, so my business looks a little different during this time. Instead of painting shoes, vinyl records, and ceramic pieces, I’ve been posting more lifestyle videos and dedicating my creative energy to writing longer, more informative blog posts. Some of the topics come from papers I’ve written in my courses while others expand on videos that gained a lot of traction on social media. Whether you’re interested in how the largest Children’s Museum in the US runs its social media platforms or How to Paint on a Utility Box in 10 Steps, I’m hoping these writings can help inspire a wide range of people. Once I graduate in August 2024, I’m looking forward to opening up my commissions back and painting more large-scale murals!!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
While there are many things I’ve learned along the way, the three qualities that I feel most impacted my journey are adaptability, continuous learning, and confidence. Being a creative professional means collaborating with others and adapting to situations as they arise. This could look like a project falling through at the last minute, or, someone asking you to deliver something overnight. If the project falls through, are you able to adapt quickly and move on to another one? Adaptability also comes into play when painting murals. We’re susceptible to the weather when painting outside, and often have to adapt what days we paint, or what materials we use. This quality has also allowed me to flow through different focuses in my business. When I first started, I offered pet portraits, then moved on to custom shoes, and now I’m leaning more toward custom canvas paintings and murals. I find that being adaptable and coming into a project with that mindset generally makes me a happier person.
Something I believe is that we should never stop learning or being curious about the world. There’s so much to discover out there, and we don’t know what we don’t know. Continuous learning also helps inspire you, providing new insights and frameworks to incorporate into your practice. Google Chrome is probably one of the most used apps on my phone because I’m always looking up words or trying to figure out why something is the way that it is. Learning new information keeps things refreshing and may help you discover hidden passions. Although my continuous learning led me to grad school, you don’t need to dive into the deep end like I did. If you’re looking for ways to learn new things I suggest checking out your local library, art stores, or nonprofits. Oftentimes these places will have workshops or creative classes to help teach you something new while meeting people who also enjoy the same thing. Watching Jeopardy, playing the New York Times games, attending pub trivia night, or diversifying my social circles are all ways that I’ve learned new things. Whatever sounds feasible to you, get out there and absorb!
Confidence is something we should all learn how to project, even if we may not feel it on the inside. My confidence has grown over the years simply because after continuously putting myself out there, I’ve become more comfortable meeting new people, sharing my art on social media, and contributing to articles like this. I have a friend who’s just starting on their social media journey and they shared with me how embarrassing they felt putting themselves out there. I thought, finally someone gets it! When I first started posting online and sharing more personal art videos, I did not feel confident and spent a lot of my time anxious that people would see them (even though that’s what I wanted them to do). The only thing that made it easier for me was realizing that while social media is a valuable tool, it’s also silly and nothing really matters. Honestly, for the first few months, I just pretended to be confident, but other people didn’t see that. So share your art, or whatever it is you want to do, and your people will find you!
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
My current challenge is time management; I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do and also feel mentally stable. If I did have all the time in the world, I’d somehow be able to go to grad school, work part-time, run my online shop, take on custom commissions and murals, consistently post on social media, stay up-to-date with all my friends, try new hobbies, sleep 8 hours, and more! Outside of my part-time job and classes, I can really only take on one or two extra commitments.
Although I know this now, it took several months of stressing to realize that I just didn’t have the bandwidth to do it all and that that’s ok. I then took some time to write down all of the things I felt obligated to do and circled only the ones that brought me joy. As a result, I learned that my online store had become a huge stressor and no longer fulfilled me. This was a confusing revelation because 2023 was my shop’s most successful year! Although change can be hard for me, I decided to stop producing any new items in 2024 and instead, will take the year to sell off my inventory. After having to worry about responding to messages 24/7, irregular shipping times, and prepping dozens of packages a week, I’m ready to dedicate my time to other, more substantial ventures.
My goal is to instead focus the free time I have on murals and custom paintings. I would love to paint a mural for one of my favorite coffee shops in San Diego, so I’m hoping to make that happen this year. Additionally, I plan to paint a huge mural on the side of my house as well as update a utility box I originally painted in La Mesa a few years ago. To make sure I don’t overwork myself as I did last year, I’m keeping a planner with all my important dates and writing short entries about how I feel at the end of every week. This has helped me be mindful of how I’m feeling instead of simply checking off my to-do list and continuing to the next day. I’m enjoying taking life slower and appreciating where I’m at now instead of always looking at where I want to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beccadwyer.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccadwyerdesign/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becca-dwyer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjak2xtkBqdkNZ3YYfnn15g
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@beccadwyerdesign
https://www.pinterest.com/beccadwyerdesign/
Image Credits
Becca Dwyer
