We were lucky to catch up with Ioana Stoica recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ioana, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I don’t know whether I actually keep my creativity alive, or it keeps me.
I think creativity (as well as many of the qualities we value), is innate in human beings. “Keeping it alive” seems to me to be a matter of nurturing that gift and doing our best not to restrict, limit, or drown our natural creative nudges or the creative process itself.
I think we struggle in some ways with understanding or making the most out of this innate, natural process nowadays because many of us have been brought up (or are currently living) in a fast-paced world where there’s little room for mistakes, and things must be done fast, as close to perfectly as possible, and quickly.
In a world where consumerism rules, quality often ends up being sacrificed for quantity. Instead of being a deep and nourishing experience, the creative process is hurried by deadlines and cumbered with noise. The result of our creation “must sell”. Creating for the approval of other people is a good recipe for burnout and creativity blocks.
Our belief in our own creativity is diminished by comparison and thoughts of inadequacy…
And still, creativity is there, always there, as a trusted real-time response to our questions, desires, or challenges. Creativity seems to love showing up in moments when our minds are relatively clear and quiet, and is accompanied by the exciting surge of energy we all get when a new exciting idea pops into our minds – when the invitation to create comes, and all we’ve gotta do is say yes to it. And in my personal experience, the sooner we say yes, the better.
I do not know if I am in charge of keeping my creativity alive, but I’m sensing that I’m in charge of not killing it. I’m sensing that it’s up to me to “keep the pipes clean”, even when I’ve been clogging them innocently, unintentionally.
I’m “clogging the pipes” when I’m consuming too much information, and spending too much time watching others create. I’m inhibiting creativity when I’m paying too much attention to my own stressful thinking and to the imaginary judgmental voices.
I’m limiting it when my reason for creation becomes “so that others like it” instead of it being “because I just LOVE creating and am curious to see where this goes”.
I’ve often had this experience in my work as a brand & web designer. If I get too in my head about “the client liking or approving my design” I tend to produce subpar work. If I trust that creativity is leading me in the right direction, I often come up with designs or solutions that are better than what my client has specifically asked for, wow-ing us both in the process.
I’m “keeping the pipes open” when I’m engaging with creativity frequently, in smaller or bigger ways, when I rely on it, when I take things one at a time and give them my full attention, and when I say YES.
I often have creative ideas when I’m traveling (or simply going somewhere I haven’t been before), experiencing a new culture, taking a walk in nature or engaging with a different form of art. In recent years I’ve begun to think that has more to do with the fact that my mind is more receptive to new ideas during those times than usual, not necessarily because those activies are inherently creativity inducing.
Nature is my favorite artist so it seems to me to be an infinite source of inspiration. Creativity sparks creativity, so the more I use it the more it “uses” me too. Immersing myself in forms of art that speak to my heart is another way of lighting that creative spark.
I can’t force creativity, and I don’t think I’m even close to having a perfect relationship with it, but I do know that I can rely on it. I do know I can trust it. I do know it’s one of my oldest, most reliable friends. I do know that it’s a gift worth honoring and valuing, and I do know there’s nothing I need to do to be more creative. I already am. And I look forward to waking up to that truth a little bit more each day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a visual artist and brand & web designer. Art has always been part of my life, but it took a really long time before I was comfortable with calling myself an artist. The revelation came like a lightning bolt a couple of years ago, and it was caused partly by a hungry inner search for finding my place, my footing in this world, and partly by listening to others’ experiences – other artists I looked up to – and recognizing myself in their stories and in the way they viewed the world. Realizing that I was, too, an artist, was extraordinary and scary at the same time. All of the puzzle pieces came together then, and today I see it as something I simply can’t deny anymore. It’s finally obvious enough- to me. I found out it was already obvious to everyone else.
My first love was photography, and I remember being so utterly consumed by it. As a kid, I always took my tiny, compact camera – a Fujifilm Finepix a700 – with me, and I remember seeing frames and compositions everywhere I went. Everything was so vivid, so alive, and art was in every place and in everything. It was also the first time I posted my work online – on Flickr. Those were truly exciting times.
Life had its twists and turns and for a while, photography stopped being a part of it. I went to a math and programming-focused high school, then studied computer science at University. At the same time, I started doing little design jobs on the side. After graduating I gave the logical part of my brain a little break as I opened myself up to art again: I went to dancing classes, joined a sensory theater company, traveled, learned guitar, grabbed my camera again(a DSLR this time), and had some of the best years of my life.
Starting Golden Glimpses, my design studio, was a natural next step. It allowed me to build the bridge between the creative and the logical parts of my mind. It also was, and continues to be, a space that allows me to do something I’m really passionate about: facilitating experiences for others.
I started Golden Glimpses because I wanted to offer the experience of feeling “seen”, celebrated, and understood to creatives. As a designer my greatest joy is translating visions into visuals. I love working with “the hearts on the other side of the screen” to create brands and websites that feel authentic, sincere and like “home”. A powerful brand and online home feel supportive, they feel “just right” and can assist one in showing up in a bold and expansive way.
I’m constantly refining my processes and offers and I’m excited to bring more ease, more joy and more simplicity to my business this year. I’m planning to re-launch my offers and open a template shop, both of which I’ve been planning for a long time. I’m also craving to create more tactile, palpable things in the world so I’m inclined to embrace packaging design projects more than ever before. It’s a little new for me but it is exciting! I would just LOVE to hold the things I’m designing in my hand!
I’m also eager, and hope that this year is the year I’ll open a fine art print shop for my photography. I’ve never monetised it before but I’m craving to give my photography more of a purpose, other than just sharing it online. I want it to adorn walls and spark joy or inspiration in people’s homes. I see it on museum-quality paper, beautifully framed, and I see it traveling all over the world and being cherished, gifted, received.
Links to engage with and learn more about my work:
My design studio: https://goldenglimpses.co/
Photography (no website yet): https://www.instagram.com/lifeinawe/
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Curiosity – being curious about how things work, trying to understand different points of view, exploring new activities, cultures, or places, and being willing to “not know”.
Following the nudge – being willing to say yes to the things you feel drawn to, even if saying yes doesn’t always make logical sense in the moment – it often does when you look back.
Being kind to yourself – there’s nothing that hurts us more than our own criticism, judgment, or harshness. We all want a kinder world, but that world can’t exist if we refuse to extend our kindness to ourselves first. Easier said than done sometimes, but it’s worth noting that none of us came into this world criticizing or berating ourselves. We didn’t learn to walk by saying “Oh dummy, you fell again. Why is this so hard for you?”.
The negative voice in our head is just a habit of thought.. Like a parrot that has learned some words a long time ago and keeps saying them over and over again.. We don’t even remember who taught the parrot those words and when, and it doesn’t even matter. It only matters that we notice it’s a parrot we’re listening to – not truth, not reality.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I’m a big fan of focusing on what we want, on the good, the beauty, on what works. My mind tends to go “ALL IN” regardless of the job I give it. If I focus on my weaknesses I can easily end up forgetting my strengths, my qualities or why I started looking in this direction in the first place. For me, this is often followed by feelings of overwhelm, shame, inadequacy or feeling defeated. There are always going to be areas we aren’t as strong in. Getting stuck on improving them may delay our evolution or get us in a perpetual state of “not ready yet”.
I think we are enough exactly as we are, and that we often make more positive changes in our lives and may end up improving areas we aren’t as strong in, in the process, when we focus on our strengths and don’t berate ourselves for what we don’t know and can’t do – yet.
Your question didn’t imply self-criticism but it seems to me to be so easy to fall into it whenever we’re talking about improvement of any kind. To improve, to work on – can imply we are lacking, we are not enough, and we don’t do enough. I’m not supporting self-indulgence or complete ignorance of our blind spots, I simply think it’s worth paying attention to the motives behind our actions. There’s a difference between joyfully or curiously honing a skill or a craft AND doing something that’s fueled by the type of discipline that comes from holding an invisible, mostly mental- whip.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://goldenglimpses.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeinawe/
Image Credits
Frame mockup by rawpixel.com
