Dear Creative Soul April 2025

Thoughts

1. Start over.

For quite awhile now, I have been working on making a blanket. I keep starting it and
then deciding that there’s something that I don’t like about it. So, I unravel it and start
over or I take new yarn out and start working on another design. As I was looking at yet
another blanket I had started, I thought to myself, “I’m trying to force myself to like this
so that I don’t have to start over yet again, so that I don’t have to feel like I failed again.”
Sometimes we keep going with things not because we want to or because we are satisfied,
but because we don't want to start over.
Yet, what if starting over isn’t about failure? What if starting over is a way of telling
ourselves that we deserve to experience what it’s like to not limit ourselves, to not settle
for things we don’t want.

I’m feeling this truth right now. For years, so much of my life revolved around music,
violin lessons beginning at age 5, my graduate recital for my Master’s degree, and so
much in between. However, honestly, even though, yes, I sing in 2 choirs here and do
occasional solos, I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to work in the field of music. I
feel I am embracing visual art and creativity. I am letting myself discover what I actually
desire, what I actually want to do in life. I find joy, comfort, a centering peace intermixed
with excitement when I’m painting, when I’m doing nature photography, often when I’m
writing. I guess my journey begins with listening to my body, sensing my soul.
So, you have not failed. Allow yourself to start over, to discover new paths. Perhaps
much of your life has revolved around doing what others wanted or what you thought
they wanted. It’s time to live your life for you.

2. Set goals aside. Just create.

For me, drawing and painting is therapeutic and healing. I don’t have to try and make
everything perfect because there’s no goal that I’m trying to attain. I don’t know where
the creative journey will end. I just keep painting; I just keep making lines on the page
with my markers and colored pencils and at some point, I just have this inner knowing
that the piece is done. It’s possible in the future that my abstract art prints might be used
for my stationery, card, and bookmark designs. For now, it’s enough that they exist and
that I took the time to create them.
I believe that having goals is important. I do get energy and motivation from writing
down my goals and sometimes a sense of clarity as well. Yet, I also believe that we can
find so much joy, peace, and healing by doing things in which “right” or “perfection” are
not part of the process. So, do something just for fun. Read something just because it
fascinates you. Write something just because you want to. May you find healing through
creativity and joy through choosing your own path beyond perfection, beyond agenda
and expectations.

My Creative Journey

Here are a few of the abstract art prints that I’ve created. Just for fun, I thought I’d describe the process of how I made each one.

1. I made this piece with watercolor markers and colored pencils. I crumpled a piece of
aluminum foil and colored it with a watercolor marker. Then I randomly scraped the foil
against the paper to create this design.

2. I created the background of this piece using colored pencil shavings. When I’d
sharpen my colored pencils, I’d let the shavings fall on the paper. After removing the
wood fragments, I made swirling motions with my hands to move the pencil shavings
around. I created the texturing by coloring with my paper on top of a small wire basket.

3. I created this piece by randomly swirling glue on the page and then coloring the dried
glue with watercolor markers.

4. To create this piece, I colored a piece of paper with watercolor markers, chopped it
into random pieces, and glued it onto white paper. I really like how it came out.

Creativity

My husband, Samuel, was talking with his mother, Mirja, a couple weeks ago and
mentioned that I was making cards. She loves flowers. So, she told Sam that I should
design cards with flowers. Well, I still need to work on those flower cards for her, but I
have started designing downloadable, printable stationery. Photographing flowers is
something I’ve always loved. I’m creating the Flower Garden Collection, which will
include downloadable, printable stationery sets, bookmarks, and cards. I’m using my
own photos, some of which I took in Missoula and others here in Finland. I’m continuing
my creative journey.
Here is what I have so far. You can let me know if you’re interested in buying this
stationery. This is a printable, downloadable product. So, I would send the designs to
your email as a PDF attachment, and you could then print as many pieces as you want
for your personal use. The stationery is single-sided. The flowers featured in this
stationery are ones I photographed in Missoula, Montana.