Building a creative life—one experiment at a time

Hello and welcome to my art newsletter where I experiment with all kinds of creative pursuits. This space is for anyone exploring creativity without perfectionism.

My name is Ivy, and I’m a creative with a multitude of interests that span across writing, drawing, painting, 3D art, and animation, just to name a few. Over the past (many) years, I’ve cycled through these interests in a very unorganised manner.

If you are a creative person with multiple areas of interest, you probably know the feeling of constant guilt when you prioritise one of those interests over the others. If you are one of those who also tries to balance a full-time job, or maybe even a family with those creative pursuits, then the feeling of constantly being behind on something is exacerbated.

I’ve recently read a book, titled Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, and that gave me the idea that led to this newsletter. Throughout the rest of this year, I will be running two (not-so-)tiny experiments: first, I will embrace my different interests, and give myself space to try each of them out, grow them, and see where they take me. Second, I’m launching this newsletter to report on these experiments and share my insights and learnings from each of them. I hope that through sharing my creative experimentation with you, I’ll also share things that are interesting, entertaining, and most of all helpful to anyone who also wants to pursue a creative life without burn-out or overwhelm.

Starting next week, I’ll set out to complete creative experiments that will last six weeks each. During those six weeks, I’ll focus on a particular field, and within it, a specific area that interests me. The important thing is that during those weeks, I will only worry about my selected area and will do my best to let the rest of my interests rest. They will get their turn.

Every few weeks, I’ll write up a short report on how the experiment is going and share the results.

At the end of the six weeks, I’ll write a summary and conclusions for that experiment and announce the next one.

Some experiments might be extended. Others may turn into long term pursuits. This newsletter will change and evolve as I do as the result of these experiments.

I have started and stopped doing things way too many times. One of my main goals with these experiments is to get through the initial frustration that comes with the beginner level, and reach a point where I can evaluate whether or not I enjoy a particular field.

Six weeks is nowhere near enough to become even mildly competent at anything, I know that. But I’m hoping it is enough to gain at least some level of momentum. If not, I’ll change the length.

As the experiments will focus on some form of visual art, my goal will be to produce something every week. It will allow me to compare the first creation to the last, the time and difficulty it took at the beginning vs at the end, and how it felt to work on this skill. That is the purpose of these six weeks.

Launching this newsletter is a big step for me, and it is, in a way, an experiment in itself. While writing is a pursuit that I do and love, that isn’t part of this series of experiments, as that is the one thing I just always do.

But writing a regular newsletter on a specific topic or area of interest is new and very much experimental. This doesn’t have the six-week limit. It’s a long-term experiment that I aim to maintain for the next six months.

That, of course, doesn’t mean this newsletter will die after six months. It just means that once we get through six months of experiments, there will be a moment to pause and evaluate everything, including how this newsletter is doing and how it could be improved.

As you can probably tell, this letter isn’t branded or styled in any way. I’m keeping this minimalistic for now, but it will probably evolve.

Love,

Ivy 💛