Over the years I’ve mentored quite a few art therapists and teaching artists. One piece of advice I give all of them, but also struggle to follow myself, is to maintain an art practice. Life gets busy, work gets busy and teaching artists and art therapists stop making their own art. We all know that we love making art and that making art is actually GOOD FOR US, but yet, we let our own need to make art slide.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

It’s a recipe for burnout.

But what does “art practice” mean?

An art practice is a creative journey of being creative and making art. The journey from idea to finished piece is how I usually understand it. The journey is never a single straight line. It meanders as we discover new materials and take in new sights. Many of the young people I work with (and for a long time I thought this way) think that it’s just about a finished art piece. The phrase art practice encompasses everything the artist (or art dabbler, art journaler, I’m using artist in the royal way of meaning anyone who makes art) does on their journey of creation. From going on photo walks, en pein air studies, going to the museum, to prepping and priming canvases and finally selecting materials.

It’s all part of the practice. Practice is a process.

I’ve realized that as I’ve moved through a fallow period that I was still feeding the creative side of myself with instructional videos, reading about creativity, and working on stuff at ye old day jobbie job.

​Currently my practice is: photo or en plein air, sketches and sketches, then print or watercolor or pastel painting. What is yours?