The most essential driving force

For my creativity

When an other young - much younger- artist asks me about “how essential do I consider empathy, kindness, grace, and the longing for purity of mind and thought to be as the driving force of my creativity” because she sees this in my work, my heart sings loudly.

My heart sings because this artist connects to my art on a deep level that was always my purpose in my illustrations. And she saw right through it.

And I responded to her quietly with a wow, how never anyone asked me this before and now I got goosebumps and my heart’s song has made something risen in me because I’m welling up.

And I continued:

It’s the most essential. Nothing works without these. And you are right. This may be the driving force to creativity. Heart is. Purity of mind is. And play. It’s a process and I am a work in progress.

I am, my heart is very connected to my art. I can not create without loving what I draw. Because it supposed to be playing. And who doesn’t love playing?

When it’s not like that, it makes me suffer - like those micromanaged projects that literally tortured me almost line by line. You see the difference in those illustrations.

Adding my heart, my feelings to my illustrations creates the purest connections with others. Those who look at my illustrations, really look at them, feel and connect to that meaning in them.

This is a reason why I find it most important to ‘know myself’. This leads to my know my art, too.

I have so much to learn and unlearn, understand and practice on a daily basis. Without my heart, it doesn’t matter what the industry dictates, or whether I publish independently or traditionally. Because without this, my art has no soul. And for me, that’s the same like working in a creative factory line, doing the same things over and over again and ticking boxes for someone else. Without this, for me, it would be like expecting an apple tree to bear fruits without ever getting sunlight to grow.

This may be just me, I know all artists work differently.

I need this ‘sunlight’, this empathy, kindness, longing for purity of mind and thought, as she said, to be the driving force of my creativity. I need space to play. And grow.

Then I thank her for this question because it made me reflect deeply, I am really grateful and I secretly think to myself what a beautiful pure soul to ask a question like this!