Finding Your Creative Community: Why It Matters

Finding Your Creative Community in Every Season of Life

Every once in a while, a neighbor will stop me on a walk and ask, “How’s the art coming along?” And I never quite know how to answer.

“Oh… good! Busy!” I usually say with an awkward smile, which is true, but I know what they’re really asking. They want to know how the actual art-making is going. What am I creating in my studio? Am I working on a new series of collages? And that’s where the answer gets a little complicated.

These days, I’m not spending nearly as much time making collages as people probably imagine a full-time artist would. Instead, I’m creating online art classes, filming lessons, planning art retreats, meeting with my team, and handling the thousand little details of running a creative business. It’s all deeply creative work. I just don’t have paint on my hands at the end of the day.

Explaining this particular season of my creative life isn’t always easy, especially to people who have a very different picture of what being an artist is supposed to look like. I’ve come to realize that finding your creative community isn’t just about having people to make art with. It’s about finding people who understand why creating matters to you, and how wonderful it feels to be around people who simply get it.

The Relief of Being With People Who Understand

I recently spent several days in Arizona with a small group of women who, like me, have built online businesses around something they’re passionate about.

We get together regularly to share what’s happening behind the scenes in our businesses, and these conversations are quite different from the ones we have with friends and neighbors.

We talk about what’s working, what isn’t, and what we’re struggling to figure out. We celebrate each other’s successes, but we also talk about the things that keep us awake at night, the decisions we’re second-guessing, and the parts of running a business that almost nobody sees.

And inevitably, someone will share something she’s struggling with, and I’ll think, Ohhhh, thank goodness it’s not just me! Even better, there’s often someone else in the room who’s been through something similar and can say, “Here’s what worked for me.”

That kind of shared experience is priceless.

But I’ve realized that what I value most about these gatherings isn’t necessarily the business advice.

It’s the feeling of being understood.

I don’t have to explain why designing an art course is creative work, even though I haven’t made a collage all week. Nobody looks puzzled when I talk about how much I love my business and how overwhelmed I sometimes feel by everything involved in running it.

These women understand because they’re living their own versions of the same thing.

There’s something wonderfully comforting about being with people who see the parts of our lives that aren’t immediately obvious to everyone else.

Our Creative Lives Have Seasons, Too

I’ve been thinking about how much our creative lives change over time.

There have been seasons when I couldn’t wait to get into my studio every morning. Making art was the first thing I wanted to do, and I could happily spend hours experimenting with papers, colors, and compositions.

There have been seasons when I’ve been completely absorbed in learning something new, gathering ideas, or figuring out where I wanted to go next with my work.

And now I’m in a season when much of my creative energy goes toward teaching and helping other artists discover what they’re capable of.

I love this season. I really do. But I also know it won’t last forever, at least not in exactly this form.

Our creative lives aren’t static. They change as our interests, responsibilities, energy, and circumstances change.

Sometimes we’re making art during every free moment. Sometimes we’re caring for someone we love, adjusting to a new chapter of life, or simply trying to find fifteen minutes to create something just for ourselves.

And sometimes we’re doing a lot of creative work that doesn’t look anything like what other people expect.

I think one of the kindest things we can do for ourselves is to stop expecting every creative season to look like the one before it.

But there’s something else that makes those changes easier to navigate, which is having people by our side who understand what we’re going through.

Why Creative Community Matters

I don’t think we always realize how much energy we spend explaining ourselves.

Why we love making art even though we have no intention of selling it.

Why we want to spend an entire Saturday tearing up paper and gluing it back together.

Why we’re taking another art class when we already have more supplies than we know what to do with.

Or why we still call ourselves artists during a season when we’re barely making anything.

When we’re surrounded by people who share our passion for creating, those explanations become unnecessary. We can talk about a collage we’re struggling with, and someone understands why it matters to us. We can share a small breakthrough that might seem insignificant to someone else, and another artist knows exactly why we’re so excited. We can admit that we’re feeling uninspired or unsure of ourselves without worrying that someone will suggest perhaps we should find another hobby.

And sometimes we don’t even need to talk about our art.

That’s one of the things I’ve loved most about the creative communities that have grown around my classes. Yes, people come to learn how to make collages, but somewhere along the way, they begin to encourage one another, celebrate each other’s discoveries, and develop friendships that extend far beyond the lessons.

Watching those connections grow has become one of my favorite parts of teaching.

Of course, not everyone has access to a large creative community, and I don’t think we need one to feel connected. Sometimes one person who truly understands us can make an enormous difference.

It might be a friend who loves art as much as we do, even if she works in a completely different medium.

Maybe it’s someone we meet in a class who becomes a regular creative companion.

Or perhaps it’s a friend who doesn’t make art at all but is genuinely curious about what we’re creating and understands why it’s important to us.

The connection doesn’t have to be complicated.

And if you haven’t found those people yet, perhaps this is a good time to start looking.

Take a class. Visit a local art group. Reach out to someone whose work you admire. Join an online creative community and begin participating in the conversations rather than just reading along.

You don’t have to wait until you feel confident about your art or have something wonderful to show. In fact, some of the most meaningful connections happen when we’re willing to share what we’re still figuring out.

You Get to Decide What Your Creative Life Looks Like

I suspect I’ll always have those slightly awkward conversations with neighbors who ask how my art is coming along. And that’s okay.

They aren’t doing anything wrong by asking. They’re simply imagining a version of my creative life that looks different from the one I’m actually living.

But being around women who understand this particular season has reminded me of something important.

I don’t have to make my creative life look the way someone else expects it to look.

Neither do you.

If you’re making art every day, wonderful.

If you’re taking a break, learning something new, supporting another artist, or finding your way back to the studio after a long absence, that belongs in your creative life, too.

And if you’re in a season when creating looks completely different from what it once did, perhaps you don’t need to explain or justify that quite so much.

Maybe you simply need someone who understands where you are.

Someone who sees the creativity in what you’re doing, even when it doesn’t look like what most people imagine.

Someone who reminds you that you still belong.

Because sometimes one person who really gets it is enough to remind us that we don’t have to do this creative life alone, or according to anyone else’s idea of what a creative life should look like.

And that, to me, is a pretty wonderful gift.

I’d love to hear from you. What season are you in with your creativity right now? And who in your life really gets it? Share your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear about the people who make you feel understood and seen.

Are you interested in learning more about how to incorporate your collage papers into your art?

Check out my Collage Workshops!

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