How to find the art you were meant to make

Me under the moon, another year older

Mar 27, 2025

There is no better practice for creating than just promising to show up. You can’t tell what lives inside you until you give yourself time to live in that space. That space. That magical, elusive space. I chase that space. I want to expand it. “That” place where ideas and inspiration flow out of me. I find what unlocks it for me and indulge it daily.

It has been three years this spring since I began using a sketchbook again. My cousin found my old sketchbooks from college and gave them back to me. I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s home back in college. My parents moved back east while I was in California. I missed that feeling of family. My aunt felt like home. I left pieces of my artwork in her closets and storage. They have been stumbling upon them and gifting them back to me. They are time capsules of memories I had forgotten.

My sketchbooks are full of color studies and sketches from class projects. I don’t think there was one thing in there I felt emotionally attached to. Yet parts of me were stained on the pages. I used the same color palettes I’m drawn to today. There is a familiarity in my marks - doodles of climbing vines, rich textures, and organic shapes. Hints of what called me that I left unexplored. Each sketchbook still had blank pages.

It amazes me how looking at something I made decades ago, can bring back the place I used to live in. Who I used to be but still sort of am. But older. Wiser. More sunken in my skin. But a sadness sometimes. Regret. For not believing in myself more. But watching my teenager, I realize how new we are to the world and our place in it. We forget where we started and what we were exposed to. What felt possible.

The things we are drawn to may change shape as we age, but they are written in our bones. They are always there, waiting for us to discover and explore them. They feel like a map to the place in the world we belong. If we follow them, we will find our voice. The place that feels like home. That authentic place that is all you.

Me, under the moon, another year older

I turned another year older. Did the moon look the same the day I entered this world?
Will it look the same when I exit it? Where will I go? What will I leave behind? Today my eyes are wide open. I have slowed down to notice dandelion leaves are my favorite. I have not quite learned how to photograph the moon. Only my naked eye captures its magic. All the wonder left unnoticed for far too long. I will spend the rest of my time indulging in it. It whispers to me daily when I walk out each morning into a symphony of birdsong and new blooms.

Until Next Time ✨,
Kim