Riding the Wave as an Artist Empath
Emerging from Creative Pause
I am emerging from a three-year creative pause. The depth of what I feel can extinguish my ability to produce art. It is a wave I am learning to ride. Thankfully, I feel art is needed more now than ever, and my soul wants to be a part of this gift to humanity and to this planet.
As an empath with strong visions, it is a gift to feel so deeply. It is also a great challenge to emotionally hold all that comes with this. The aftermath of the pandemic and the recent tragic fires here in Maui have changed the pulse of our island. Those experiences changed the pulse of my heart and my art as well. The work that I had been making no longer spoke to me. It was hard to produce art, and I felt quite lost.
I understand that there are dry spells, and “writer’s block” happens in many forms. This was different. I had entered the challenging void of “what now?” Sometimes I wondered if I had lost it. This gift to create that was given to me had possibly disappeared. I went on a deep excavation into some rather dark and challenging inner spaces. The things that were blocking the flow of inspiration needed to be examined.
Rediscovering Purpose
I went alcohol-free for 9 months and took a hard look at my relationship with the substance. I can honestly say I feel like the light did drop out of my soul for a while. For all the light I carry, sense, and choose to paint, there is a balance of the opposite. The deepest sadness and empathic pain define the bliss. It is both. This is what it is to fully feel life.
What I learned is that human energy exchange feeds my visions and creative motivation more than I realized until it wasn’t there. Even though my process of making art is a solitary one, it is the rapport between us that keeps me inspired and feeling connected to Source. I missed the conversations and creative sharing that stopped in the last few years. When someone shares with me how much a particular painting impacted them, in some magical meaningful way, I feel affirmed and purposeful again. I hear these stories of connection through art, and they make me want to make more art!
Exploring Different Ways to Share in the Creative World
Transitioning from the dynamic of art gallery representation to representing myself, I believed that I had to choose one over the other. Physical gallery representation OR an online sales platform. Now I understand I have the freedom and inspiration to do both, and there is space for all of it in this creative world. I am the only one limiting myself! My intention is for this new website to be a sanctuary of creativity where I can share more consistently with you and emerge confidently as the artist I am now.
Nice to have you writing so meaningfully again. I also think Covid has impacted the universe in ways we have yet to fully comprehend. There has been a collective grief and the Maui fire added to it. I hope you don’t totally disparage your previous art. It spoke to so many. Let’s see what emerges from this new awakening for you. Much ❤️ ❤️🤗🤗
Thank you! I think what will emerge will be the freedom to explore all the facets of work I love to create. ❤️❤️
C, Great that you are open to share this process you have gone through and I doubt is the first time. Your creative process comes and goes and changes as you, your life and relationships change and this is of course reflected in your work. Having many of your visionary pieces form your earlier period and seeing what you have created since then has ebbed and changed. The piece you stand in front of in this blog is the merger into your new creative process…..as it should be. There is a different vision in this new place, softer and yes more vulnerable creations and deeper connection to source and all of life which is so fragile and precious. Your sensitivity and vision is shifting as it has done from the beginning to now. Maybe a new mantra could be go deep or go home!! Enjoy this new period in your creativity and how it mirrors your maturity and growth. Love you. ET
Go deep or go home! I love this Elizabeth. Love you too
Christina, thank you for sharing parts of your journey.
I am grateful that I had to opportunity to meet you and purchase a piece of your art under the Banyan tree oh so many years ago. I think of that encounter every time I look at the piece.
Best wishes for the journey yet to come.
Aloha Stu, I am grateful too that our paths crossed and that the art brings you back to Maui in your heart. Thank you for supporting my path as an artist. ❤️
Congratulations on sharing your depth in words as well as images! [Cosmic Moon is stunningly subtle & uplifting]. A great beginning …starting to open to THE REAL.Now…a deeper dive to authenticity will naturally flow… Mahalo for inviting me[us] along for the journey. We each have such a unique ADVENTURE, but only the brave share it for ALL to benefit from.
In love & gratitude, Karen Stover
Karen, thank you for being a part of the journey. I love “Cosmic Moon” You may have just inspired a new vision with this title. ❤️
Love and Aloha to you!
awe, christina. i am left mesmerized with the depth of your revelations in your blog. i agree and understand completely the need for the human connection to be the platform from which we tap into the creative juices always stirring within ready to explode through our art, in its infinite forms. thank you for sharing. it is inspiring as i too find myself asking, what next? i salute your honesty and i am loving your return to painting as your work of art is truly sensational. looking forward to more….blogs and art! much aloha love, kati
Kati, I so appreciate you taking the time to read and respond with such a kind and meaningful message. This is exactly what I have missed. Feeling connected through this wild creative life we have chosen. Love and Aloha my friend.
It is good to see you before the canvas with paintbrush in hand. That is where you belong, as the art you produce from that stance belongs among us.
Thank you for heeding the call anew and returning to the intersection of listening and speaking through your brush strokes.
Here is to creation and to sharing
Sarah, The way you write takes my breath away. Thank you ❤️
When we met for the first time, you were playing with colours and gold leave, shared your experiences with a local traditional leader and his son. There were sparks coming from your eyes and a willingness to experience the world and you were so open to our conversation. And you went on. Created your own little world in your own atelier, but it felt more serious, more challenging when we met again (maybe you felt hunted by me). Then you found the right one and your focus shifted, but live did not stop bringing new challenges.
I felt lost during the last few years quite often, too. And I have dropped my pencils, my old job and changed my way of painting from scratch. Now, slowly but surely, confidence comes back again and new facettes of possibilities how to show my emotions develop in front of my eyes.
And it is still hard to be positive about the future every day. But I know that it is necessary to create impulses. Especially when you recognize that it makes no big difference if you sit on an island in the Pacific Ocean or live less than 4 flight hours away from Kiew.
If artists would not share their independent way of looking at live, who will light up these candles in the dark?
It is a responsibility and a gift to express ourselves and give others the chance to say: “Well, that is what I was trying to say, but missed the words (or colors , or skill set)!”
Christina, the world is a brighter place because of you! Do not forget!
Thank you for sharing.
Robert, You touch my heart. May your words to me be also a mirror for your gift as an artist. I remember so well the day we met in Lahaina and the prints you all chose and purchased. What I remember most is the recognition of a shared vision. I remember that feeling of what you describe as “sparks coming from my eyes” I was so lit up with inspiration and a sense of purpose. Thank you for this reminder. I was still naive about the ways of this island and how people who choose to move here are viewed by some who were born here. I am grateful for my ignorance back then because it allowed me to paint from my pure heart. I’m trying to find that place again to create from. Let us keep expressing our gifts together.
Much Love and Aloha to you
Proud of you for opening up so much and sharing. Through your words and art you are able to connect this deeply with all of us. So grateful to know you xo
Hillary, Thank you. I love you madly and my gratitude for our friendship is otherworldly deep. ❤️
Light travels many paths and crosses many barriers. What it can’t penetrate it simply goes around. Light reveals itself so many beautiful ways.
Your art helped me through my own journey away from alcoholism and still inspires me in so many ways. I for one will always believe in you.