Girls' Night In - how to bring more art into your life 🎨

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THE DILEMMA:

I love spending downtime creating art: painting, crafting, and more. I find it more relaxing and centering than anything else. But, it's hard to squeeze in projects like that without reserving hours on end! What are your tips on building art into everyday life and bite-sized moments? —Erin H.

Hi Erin,

I think art supply brand Happy Medium's site puts it well: “There's a lot of stuff out there for kids and capital ‘A’ Artists, but there isn't much for those that fall somewhere in between.”

I reached out to Happy Medium co-founder Tayler Carraway for her thoughts on your question, and she suggests building an environment that’s ready to create in.

Tayler's tips for creating a good art environment:

Some mediums are easier to jump into than others. “When you have a free afternoon, there’s nothing better than indulging in mediums like oil, clay, or collage. But for a quick session to brighten your day, reach for materials that have little to no startup time—charcoal, colored pencils, pastels, and watercolor will be your best friends.”
Invest in quality materials. “You’ll save yourself time and frustration when working with the right tools." Higher quality paints, for example, are often more saturated, and brushes glide more easily through them, making painting more effortless. Do your research or ask an art supplier for their suggestions.

Create the perfect environment to let your creativity flow. “Clear your dining room table to give yourself space, make a nice cup of coffee, light your favorite candle, and put on your favorite tunes.”

Alison Beshai, Founding Principal of Form Function Studio, also recommends considering the environment around you. Her work focuses on making design more accessible, and she’s thought a lot about "art and design not only as specific activities, crafts, or objects, but as literally everything around us."

This is the mindset that inspired Bauhaus Around You, a card deck Alison produced. Each card prompts you to think about the world around you through the lens of modern design ideas, taking Bauhaus designs (a 1922 child’s cradle, for example) and then asking you to relate it to your life or surroundings ("find an object, tool, or appliance that 'tells' you about their function through their specific shape or color”).

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Need more art ideas? We've got you covered:

Don’t think, just create. Tayler is inspired by “horror vacui,” the Latin phrase for “fear of empty space” that describes the ornate artwork of the Victorian Age. She says it can also help you when you’re faced with a blank page: “Just fill it up! Draw shapes, lines, patterns, words, doodles, or dots—the ‘what’ doesn’t really matter, just don’t stop until the whole page is covered.”
Your own neighborhood can be an art exhibit. Alison likes to “scan for my favorite type fonts on old signs in the city, pick a color to focus on when I’m walking to work and see what unfolds from it, watch how the shadows move in my home throughout the day and what relationship that brings to each object, and create a new display of various objects on my mantle for a day.”
Lastly, since you mentioned projects: Your question made me think about month- or year-long art projects that are worked on one day or moment at a time. One embroiderer stitched little designs to represent the moments that made up her year, several crafters made “tempestries” to document the weather over time, writers participate in Escapril to write poetry every night for a month and NaNoWriMo to write novels (okay, that one might be *a bit* more time consuming). Is there a way to utilize and even play with your time constraints?

Left to right: Adolf Wölfli’s filled-space artwork; Bauhaus Around You; tempestry colors.

I hope this helps, and let us know what you end up creating! We’d love to see it. —Mary Anne, Associate Editor at GNI

P.S. You can shop Bauhaus Around You here (could be a great gift!), and if you’re in NYC, visit Happy Medium to try weekly figure drawing. “It’s like a gym for your art practice set in an artist loft filled with hand-built furniture, art objects, and art books,” Tayler says.

Thanks for reading Downtime Dilemma! To submit your own question, use our submission form here. And, if you know someone who might like this series, consider sending it their way.

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Girls' Night In - how to bring more art into your life 🎨

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