The art of showing up: A softer approach to a daily art practice

How devotion {not discipline} transformed my relationship with my creative practice

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I’ve never committed to a daily art practice.

Looking back at my planners, I see that my longest art streak is 10 days. Even when I’ve shown up at the painty table almost every day of the month, there’s inevitably been a gap of a day or two between streaks.

Every time I’ve done the 100 day project, I’ve given myself the permission to not aim for 100 consecutive days, but rather, to space that 100 day project out over the course of the year.

This year was the first time I decided to aim for 100 consecutive days. And honestly? It was — is — a bit scary…a bit daunting…

As I got to thinking about why that is, I realized I’ve always shied away from committing to any practice, because commitment, to me, is entwined with discipline. And in my mind, there’s a stern authoritarianism connected to that word. It brings to mind the strict discipline of the classroom and the tyranny of the diet industry, which makes little to no space for anything other than an obsessive fixation on calories and grams of protein.

ButAndAlso, I read every single day. It’s not something I committed to or wanted to “practice”. I don’t think of it as something I need to be disciplined about. Reading is just a part of who I am. It’s as natural to me as breathing and eating to pick up a book and read. I don’t have to think about doing it. It’s just something that I love to do, and I do it. Every. Single. Day.

My longest Kindle streak is 370 days and 132 weeks {and counting}. And the one day that I didn’t read on the Kindle, I was reading a paperback. I know, because I broke that daily Kindle streak the day before yesterday.

Circling back to art — it is also something that I love, a part of who I am, and yet, I shy away from committing to a daily practice.

I was shuffling my tarot deck the other day while contemplating the somewhat complex relationship I have with discipline and routine, when The Lovers card flew out of the deck and landed face up in front of me.

The word that floated into my consciousness while looking at that card was devotion.

What if, instead of thinking of art, or any other practice, as something I need to be more disciplined about, or incorporate into my routine, I thought of it as a devotional practice?

That instantly unlocked something in my mind.

Every relationship is a commitment, an act of devotion. There are ups and downs, good times and bad, but you hold steady through them all. You don’t think in terms of streaks and routines and discipline when it comes to a relationship.

You think of companionship, of holding the other up when they are low, and enjoying the ease and intimacy of a close relational bond.

What if you could view your practices through the lens of devotion?

There are bound to be good days, when you will bounce over to the painty table and paint up a storm.

There will be difficult days, when you will feel uninspired and bored with what you’re doing.

There will be days when you will have an almost empty tank. But what if those are the days when your art, or your creative practice, could hold you? When the muscle memory and the bond with your practice is so strong that it can be the fuel that you need to keep going?

In any relationship, you may have a fight and refuse to talk to the other person for a day or two, but then you soften, and you discuss things and lay your feelings bare on the table. You’re making a commitment anew to stay together. To work things out. To listen to what the other person needs and to see how best you can support them.

Similarly, with any practice, there may be a day when nothing seems to work. When you want to throw down your paint brush and stomp out of the room. When you don’t want to even look at your paints. But you soften, you come back, you remain devoted to the practice.

When you think of it this way, streaks don’t matter. Discipline doesn’t matter. Routines don’t matter. It isn’t about any of that. It’s simply a commitment…a connection…something you do for the love of your art, of your practice.

Art as devotion. Practice as devotion.

There’s a softening there. A yielding in the energetics around the way you think about a commitment.

There may be days when you may have get away from your regular practice for a bit, recharge, and then come back refreshed.

On the days when you don’t want to paint, switch gears. Prep some pages. Make some collage papers. Sketch. Mix different media together and see what happens. Ask “what if?” and experiment.

My art streak is now at 20 days — my longest record!

The first few days of a 100 day project are generally easy. The excitement of your project buoys you. But as the excitement settles, it’s easy for the commitment to wane.

Initially, my self-imposed accountability to show up every day in our chat space here motivated me on the days when I felt like blowing off art time in favor of another project. Around 10 days in, though, I started to look forward to my painting sessions every day.

And now, with this new layer of understanding, of looking at art as a devotional practice, I’m curious to see how my relationship with a daily art practice changes. Will devotion sustain me differently than discipline would? Will it make showing up easier, or simply more meaningful?

Maybe this will be the year when I will have an unbroken 100-day streak. And maybe that 100-day streak of creating art every day will stretch on for a long, long time to come — not because I have to, but because I want to maintain this practice. Because devotion, when nurtured long enough, becomes effortless.

Let’s chat!

I love chatting with you in the comments or via e-mail. Here are a few questions to help us get the conversation rolling:

• What’s your relationship with discipline?

• If you’re doing a 100 day project this year {or have done it in the past} what has kept you motivated?

• Does thinking of art as devotion change the energetics around a daily practice, or do you not get overly hung up about the words you use? {Please tell me it’s not just me!}

Our week 4 chat space is open!

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