Create a Loving Studio Closing Ritual For Your Sad Inner Wretch

Your Best Self Must Share Your Studio With Your Inner Depressed Artist.

What is the culture of your studio? Is it a place to have discipline and work ethic? Where you compare yourself and your art to what you wish it would be and fret about how you are falling short? A place of inadequacy and laziness?

That might be how it feels when you are depressed.

Think of your most fragile, broken, disappointed artistic self. No motivation, feeling down, unable to work, unable to play, messy, dusty and abandoned.

That depressed self must also feel comfortable in your studio. That sad hopeless wretch – it is her space too. It should be just as welcoming to her as it is to you when you are bustling with energy and alive with inspiration.

Both creatures share this sacred space and if the energy of your studio only welcomes your most successful and driven version, it will not be a safe space for your inner artist when she is not well and needs love and support.

When you are at your most motivated, you probably leave a mess. There is no comfortable place to sit because it is covered with sketches or wet paintings needing a space to dry. Brushes left in dirty water, caps left off tubes, excited writing and sketches that might be overwhelming and intimidating to your depressed side. Unfinished work she doesn’t know how to reenter, lacking the confidence to contribute anything of value.

Before you leave your studio, assume that you might be in a low mood, low energy, depressed the next day. What does that part of you need to feel welcome? Fresh paper, easy to use supplies laid out in rainbow order, clean brushes ready to go, a bucket ready to be filled with water. Think of it as a closing blessing ritual for the studio to make it a safe welcoming place in case you feel low the next day. 

And if you are still feeling great the next day? What a delight!  This beautifully laid out space, so inviting.