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When we published our interview series exploring creatives and their mental health (Part 1, Part 2) a few months back, there were a number of you who really enjoyed it!
So much so that there was a demand for us to reach out to more artists from all over the world to see how they cope with their daily lives amidst all the current events happening.
With that, we are happy to let you know that we heard you and have reached out to five other artists to hear about their thoughts as Part 3 of our ongoing series:
How do you take care of your mental health during these difficult times?
I keep up my same morning routine I had before the quarantine began. I still wake up at the same time in the morning, get dressed like I normally would, and head out (safely and masked of course) to pick up my coffee and pastry most mornings.
Before the quarantine, I use to work in cafes so this keeps me feeling like I have a little bit of normalcy. Between that and work during the weekdays, my mental health is okay most days.
How do you stay inspired while staying home?
I go out plein air painting from a secluded area or my car to keep myself inspired.
How have you maintained your routine for the past month? Have you had to come up with a new one to adjust?
A routine during difficult times is the best way to keep myself sane so- to me -maintaining it has been a little easier only because its keeping me from getting too much cabin fever.
If I start feeling a little too out of it, I know my routine is off. It’s a direct correlation.
Can you share with us an insight on working from home during a pandemic?
I feel like in order to be a successful artist, we already have to grow and adjust to perimeters within the job in order to put out our best work.
Whether that is working with a new team, tighter schedules, or working under new constraints that one job didn’t have before. This is no different in the long run.
At first, it is incredibly hard if working from home is not your strong suit, but sooner or later we all have to evolve and learn how to adapt.
And the perks from working from home is forcing yourself to look inward and understand what works for you.
How has the pandemic affected your creative well-being?
It has challenged me, to say the least. During the pandemic I have been forced to really listen to myself and my needs. And sometimes that means not doing any art at all in order to let myself regenerate and not burn out.
Has being indoors encouraged you to try something new?
Being stuck indoors has actually given me the chance to start playing guitar again and music has being reincorporated into my everyday life. So I am very thankful for that!
How do you take care of your mental health during these difficult times?
Times like these can be pretty hard and pressuring so for me I would always remind myself to not overthink everything, one of the ways for me to distract myself is by expressing my creativity with journaling.
so I would always spare some time to journal my thoughts out, it surely helps, even just a tiny bit of it.
How do you stay inspired while staying home?
not being able to go out freely does make me feel unmotivated but scrolling through instagram and seeing other creators still working out of it is just amazing and inspirational! they really inspires me.
How have you maintained your routine for the past month? Have you had to come up with a new one to adjust?
I surely has adjusted my routine with this situation. most of my activities consist of creative works and I also just started a new hobby!
Can you share with us an insight on working from home during a pandemic?
I am a student and i'm waiting for the next university intake so I don't have much to do at the moment, so I spend my free time by focusing on learning new skills at home while still staying connected with others
How has the pandemic affected your creative well-being?
staying in for too long makes me feel uninspired, most time I feel hopeless but luckily we still have the internet and I make the best use out of it by connecting with my creator friends!
Has being indoors encouraged you to try something new?
it sure is! I've picked up learning how to do embroidery while staying in, its surely is fun and now I do it as a source of income!
How do you take care of your mental health during these difficult times?
I try my best to be more relax and patience and draw every day to let myself feel better and better
How do you stay inspired while staying home?
Actually I’m getting inspired from every single around me even if I’m at home , i get inspired from musics , movies , my old artwork and many other ways
How have you maintained your routine for the past month? Have you had to come up with a new one to adjust?
In the past month I worked more on my physical health with working out 3 -5days a week and practice more on my watercolor skills
Can you share with us an insight on working from home during a pandemic?
Actually i got to share all my artwork on Instagram and [above] is a little example of what i have learned from staying at home
How has the pandemic affected your creative well-being?
The pandemic effected on my creativity on a good way , i felt my self getting much more creative while staying at home as i got more time for myself to practice and create something new
Has being indoors encouraged you to try something new?
Yeah sure ! As what I mentioned earlier that i got enough time to practice on my watercolor skills and it’s definitely much better now, and at the same time i have tried a bunch of new things related to art,
such as trying to work with different mediums for example, acrylic, gouache and many other things and i also tried to work with polymer clay and many other things might be boring to talk about...
My little advice for everyone staying at home and have no inspiration during this hard time is to keep your imagination working try your best to not let this period of time effected you in the bad way,
read more books or watch movies same as what i do, you can also get inspired from other artist but never let anything in the world let you stop creating ...
How do you take care of your mental health during these difficult times?
One thing I've been doing is trying to maintain a lot more self care. Pushing myself to do small things like wash my face, be physically active for a few minutes, taking a walk around the block, etc.
I try to remind myself a lot that humans are capable of adapting to things really well so I've also been trying to be patient with myself as I adjust to things and those around me adjust too. Little things add up.
How do you stay inspired while staying home?
I've dreamed of being a hermit my entire life so staying at home has been amazing to me. I'm pretty accustomed to not going places and staying inside so it hasn't affected my inspiration at all.
How have you maintained your routine for the past month? Have you had to come up with a new one to adjust?
My normal routine was thrown out the window because I don't have to physically go to work anymore but I do try to still act like I'm going to.
Eating breakfast and getting dressed in the morning helps me set the tone for the rest of the day so I don't feel like I'm lounging around.
Can you share with us an insight on working from home during a pandemic?
One insight I have is just give yourself time to grieve. I used to teach art classes every day and I went from seeing my students constantly to never seeing them cold turkey.
The life I knew is gone and I don't know if I'll ever get it back. I've cried about it a lot. It's ok to grieve that loss and to be overwhelmed by the uncertainty.
However, it's equally as important to figure out what we can do and what we can change.
Make an effort to be positive to ourselves, to our surroundings and continue to be kind. The world needs more kindness.
How has the pandemic affected your creative well-being?
I'm thriving. I know it's not ideal for everyone but I love being inside. I've cleaned up my workspace a lot, I'm getting a flow for my brand. It's a silver lining to me. If I could stay inside forever, I think I'd be just fine.
Has being indoors encouraged you to try something new?
I decided that I was going to try a new hobby because I finally had more time to do so. I'm already a good cook/baker so I decided that I was going to complete my transformation into a hermit grandma and try crocheting.
I did it as a kid but it never stuck because I thought it was boring. The redundancy of the task is really soothing and it's been really fun to teach myself something successfully.
How do you take care of your mental health during these difficult times?
With everything going on and reverting to online classes for the second half of my semester, I had to remind myself to take it slow. It was surely overwhelming at the beginning where all structure was lost.
Time didn't feel like it existed anymore and it was like it's the same day everyday. I would be doing assignments from AM to PM because I'd feel guilty if I took breaks but eventually I did because it was burning me out.
So pacing myself was the key to taking care of my mental health.
How do you stay inspired while staying home?
Binge watching Youtube and Netflix and occasionally scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest for ideas. Watching Avatar made me feel like a little kid again that wanted to create so many things, yet it's always so little time.
How have you maintained your routine for the past month? Have you had to come up with a new one to adjust?
Planning and lots of planning. I'm generally an early bird and only sacrificing my sleep 2 days before my deadlines.
I take my mornings slowly with journaling or drawing then I jump into work right after lunch. I know I can't sleep in much because it makes me feel grumpy that I lost out a few hours of the day.
Can you share with us an insight on working from home during a pandemic?
Set deadlines but don't beat yourself up when you don't meet them. Working from home isn't for everyone and it took me a while to emphatise with my peers who were having a difficult time as I adapted to it rather quickly.
Without a physical separation of work-life balance since we're home 24/7, it's important to not overwork yourself to an empty tank. Find time to breathe and do the things you love.
(Although I did not heed my own advice as it took a few weeks of working day and night before realising I hit my limit and I just ended up crashing)
On the bright side, I got my assignments done a week or two before the deadline set! It never happened before with physical classes.
How has the pandemic affected your creative well-being?
With so much time on my own, it made me realise how important it was for me to make time to create because it was one of the few things that made me feel properly recharged.
I managed to sneak in a few doodles here and there but nothing serious. I wish I could trust myself to let loose sometimes.
Has being indoors encouraged you to try something new?
I managed to learn a little bit of Korean! That's something I've always wanted to get to but my deadlines keep coming in the way. Nevertheless, progress is still progress hehe.
And that is all for Part 3 of this series! Thanks to all the artists that agreed to be interviewed and shared their lovely artwork with us!
We are so happy to know that this series is well-received so stay tuned as we will be coming up with a Part 4 very soon!
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Have we interviewed your favourite artist? Let us know in the comments below or DM us @mosseryco on Instagram.
