It's finished!

As I've been working on this piece I was growing with it as a person and as an artist.I was growing inward, ever deeper, pushing numerous boundaries within. Perhaps the most important assumptions and inner critic's opinions I had to face were the ones trying to impose an illusory standard of aesthetics on my artwork.
What came out of this, not so pleasant inner struggle, became an inspiration to write an article. And that, in turn, led me to create a series of articles titled: 'Artist's Musings On Creative Process.' The first article describes the low and high points of my own growth in creating 'Grow' piece and is titled 'Creativity And Self-Esteem - Which One Comes First?' It is being published by Creativity Portal and once I'll get the direct link to the article I will post it below.

Grow

Mixed Media On Canvas, 20x20

Below is an excerpt from my article:

Artist’s Musings On Creative Process…


Self-Esteem And Creativity - Which One Comes First?

By Tatiana Kuzyk


Couple of years ago I heard Carline Myss talk about developing one’s intuition. She said that without a healthy self-esteem a person will never have courage to acknowledge and follow that authentic inner voice. Initially, that observation made some intellectual sense for me, but deep inside I tried to fight its truism. In fact, the more I thought about it the more frustrated I felt. Self-esteem, or rather its lack, had become a code word I was using to explain to myself why I couldn’t have what I wanted in life. This was an ever-elusive, hyphened symbol of my emotional ‘promised land’ – feeling authentically good about who I was in the NOW. Simply BEING. Being in the moment, in the present, not some future destination that was to be reached only AFTER each item on my to-do-list will be completed in hopes of redeeming myself from my past ‘mistakes.’

Then I asked myself this question: HOW would I actually know that I finally ‘have’ a healthy self-esteem? Would I need to take a special self-esteem evaluating test? And what would be a minimum passing score? I had a hunch that there might be a quiet large percentage of the population being as confused about this entire self-esteem development process as I was.

How does self-esteem tie up with creativity? Much like intuition, creative process relies on us following our Inner Guidance System, IGS. And in both instances, intuition and creativity, we have a choice to make. Are we going to follow and acknowledge this still, small voice inside that invites us to discover an unknown part of ourselves through our creative endeavors? Or will the ego’s insecurity-driven narrative take the best of us?

to be continued... @

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/a/tatiana-kuzyk/self-esteem-creativity.html