How to become an Artronaut of the imagination 🚀🌟

and yes I do know that word is a bit awful!

🪐 💫 I have always believed that artists are astronauts of the imagination. 🚀🌟

Is that a bold statement? Yes, yes it is. But please allow me to explain…

When I was a child I wanted to be an artist. But I also wanted to be a vet. And an astronaut.

(It seems my multi-passionate personality was fully established early on...)

I’m not sure exactly where my passion for space exploration came from.

It might be that I grew up in a household of bookshelves lined with sci-fi novels, readily available VHS tapes of Star Trek, and because my brother and I spent a lot of time playing the 80s/90s computer game Space Quest.

Which btw you can play
on Internet Archive, woop!

Anyway, as you may have guessed, despite my space exploration dreams I did not become an astronaut for 3 main reasons:

1. I hate maths. And chemistry. And physics. And all numbers.

2. I wasn’t up for joining the RAF which seemed to be the most efficient route to Astronaut.

3. I didn’t actually want to do all the repetitive tasks like taking readings, logging information and performing maintenance tasks in the strict, logical order that seem to be necessary to prevent total spaceship disaster.

Similarly many of these things blew being a vet out of the water too (numbers, systems, lifesaving rules).

And some people are so clever and so logical and so perfect for these roles. Just, not me.

And so I chose artist – the path of creativity, of freedom, of endless potential…

Being an artist felt so limitless. Making things up from your imagination and sharing them with the world. Bringing people joy and happiness with your wild creative plans. Making a mess with materials and forming something beautiful out of the chaos.

It felt about as close to exploring the infinite possibilities of space as I was going to get. Hence the terrible word: ARTronaut 😅.

My younger self imagining the possibilities of the creative universe.

I loved that shirt. ✨

But then I was gutted to discover that it’s not that simple?!

That unless you want to run your creative business on optimism and sensing what vibes are resonating from your bank account, you actually do need to do maths (it’s called accounting).

And so many, many other rules…

‘Post this many times a week’.

‘Always include a call to action’.

‘Use a diary’.

‘Don’t archive your expenses receipts in a random unnamed envelope’.

‘Back up your computer so you don’t loose 3 years of work to a coffee spillage’.

‘Make sure you have a contract so you don’t get screwed over’.
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​So. much. boring.

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​And while learning to (mostly) navigate these things has made my creative business work more smoothly and with less ‘Oh sh*t I’ve really screwed this up this time’ moments…something special felt like it was getting lost along the way.

While I’m passionate that my clients are informed about the arena they want to work in - for example exposing the internet lie that we creatives can somehow make a living as an artist selling £10 notebooks with almost no marketing strategy (I believed it!) - it can feel like we get bogged down in all the ‘sensible should’s’.

I think this is especially true for super sensitive creatives because:

a. We are less likely to trust ourselves and reject unhelpful or irrelevant advice and

b. Most of us seem to source our creative energy from a inner child who was once blown away by the number of stars in the night sky, or used to disappear into imaginative worlds where anything and everything was possible. And this magical inner being does not thrive on ‘essential admin tasks’.

I have no real psychological evidence/ research for this, it’s just informed by working with lots of people whose creative spark has been dampened by years of doing all the ‘should’s’ and following all the rules.

Whose inner Artronaut (sorry last one) thought they were going to discover unknown galaxies and ended up spending their days doing the creatives equivalent of reattaching satellite bolts or submitting atmospheric data.

So while I acknowledge we can’t do exactly what we want, when we want, how we want and expect that to pay the bills (sadly), I do think there is real value and importance on opening up the possibilities of what could be.

On that theme in May I ran the online workshop ‘Explore What Lights You Up As A Sensitive Creative’. We used a playful and imaginative approach inspired by the night sky to identify what really lights you up, so you can open up the possibilities and opportunities out there for you in the creative universe.

In this workshop we:

✨ Looked at how your sensitivity might show up in your creative work, whether you identify as an highly sensitive person, neurodivergent or as a super sensitive creative.

✨ Celebrated the gifts of being sensitive, and how this can contribute to making wonderful creative work.

✨ Explored common experiences and challenges experienced by sensitive creatives as they try to navigate what is the right path for them.

✨ Went on an imaginative adventure together to imagine the possibilities out there for you in the creative universe.

✨ Identified where your energy and time are being lost to the wrong things, so you can start to shine as the creative wonderbeing you are, and do your essential creative work in a more sustainable and joyful way.

PLUS I created a space themed creative activity book which is way more fun then any PDF workbook and it was all freeeeeeeeee.

This adventure has now taken place!

If you’d like to make sure you get invites to these events in future, please sign up to my mailing list at the bottom of the page and they will land in your inbox for you ☺️