Creative Sweet Spot: The Higher Ground Between Art Mastery and Art Therapy

FOR EPISODE LINKS & MORE INFO VISIT: https://samhorton.co/blog/ep63

Do you feel torn between mastering your art and embracing creativity as a soulful healing practice? What if you didn’t have to choose? In this inspiring episode, we explore the Creative Sweet Spot – a powerful space where artistic growth and soulful expression walk hand in hand.

3 Powerful Benefits of Listening

✨ Discover how you can honour the creative process while still growing your skills and confidence
 ✨ Learn why separating your healing practice from your professional work can deepen both
 ✨ Find permission to embrace your own creative seasons and trust your intuitive rhythm

Episode Summary
In this soulful episode, I take you into a space I believe every creative soul should know about – the Creative Sweet Spot. Too often, we believe we must choose between becoming a skilled professional artist and using creativity purely for healing and self-expression. But what if these worlds could beautifully coexist?

Drawing on my own creative journey and a recent conversation with artist Maggie Parr, I share how honouring both the soulful process of creating and leaning into growth, challenge, and mastery can open new pathways of empowerment through your art. Whether you identify as a professional artist or simply a creatively curious soul, this episode will help you approach your creative life with greater freedom, joy, and intention.

Key Takeaways

• The two ends of the creative spectrum: professional art mastery vs art therapy principles
• Why embracing a "sweet spot" between process and progress can empower your creative journey
• The value of having two distinct creative practices: one for healing, one for professional growth
• How to honour the natural seasons of your creative life without forcing outcomes
• Why skill development and soulful expression can beautifully support one another
• A reflection question to deepen your connection with both healing and creative challenge

FOR EPISODE LINKS & MORE INFO VISIT: https://samhorton.co/blog/ep63

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:39 Explaining the Creative Spectrum
• 2:37 Finding the Creative Sweet Spot
• 3:48 A Tale of Two Creative Practices
• 4:53 Drawing on My Own Creative Practice
• 7:25 Where the Sweet Spot Lies for Creative Hobbists
• 7:53 Why the Creative Sweet Spot Matters
• 8:58 Honouring Creative Seasons
• 9:46 Powerful Reflection for YOU

Transcript

YT Ep 63: Soul-led Creative Women

​[00:00:00]

So in this episode, I want to take you into a space I believe every creative soul needs to know about, um, what I call the creative sweet spot. You see, so often we think we have to choose between becoming a skilled. You know, professional artists or using art purely as a form of healing and self-expression, but what if there was a beautiful space where both could exist together?

In this episode, I'll show you how you can honor the deep, soulful process of creating. While also leaning into growth challenge and mastery, as a creative and why this can be one of the most empowering ways to work with your art. Whether you are a professional artist or someone using creativity as a personal [00:01:00] practice,this episode will open up new ways for you to approach your creative life. There's a powerful tension that lives at the heart of creative practice. At one end of the spectrum, you'll find, you know, the professional artist path, where the focus is on mastery and producing high quality art that sells refining technique, honing signature style and skills, and building a body of work.

Often, you know, that means building a business around it. At the other end, we find the space of art therapy principles a space where there is zero attachment to the outcome. Where the act of creating is purely about the process, self-expression and emotional release. There's no pressure, no goals, and no critique.

Um. Both of these are beautiful, valid approaches. Both have tremendous power and value. But what if we can draw on both in [00:02:00] tandem, what if the way we approach art is not all or nothing? 

This episode was actually inspired by my recent conversation with artist Maggie Parr 

In our conversation, she explains that she has two very distinct creative practices, one for healing and one for making money. Maggie's creative practice and the art she makes within them are vastly different. And this really got my mind ticking on, you know, how this applies to my own art and my coaching work.

And I really believe there is in fact a sweet spot that celebrates and actually elevates the creative journey. It's the space where we honor the process of creating deeply, not just to produce beautiful work for the world to see, but as a path of healing, self-nurturing, empowerment, and transformation.

And yet we can also lean into creative challenge, goals and growth. We can stretch ourselves. You know, when we embrace the edges of [00:03:00] our creative ability, we can grow, we get curious about what we're capable of expressing, and we develop skills and confidence, not for perfection or for praise, but to serve the soul's voice more fully and more clearly.

So if you are in the professional artist camp, this may actually mean allowing yourself to have two distinctly different creative practices. One practice to deliver high quality professional work, where you uphold the standards required for your audience, your collectors, and your brand. 

And one practice purely for you, where art becomes a tool for soul connection, for self-discovery, healing, and personal growth. A safe space where no one else's expectations apply and where the focus is on the inner experience rather than the outer result.

and I know in my own creative practice,

 I'm getting more and more intentional about separating, um, these [00:04:00] two practices. For me, there is. Some overlap leaning into themes of women's empowerment, which helps me both professionally and personally. Um, in fact, it helps me focus and makes it easier to show up, um, in both areas.

Um, it's probably just less challenging for my busy brain to accept that that's what we're doing. but they are two distinctly different approaches. I have a sketchbook practice, which leans heavily into play and experimentation through the use of mediums I'm less familiar with, and I generally spend no longer than 90 minutes on each page.

On the other hand, my professional art is a long and winding process.This is different for every artist, but I accepted long ago that I can't churn out multiple pieces each week. It, it just, it's not possible for me. I just can't do it. It's not how I work. 

Each piece takes a minimum of two weeks for me to complete, and that's when I'm in flow [00:05:00] creatively. But often pieces can sit around for a couple of months, sometimes longer, where I sort of dip in and out and trust that. The painting will get done when the time's right. I work in lots and lots of layers, as many as I need to feel satisfied that the painting has been taken to where I want it to go, and 

I need to sit with each component of the painting, you know, tweaking and changing and really just sitting with it. It doesn't mean I'm necessarily perfecting it, it just means that I need to sit with it. my style is consistent, but the composition structure and details of each painting vary quite a lot.

I need that freedom, in my art and, you know, my professional art takes time. And I accept that. But I do know artists that have a formula or a repeatable format, and they churn out hundreds of paintings a year. Uh, it's not better or worse. They're still beautiful and high quality. Uh, and the more paintings you're [00:06:00] making, um, by the way, the easier it is to build an art business, uh, just to let you know that.

Um, but yeah, it's just a different approach. 

 So I hope you can see from that example that, you can even be focused on the same, concepts within your art, but have, two different ways of approaching it. One for the healing, and nurturing, side, and one for creating, professional pieces or high quality pieces or pieces that stretch your skills at least.

So for others who may not identify as professional artists, but feel, you know, creatively curious and wanna embrace the creative journey, this sweet spot means giving yourself permission to create with both care and courage.

It means understanding that skill development is a beautiful part of the creative journey, and that taking creative risks or setting goals. Doesn't have to contradict the healing power of the process itself. And of course, finding the sweet spot, you know, really does matter because [00:07:00] when we lean fully towards professional perfectionism, we risk disconnecting from the soulful, intuitive essence of creativity, and it can become about performing, achieving, and proving ourselves. And when we lean fully toward the pro process only art making with no challenge.

We may miss the growth that can come from stretching into new edges and really embodying our creative power more fully. And I think this sweet spot that we're talking about honors both, you know, it's both process and progress. It's self-expression and skill, and it's soul connection and creative courage.

And I think, you know, this is where we can really come alive through creativity. Not because we've mastered a medium, but because we've mastered listening to the inner voice and expressing it more fully with each brush, stroke word or mark on the page. and obviously this applies to any creative practice, not just art making. 

[00:08:00]

and I also want to remind you, just like life, our creative practice moves in seasons,There will be times when your soul craves the gentleness and surrender of pure process-based creating, and there will be times when you feel a pull towards learning new techniques, growing your skills, and expanding your creative edges. Neither of these seasons is better than the other. Both are essential.

The sweet spot I'm speaking about today honors the natural ebb and flow. It gives you permission to be where you are whilst also encouraging you to stay open to growth when the time feels right. The key is trusting your inner guidance to lead you through these creative cycles, and not forcing yourself into an approach that doesn't feel aligned in the moment. So as we finish up this episode, I just, I've got a little reflection exercise for you. If you are feeling the call to deepen your creative life, ask yourself, what would it [00:09:00] look like for me to embrace both the healing process and the creative challenge, and where might I be holding myself back from one or the other?

You don't have to choose. There is beauty and power in the space where both meet. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Take care. ​[00:10:00]