Episode 11: Accuracy, Creative Pressure and Overthinking

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Marilyn, Rachel and Jill – exploring the pressure to draw accurately, the weight of creative expectations after a big life change, and the paralysis that comes from overthinking and too many ideas.

Marilyn has loved art her whole life but still feels held back by a voice that tells her her drawings must look exactly like what she sees. After discovering a more expressive way of working, something clicked, but she’s struggling to move away from accuracy and trust her own choices. How do you draw with confidence when you’ve spent years believing there’s a “right” way to do it, and how do you begin to work more freely with colour and mark-making?

Rachel recently stepped away from a long and intense career to create more space for printmaking, but an upcoming exhibition has left her feeling overwhelmed rather than inspired. With her confidence shaken and pressure building, she’s questioning whether she’s ready at all, and feels she needs to create an entirely new body of work to prove herself. How do you approach opportunities like this without turning them into a test, and how do you move forward when everything suddenly feels like it matters too much?

Jill has reached a stage in life where she finally has time to focus on her creativity, but instead of making, she finds herself stuck in overthinking. With multiple mediums, endless ideas, and questions around time, purpose and choosing the “right” project, she hasn’t started anything at all. How do you begin when everything feels important, and how do you stop thinking and start making without needing everything to make sense first?

In this episode, I explore:

• Why accuracy can become a limitation rather than a guide in drawing
 • How early experiences shape the way we approach our work, often without us realising
 • The pressure that can follow a big life change, and how it can quietly block creativity
 • Why you don’t need a whole new body of work to move forward
 • How overthinking and too much choice can stop you from beginning
 • Why the idea of a “why” can sometimes become unhelpful rather than supportive

Each dilemma is explored with both emotional insight and practical steps you can try in your own creative life.

If you have a creative dilemma you’d like me to explore, please email me at:

thecreativecouchpod@gmail.com

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. I'm Sam Marshall, artist and creative coach. This is a podcast about creativity, confidence, and living a creative life. Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. So it's another week. We are here on this Monday, Monday morning, just it's just uh 10 to 12. And um, yeah, it's been a busy week. I had the book signing in Whitby last Thursday, which was amazing. We've had a multi-block workshop in my studio this weekend as well, which was absolutely wonderful. Four fantastic women came along, and we just had the loveliest time chatting, making work, and uh yeah, still really um feeling kind of warm and fuzzy from a lovely weekend of teaching. And uh yeah, now we've got the build happening. I've got uh I'm teaching for the Royal Drawing School this Thursday. I've got a book signing in Bedford um at the Higgins Gallery on Saturday. So if you live anywhere near Bedford and you'd like to come along and join Marple and I, I'll be doing a talk and then leading you through some gentle sketching. Um, and then yeah, signing the books. So uh that's what's going on. And also, what else have I got to tell you? I've got an introduction to Lin O Cup workshop coming up, online workshop coming up next Sunday, the 10th of May. There's still some spaces on that if anybody wants to join me. Um, that is from 407 UK time, and I've also got a couple of spaces left on my studio multi-block workshop um happening in October. So I just thought I'd do a shout out in case anybody wants to join me. Come to my studio. By that time, we'll be in my new studio. So uh yeah, it's gonna be really exciting. It'd be nice to have a little bit more room to um to make some work and uh yeah, it's a bit tight in the yellow studio. Not the yellow studio. This is the yellow studio, the blue studios next door. Anyway, um, thank you to all your dilemmas uh that have come in the past week. It's been great. I've had lots more dilemmas this week, which is absolutely wonderful. So thank you to everybody who sent in your dilemmas. And this week I'm answering three really juicy, quite complex dilemmas sent in from Marilyn, from Jill, and from Rachel. So I'm going to do, I'm actually going to do Jill's last. I'm going to do Rachel, Marilyn's first, then Rachel, and then Jill. So um, really wonderful dilemmas uh and really got me thinking. So I spent a couple of hours last night after my multi-plot workshop just kind of going through the dilemmas, writing some notes down. So yeah, so let's crack on. Let's crack on and see what we can solve with these with these dilemmas that have come in. So Marilyn wrote in and she said she's 68, uh, 68 years young, she said, and uh I've had she's had a lifelong love of art. She took O-level art at school, but remembers feeling that everyone remembers feeling that everyone was better than her, and that experience has stayed with her over the years. Um, she's explored different creative outlets, including watercolour and pottery, and now feels most drawn to coloured pencil work. Um, despite all of this experience, she still finds herself stuck when it comes to sketching. Um, she still feels a strong inner pressure to reproduce exactly what she sees, even though she doesn't really want to work in that way. And she wrote that recently she saw the article that I uh I was featured in. I was I was featured in an article with Prima magazine, and she saw that um article and she said it was sort of it was a moment where everything clicked. She recognised a kind of looseness and freedom in my work that she would that she feels she's been missing, and she realizes that this is how she wants to draw. But she says she doesn't know how to get there. So, questioning how to sketch with confidence, especially faced with comments like it doesn't look like that. Um, and she's also curious about colour, and she wants to know how do you become braver with it and how do artists come to see colour in a more expressive way? So I think underneath all of uh Marilyn's questions is something deeper really about confidence, about permission, and sort of letting go of a um a year, a sort of um a long-held belief that drawing has to be accurate in order for it to be valid. So I think that's the emotional layer of this, Marilyn, is that it's not a problem with the drawing, it's coming from a really old voice that stems back to your O levels when you felt that everybody was better than you. And I can almost guarantee you probably had a tutor who celebrated somebody's work that maybe looked realistic and maybe made you believe that there was a right way to draw. Um and I and I guess my question would be: who are you trying to get it right for now? Age 68, who are you trying to prove that your drawings are right now? Um because there's nothing left to prove, you know, no exam, there's no teacher, no one's handing out the grades. Um so the shift I think isn't becoming more confident, confident at drawing, it's about giving yourself permission to stop being judged. I really do think that's kind of the thing because underneath all of that was this worry about you know, getting it right or what what will happen if people say, Well, it doesn't look like that, you know. There's this kind of you know, I can really hear that there's this pressure for you to be performing for other people. Um and I think when you saw my work and you said, you know, that's how I want to draw, I don't think you were really responding to my it wasn't the style, I think it's the freedom perhaps in my work. The fact that I don't feel I have to have permission from other people and the sense that maybe I'm not drawing to pass a test. So, and I think that that is available to you, and it's not about sort of copying the way I draw, it comes from letting go of an idea that there is a correct way of drawing, if that makes sense. I think what you saw in my work was my inhibitions and my freedom to draw whatever I want to draw in however, however, I want to draw it. Um and I think the practical layer here is I just kind of want to approach this in a way okay. I think it's going to help for you to separate two things because I think that the truth and accuracy aren't the same thing. You know, when I'm drawing, I'm I'm I'm looking closely and I'm responding to what's in front of me, but I'm not trying to reproduce it like a photograph. I'm editing all the time, I'm taking out elements, I'm adding colour where there isn't colour, I'm shifting shapes, I'm pushing colours. So I'm constantly um I'm responding to what's in front of me. And that's my truth. That's what I see in front of me. And what I care about is is whether the drawing carries the feeling of what I'm seeing, not whether it matches it correctly. Um so I often I often ask myself, you know, does it feel like it rather than does it look like it? Does it feel like it? You know, because we all see things differently. And for me, about drawing in the landscape is about feeling what it like, what it's like to draw in that landscape. And that's a completely different question, rather than does it look like this? And I think it gives you much more freedom and much more kind of uh gives you much more of a kind of playground to explore and to be looser and to be freer. Um, and with colour, you know, it's an interesting one that you asked me about the colour, because again, I don't think there's a secret formula. Um, you know, some of some of my work is is you know, I I do try and match the colour up with what I'm seeing, but I think from years and years of drawing, I've become really um attuned to what I see in front of me. So when I look at green, I don't just see green, I see the blues in the green, and I see you know the oranges in the green as well, and I kind of see the nuances because I've been looking so intently for so long. Um, you know, if you really do look, you will really see that that what you think is green isn't just green. And um, you know, and sometimes I I do push the colour, sometimes I do add a splash of orange where there isn't, I can't see orange. Um, but that for me is I you know, I just love that colour and I just want it in my drawing. So they're the decisions that I make. Um, so I think rather than trying to perhaps replicate what I'm doing in my drawings, I would encourage you just to have a play around. Pick out some colours that you really like, um, and maybe um, you know, choose a palette that, you know, go out with just a limited palette and see what happens when you just use a limited palette of colours, or just colours that are totally opposed to what it is that you're seeing and see what happens. Um give yourself permission to play rather than trying to get it right. Um and I think the whole thing about what, you know, because you did m make this comment about what do I say to people when they say, oh, well, it doesn't look like that. I think take step away from that because people often say that when they're expecting it to look like a photograph. But drawing doesn't have to do that, you know. I've been banging on about this for for years now, you know, a drawing can distort, it can suggest, it can emphasize, it can do all of those things. It doesn't have to look like a photograph. Um and I mean I don't know, I think I I I would be curious to see who would say that to you, you know. I'd kind of, you know, I I I wonder who has said that to you in the past because that is again something to be to be cautious of. And if you have got those people who say that to you, maybe just don't show your drawings to them, you know. Um yeah, so I hope that kind of helps you a little bit. It's it's really about recognizing where this belief comes from for you and allowing yourself just to get on with it and have some have some fun and play around. So it's it's it's really just about letting go of that old belief. And you don't need to make your drawings correct, you just need to make them yours. You know, look in your wardrobe, look at what you have in your wardrobe. Your wardrobe will show you the colours that you're normally drawn to. You will have a colour palette that you probably you're not aware of. Look at the things in your house, look at the things that you surround yourself. I look at my wardrobe and I can see exactly I can see what I like, I can see the colours I'm drawn to, and that appears in my drawings and it will appear in my prints, you know. But that's me, you know. You you don't want to be um using the same palette as me because you're not me. And I'm not saying that because I don't, I I I'm being precious about the way I draw. I'm not. I mean, I wouldn't have written all the books that I've written, I say all the books, the two the two books I've written. I'm not I'm not um uh protective of over my techniques at all. But what I try and do is encourage people to be independent to try and really um you know trust your own process, trust your own inner knowledge rather than rather than relying on other people because you have it all in you, it's just believing that you do. So your homework, okay. So your homework. Um I think for your next few drawings, I would like you to ask that question, not does this look like what I see? Or I would like you to ask, does this feel like what I see, or does this feel like what I saw? And then the second one, I would like you to push the colour slightly too far. So maybe choose one colour in your drawing and push it until it feels a little bit uncomfortable, you know, or or take a uh, you know, take a really limited palette out. So take, you know, take some really bright pinks and some really bright oranges, and then some darker purples and some darker blues, you know, take a tonal range of colours out, but maybe not for colours that you're seeing and see what happens when you do that. You know, you know, look at people like Matisse, look at the fovis, look at you know, uh artists that have used colour in the past, um, but but in a very non-naturalistic way, and to see what you can learn from them. Um and obviously with me, you know, I take out things. I don't I don't draw exactly, I mean, I I respond to what I'm drawing and I am truthful to what I see in front of me, but that doesn't mean to say that I leave everything in. I take out things, I shift things, I edit things, uh, even when I'm drawing out on location. So, you know, take out something, you know, remove something, give yourself permission. If that if you don't want that car in the scene that you're drawing, don't draw the car. Just remove the car. You're allowed to do that. And um, and then I think going back to this whole idea of worrying what people will say, and and in particular, well, it doesn't look like that, then just keep your drawings for yourself, you know. Take your take your drawings, you know, have your drawings be just for you at the moment. Um, and and and I do want you to question this imagined audience, you know, who are these people who are judging your work? You know, is it that teacher from school, or is it, you know, those people from school years ago, or is it somebody in your present life that is critical of the art that you're making? And if so, they don't need to see your art. It's as simple as that. Okay, I hope that helps, Marilyn. And thank you so much for sending in that amazing dilemma. Right, moving on. How are we doing, Mars? She's got yogurt on her head, as always. She's had a head in the yoga pot. Um, okay, so Rachel sent in a dilemma, and um yeah, she sent in a lovely comment about my podcast to say how much she's been enjoying it. And I said, Oh, well, you know, if you've got a dilemma, Rachel, do send in a dilemma. And then she immediately wrote in with this really um, yeah, very I I really felt the anxiety in Rachel's dilemma, and um, you know, I really hope that I can help you with uh with what I'm about to say, Rachel. So Rachel recently stepped away from a long and intense career to create more space in her life for printmaking. So shortly afterwards, she was offered the opportunity to take over a small gallery for two weeks, which initially felt like the perfect way to mark this new beginning. But since saying yes, she's found herself feeling overwhelmed rather than motivated. She's been unwell, her confidence has dipped, and the deadline that she thought would help her now feels like pressure. And the problem is that she's been she's become increasingly critical of her past work and thinks that she perhaps needs to create a whole new body of work in order to be ready for this exhibition in August. Okay, again, we're going, we're reflecting back to the dilemma we had last week where um you know there was, I think it was Addie had that that um pressure to create work for it for an ex group exhibition, and it was like, oh, do I, you know, make loads of new work? And so as a result, Rachel's now torn between going ahead with the exhibition or pulling out, which she says she's feeling very strongly at the moment. She's very tempted just to kind of say to the gallery owner, I can't do this. Um, and she's worried that she's just not ready for this. Um, so okay. And Rachel did go into detail about her what her you know previous career was, and you know, obviously she's she's she's uh she's a mum, she's she's got a really busy life, but now she's kind of stepped away from that career, and um and she's given more time for her printmaking, which I think is uh slightly tied in to this to what she's feeling here, because I think you know, you've you've come out of this really full working environment, and you've almost immediately placed yourself in a situation of uh which which has similarities, you know, a really intense working environment, and then you've immediately gone into this space whereby you're putting pressure on yourself to um you know to create, and and there is a sense that there's something really significant riding on this. Because I think what's what's happened is that you've left your job, and the the feeling that I've got from your email is that you've left your job in order to become a printmaker and to sell your work as a printmaker, and with that comes a huge amount of pressure, so it suddenly feels like you've got to make the work and you've got to sell the work in order to justify the decision that you've made. So I think the first thing I thought was rather than saying that you've left your job in order to become a printmaker, I would say something like you've you've you've you've left your job in all in order to have more time for the things you love to do. So you're taking away the pressure from I'm gonna do, I've gone from one thing to another, and more about I've gone from one thing to give myself space and time to do things that I love. I think even just having that in your head, I think will help you, Rachel. Um because what you've actually done is you've carved out some space that didn't exist before, and printmaking can sit within that space, but it doesn't have to carry everything. Um and you mentioned the physical side of this as well. You sort of mentioned that your arthritis had flared up, and I think that when we go through big, big shifts and we put ourselves under pressure, our body responds. I mean, I know myself my body's really in tune with how I'm feeling and what I'm going through. And anytime I'm really stressed, my body will flag it up. So I think um, you know, obviously you've gone from one high stress, stressful environment, and I could sense the stress in your email. You know, I still feel that you feel really stressed. And when ideally this period should be a period of gently recalibrating into this new way of being. So let's look at the practical layer now, now that we've looked at that emotional layer. What did I scribble down here? Okay, right. So my feeling is, and I've looked at your um Instagram and I've looked at your work, and my feeling is I think you should go ahead with the exhibition, but I think you need to redefine what the ex what the exhibition is. So rather than it's a polished, resolved body of work, I think you reframe it as a starting point. So what I would suggest that you that how you think about it is it is a snapshot of where you are now, given the fact that you've had this really busy career and you've been printmaking and making work on the side. And I think it could be just a really lovely celebration of what you've managed to do with all the commitments that you've had in the past few years. So it's kind of like, you know, um, then this is what I've managed to do. It's a celebration of what you've managed to do, and it's a starting point for the new work to evolve. So it doesn't need to be polished, it doesn't need to be um, you know, uh all really coherent, it just needs to be a snapshot of where you are now. And the third the main thing I need to say to you, and I think this is really clear as soon as I read the email, is that you do not need to create a body of work. You do not need to create a new body of work, even if you don't particularly like what you're what you've done. I think take some time to reflect because I think actually, I think it's almost a panic. It's like I don't well, I don't like it anyway. I don't like it anyway, so I don't want to show it. Because I think looking at your work, you do like your work, Rachel. I think you do like your work. I think you just need to go back with it. I think have some time just to gently go back over all the things that you've done, and you've done so much, there's so much work that you've got there. Just take some time and go through the work that you've got and maybe put it into different categories. You've got lots of different ways of working, you know, you've got lino cuts, you look like you've got some etchings, you've got some little media pieces, you've got some paintings. Just take some time to go through the work, just give yourself a lovely afternoon of no pressure, but just sitting with the work. And you know, that there's the coastal elements, there's the the the the nature's the nature um reflections, you've got lots of different themes weaving through your work, and uh maybe it is just a matter of uh selecting a set of work that you feel most connected to, and the the pieces of work that feels feel the most calmist and resolved to you. Um and then perhaps give your give the show a title, give it a title that you feel perhaps links all the pieces that you've chosen. So I would definitely say, you know, choose 10 to 15 pieces. I mean, depending on how big the gallery is. I mean, I don't know how big the gallery is, but you know, I would rather you have less and feel confident with what you've got than filling it all up and feeling like it's a bit scattered. You know, make the show intentional.

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purposeful with what you are showing um and have a reason behind why you're showing all those pieces you know I think it could have a really lovely history even if you're not that happy with the work itself it could be that the piece that you show was a starting point for another piece of work or it could have inspired this that and the other or you know that you could have a story underneath all of the all of the um the pieces that you've chosen I mean go and have a look at my book sketch because you know all the students' work that I chose all the sketch squad's work that I chose to show in the book I chose them because the drawings that they submitted the stories that they told about the drawings had something really important to say you know it wasn't whether whether that drawing was a better drawing than somebody else's or whether it was a good drawing or a bad drawing I chose those drawing drawings purely on what the squad had told me about that drawing. So maybe that could you know maybe that could be um what you do but you absolutely do not have to put pressure on yourself to create a whole new body of work that really honestly if you take one thing from this podcast it's that relax you've got plenty of work just sit and sit and take some time to create curate the work you know I mean another idea is that you could I don't know give give your kids if you've got I think you've got children you know ask your children to pick some work and I don't know make it fun make it lighthearted don't take it so seriously um yeah so it instead of um uh instead of yeah instead of pushing yourself to to to create a new body of work just to set yourself set yourself a date well obviously it sounds like you've got the date already set yourself a title curate the exhibition carefully and just see it as a summarization of where you are now and where you would like to go in in in the future use it as a marking point I think all of these opportunities where you have to collate your work together and look at your work and reflect on your work are really helpful. That's why I always encourage my students to apply for things or apply for a residency or apply for um you know an MA or a BA or some kind of course or whatever because it it gives you the opportunity to look through your work and think about it and put it together in a way that you know you're presenting it for other people. So I think it's going to be a very valuable time for you actually. Right okay so uh homework. So write a title select don't create that was what I wrote down select don't create so two two 10 two 10 to 15 pieces that sit well together no new work. And then I would say lay it out physically get it laid lay it all out and see how it works see what connects see what maybe needs to be edited and then reframe the show. So think about this exhibition is a starting point this exhibition is a gathering of work that I've done alongside living a very full life so just think about it in a different way. Excellent dilemma Rachel and I hope that has helped right moving on to Jill how we're doing for time I never know how long these go on for I just finished the recording and then it pops up saying 30 minutes for not for I don't think I've ever gone to 40 minutes but you know there's I could always do this today because Jill has got a dilemma that might take me a while. Okay so Jill wrote in and she said that she's 55 and she finds herself at a stage in her life where for the first time she has more time to focus on herself and her creative interests. After years of raising a family and building a career she's returned to making and discovered a real love for textiles and mixed media working across quilting, sketching, watercolours and pastels. She's got no shortage of ideas in fact she has so many that she's tried to order them, analysing her patterns in Pinterest and keeping what she calls a Da Vinci journal to capture her thoughts. So instead of helping her begin all of this has has left her feeling stuck she feels acutely aware of time questioning whether she has enough of it to commit to the commit to the right project and I want you to be really aware of that word project because that is something that I want to pick up on. She worries about choosing one thing at the expense of another she questions whether her work needs a deeper sense of purpose or why especially if it's not going to be sold or shared and underneath it she recognises that if she doesn't start anything she can't be judged. So despite all the ideas she hasn't made any of them so I think when I looked at Jill's dilemma I sort of stripped it back to I think what the crux of what she's saying is how do I start making something when I feel like I don't have enough time I don't know what to choose and I don't know what the point is I think that is essentially what Jill is asking here. And I mean Jill's email was long and I could really feel how much thinking was going on there. And I think the first thing I want to say to you Jill is that I think you're overthinking this. I think you're making it much more complicated than what it needs to be. And there's so many conditions and so many things that need to be resolved before you're allowed to begin and I think that's why you feel stuck because it's I don't think it's a time problem and I don't think it's a why problem. I just think it's a starting problem. I think it's a starting you you it feels like you've turned creativity into something that has to meet a whole set of criteria before it can happen. You know it has to be the right project it has to be the right medium there has to be enough time behind it and ideally it needs to sit with a clear purpose and when you stack all that up then no wonder you're not beginning. I mean it's sort of it it it it made me feel stressed reading your email because I was like my goodness I can see why you've got yourself into this situation. So and you mentioned in your email that you know this this idea of time and I think there's a slight panic here that's going on. You sort of mentioned not having 10 years to spend on something and I I question why you would need to spend 10 years on something you know what's wrong with just spending an afternoon on something because I and and I I want to look at this word project that came up again and again and again because the word project sounds like a massive deal. I mean it sounds like the pro the project that I've got going on at the moment where this new studio is being being built outside my house that is a project you know that's taking months it's taken months of sorting it's going to take months of you know of sorting it out when it's finished you know that's a project but I think you don't need to make it into a project it could just be a piece of work you know again it's I think it's the words that we we that the way that we talk to ourselves about our work can often send us into uh states of paralysis you know Marco's just gone outside she doesn't want to sit in here it's too nice outside don't blame her um and I think let's go back to the why because I do think having a why can be really helpful in fact the the first few pages of sketch I asked you to to find out you know to ask yourself why it is that you want to have a sketching practice because I do think it can really be helpful and it can really um reassure you in times when you feel wobbly and I think it can really be a really good anchor but I think it's got a bit tangled for you because I think um a why can be helpful because it can give direction but only if it's serving you because right now it I feel like it's become another barrier for you and you you need to figure out that the it needs to be the right why so I think you just need to let that go. I think you just need to let that go. And again it it it could be just as simple as just enjoying what you make. And I've said this before and I've said it again you know the fact that you're making something and you're enjoying making something and that your mind is quiet and for three or four hours while you're making something is enough of a why to keep on doing it. You know even if at the end a bit like think about it as like puzzles you know like my mum is a massive puzzle person. She loves making puzzles and at the end of the time when she's finished the puzzle the puzzle gets dismantled and gets put back in the box. Now are we going to say that wasn't worth her time doing that puzzle because essentially the puzzle got dismantled and put back in the box no because my mum loved doing that puzzle. My mum enjoyed doing that puzzle it kept her focused it it you know it took her mind to other places she had a really enjoyable time doing that she wasn't looking at her phone I mean my mum doesn't look at her phone anyway that's not a problem for my mum but you know do you know what I mean? So I think that's enough that's enough if if that it can be enough because you enjoy doing it you know um well I will always bang on about the process rather than the outcome so okay so again I'm gonna go back to the practical layer now that's a bit of the emotional layer because I think you're overcomplicating it you're using terminology which is is making you panic um so the first practical thing is I would like you to change your language so stop using the word project because it makes it sound too big and it sounds too long and it sounds like it's going to take you 10 years. And I think think think of in terms of small acts of making one afternoon one piece of work one experiment you're just beginning you're not building the Sistine Chapel okay it doesn't need to be overwhelming. And I think I mean so many of these dilemmas that come in are about the fact that people feel overwhelmed with the choice of things that they've decided to play around with. So with you it was quilting textile sketching watercolor pastels there's a lot and there's a lot of choice there and often a lot of choice leads to no action as we've discussed before. So I want you to pick just one and you're not picking it forever you're just picking it for now so choose one that feels most alive to you at the moment and give it your full attention for a period of time and see what happens when you just stay with that one thing rather than moving between other things. And again I want to come back to this because I wrote this in the the practical bit because what you said to me was actually what how you phrased it was what is the point of making something if it just ends up in a bin in the attic and I've just just discussed this the point is in the making the point is the time you spend doing it the focus the absorption the satisfaction it's an active engaged experience and I you know I've talked about that thing you know is it like meditation as well you know meditation you don't get anything out of it at the end you're not you don't get a special badge saying I've meditated for 10 hours but what you do do is you get a sense of calmness you get a sense of well-being you you get a sense of hopefully your mind is quieted down and not everything you need to make needs to be needs to justify its existence by being sold or kept forever. Some things can just be made okay so hopefully that gives you a little bit of comfort knowing that so again this isn't this isn't just about finding your time or the perfect idea or a deeper purpose it's just removing the conditions that you placed on yourself and allowing yourself to begin so homework number one stop calling it a project ban that word let's not have projects let's not have projects you don't want the stress that I've had with this building outside it's not a project choose one medium stay with it for now no switching and give yourself a small container of time say two hours we're just gonna do this two hours and no term commitment and make something fourth thing is just make something for no purpose create one piece that isn't for selling not for keeping not for other other than anything other than just the act of making okay so a lot of these dilemmas have really interesting crossovers and the more that they're they're coming in the more I'm seeing the same sort of dilemmas that that that keep keep getting re keep being repeated and often it is too many materials not enough time don't know where to start you know so it is very much about we boil it down and we look at we look at the words as well so for me it's fascinating about you know analysing the words that you're using to describe your work and the and the way that you talk about your work because often that is uh a real clue for me as to how I advise you um with your with your dilemmas um moving forward. So okay I hope that helps uh I really enjoyed answering those guys so do send them in um I've got another couple to answer for next week but again I'm very excited to get some more in so please do send them in to the creative couch pod at gmail.com uh do rate and review uh say that you like it do whatever you need to do to get this podcast out to more people tell your friends about it tell your friends um just spread the word it'd be really helpful because I you know I'd love to keep this going. All right loveliz listen um she sends her love she's outside sunbathing I will see you all next week and I do hope some of you can come and join me in Bedford at the Higgins on Saturday. The event starts at 10 uh sorry 1.30 until 330 so it's just two hours don't need to book you just turn up and then you can hang out with me and uh have a cuddle with Marple. You can have a cuddle with me as well if you want but you know maybe you don't want to all right lovelies listen take care and I will see you next week okay let's stop this stop this I am recording I am recording I know I'm recording it's all good