December 21, 2025 • 24 mins
Ever had one of those weeks where your creative spirit is ready to burst, but your to-do list is acting like an evil overlord trying to squash it? Yeah, I feel you! This week on the Create Art Podcast, we’re diving into the art of finding that elusive balance between life’s chaos and your creative pursuits. Spoiler alert: it’s not about doing everything; it’s about giving the important stuff the space it needs to flourish. We’ll chat about how to manage your time like a pro, prioritize your mental vibes, and embrace those moments when life tries to hijack your art. So grab your favorite drink, kick back, and let’s figure out how to keep that artistic heart beating amidst the madness!
What Balance Actually Means
- Balance isn’t perfect equality — it’s adaptability.
- Think of it as creative tides, not a tightrope.
- Recognizing seasons of productivity and rest keeps your art sustainable.
- Burnout is the tax you pay for ignoring your limits.
Managing Time Like an Artist
- Protect small creative windows — 15 focused minutes beat 2 distracted hours.
- Schedule creative sessions like appointments — respect your art as real work.
- Use constraints (like limited time) to spark focus and ingenuity.
Prioritizing Mental and Emotional Space
- Creative energy thrives in calm environments — clutter steals focus.
- Give yourself permission to not create when you need rest.
- Mindfulness or journaling can help you reconnect with your “why.”
When Life Interrupts Art
- Life doesn’t stop for inspiration — learn to sketch ideas on the fly.
- Use “creative triage” — decide what must be done now, and what can wait.
- Even small acts (a note, a photo, a melody hum) keep the artistic rhythm alive.
Building Belonging Through Art
- Your art and your life are not enemies — they’re dance partners.
- Balance changes daily; awareness is your compass.
- Give yourself grace, structure, and permission to create imperfectly.
Takeaways:
- Creative balance isn't about doing everything, but about making space for what truly matters.
- Art and life are dance partners—embrace the rhythm of both and find your groove.
- Prioritizing rest and self-care is crucial for sustaining your artistic journey and creativity.
- When life interrupts your art, keep a notebook handy to capture those fleeting ideas and inspirations.
- Give yourself permission to take breaks; your creativity will thank you later for that downtime.
- Remember, balance is a dynamic dance, not a static state; learn to flow with the tides of life.
Topics covered in this series
Sharing Your Work Online for the First Time
Dealing With Criticism and Rejection
Finding (or Building) an Artistic Community
Collaboration as a Creative Catalyst
Staying Motivated Long-Term
Art Challenges & Social Media Trends
Mental Health & Creativity
Art Challenges & Social Media Trends
Setting Up a Creative Workspace
Creative Constraints & Prompts
Measuring Growth as an Artist
Why Do You Create?
When to Call Yourself an Artist
Balancing Art and Life
Lessons From a Year of Creating
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, have you ever had one ofthose weeks where your creative spark
is ready to roar, but your todo list looks like a villain trying
to snuff it out?
Between work, family errandsand remembering to feed the cat,
or in my case, two cats, thecanvas or the microphone starts to
(00:21):
feel like a luxury.
But here's the truth.
Balance isn't about doing it all.
It's about giving what mattersthe space it deserves.
This week on Create ArtPodcast, as part of the new Artist
Compass series, we're going totalk about what it really means to
(00:43):
balance art and life and hownot to lose yourself or your joy
in the process.
(01:15):
Hey there, friends.
This is Timothy Keem o',Brien, your head instigator for Create
Art Podcast, where I use myover 30 years of experience in the
arts and education world tohelp you tame your inner critic and
create more than you consume.
So in 2025, and we're as I'mrecording this, we're in December,
(01:38):
December 14th, I believe, andwe're getting ready to end out the
year.
But in 2025, I started thisnew series, the New Artist Compass
series, to help out newartists just kind of figure out where
to go.
So I really wanted to focus inon them.
And we'll be wrapping up theseries probably in January, and we
(02:03):
got a couple more episodes togo, and it's going to be fantastic.
And I want to thank you forcoming along with me on this journey.
You know, even some of us oldartists are us veteran artists.
We're like, you know, this newstuff, you know, the newbie stuff
I don't need.
But I've found in this journeythat I've picked up things that I
(02:28):
needed and I've even starteddoing some paintings.
I've got some paintings for mywife and my kids that I'm working
on right now.
So if you haven't heard fromme in a couple of weeks, here, and
you're like, oh, hey, he's back.
That's what I've been doing isI've actually been practicing what
I preach.
I've been painting now I'vebeen using acrylic, and I'm not doing
(02:49):
the paint by numbers thing.
I'm actually watching a video.
And then it's, you know, it's instruction.
But it's nice because theymake great gifts and it's been a
lot of fun doing that.
So, yeah, I've let the podcastget away a little bit, but that's
okay because I have an excuse.
(03:12):
I was creating art like Iasked you to do every time you have
an episode here.
So today we're going to betalking about, you know, art and
balance.
So let's get right into that,shall we?
(03:36):
You know me, I like definingmy terms.
So let's first talk about theword balance and what that actually
means.
Balance, when we're talking inartistic terms is, isn't perfect
equality, it's adaptability.
(03:56):
Think of it like this.
Think of it as a creative tidewhere it goes in and it goes out
and not a tight rope whereyou're, you know, very focused on
one little thing, you know,the, the next step right in front
of you.
Focus on, you know, being inwaves in a tide.
(04:18):
It comes, it comes in and itgoes out.
And we also want to recognizethe seasons are of our productivity
and rest keeps your art sustainable.
Trust me, I know.
I used to write back in theday, back when I first started writing
(04:39):
poetry.
I was like, yeah, I'm gonnawrite four poems a day.
And I was able to do that.
And three out of the fourpoems were crap.
And I wasn't going out thereand looking at other poets that much.
But now when I do poetry, andit's been a while since I've written
(05:02):
a poem, I'll be honest withyou, it's been a while.
But now when I do poetry, I'mreading a lot of other poets and
I'm getting a lot ofinspiration, a lot of ideas on how
other people do it.
And sometimes, yes, if you gotthe bug and you've got to do it right
then and there, go into it,dive into it, but then make sure
(05:25):
you're saving time for yourself.
That's when the tide is in,when the tide is out.
Educate yourself, giveyourself that time, give yourself
that space.
And also give yourself time torest where you're not doing anything,
you're not educating yourself,you're not practicing your craft.
(05:47):
You do need that time.
I'm getting ready to turn 53and trust me, if I can take a nap,
I take a nap.
Because sometimes I just needto because I have so much going on.
I've got a family that Idearly love, whose lives I want to
be a part of.
I have a side business that Irun and then I have my day job and
(06:09):
that's a lot of stuff.
And I'm continually lookingfor ways to add more to it.
I know I want to join up withToastmasters for some God awful reason.
I know I want to do moretalking at podcast conferences and
attend more conferences.
(06:29):
That's A lot of time and a lotof money.
So I need to make sure that Iam scheduling myself correctly.
So that way, when it does cometime, when it's go time and I'm sitting
there and knocking stuff outand creating, I have the energy to
do that.
Because with all the otherthings that I do, plus the podcast,
(06:51):
I can run out of energy really quick.
And, you know, just a little,you know, side note, if you've forgotten
or if you didn't know, I havems, so my energy level is already
cut.
So I need to really protect myenergy levels for whenever I'm doing
projects.
(07:11):
And, you know, you may nothave a neurological disorder like
I do.
Maybe you're just a normalperson just going on with your day.
You need that time to rest, too.
Because before I learned thatI had ms, yeah, I was boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom all over theplace, and I ran out of steam and
(07:34):
I didn't finish a lot ofthings and I didn't study a lot of
things.
So I'm just trying to help youavoid that mistake.
Give yourself time to rest,give yourself time to educate, and
give yourself time to go inand get that creativity knocked out.
(08:01):
Okay?
So we've kind of defined whatbalance is.
It's not equality, it'srecognizing the seasons of your productivity.
Now, we want to talk about, orI want to talk about the royal we
managing time like an artist.
(08:21):
So as an artist, we do need tomanage our time.
And with me, Sunday morningsis usually my time out of the whole
week.
I'll have a couple of hours inmy man cave to go ahead and knock
stuff out or when everybody'sasleep in the house, that's when
I can go ahead and knock stuff out.
(08:43):
We need to protect thosecreative windows.
Schedule them in.
Don't let anything interrupt them.
Okay?
Treat it like a job.
Treat it.
Put it in your daily to do list.
Maybe it's 10 minutes, maybeit's a half hour.
Maybe it's, you know, twice a week.
(09:04):
With me, it usually ends upbeing about once a week where I can
do a bigger project like apainting or a podcast or something
along those lines.
But protect those smallcreative windows for yourself.
And again, schedule that intoyour life.
Make it an appointment andrespect it.
(09:26):
Don't let anyone steal yourthunder from it.
Now, if stuff happens again, Ihave a family.
Stuff happens all the time.
Okay.
You know, I can let that slideevery once in a while, but protect
that time.
And, you know, another thingthat you can do is, like, turn off
your phone because if you'relike me, yeah.
(09:51):
You get a notification and ittakes you out of whatever you're
doing, and it takes 5, 10, 15minutes to get back into it.
And you've already now for aping on an email.
That is a spam email.
You're wasting five or 10 minutes.
Don't let people steal your time.
(10:11):
Protect that time.
Turn off that phone, Turn offthat tv.
I know in the background yousee the TV going on.
That's just because I'd liketo have noise in the background.
But I'm here with you, and I'mnot letting that TV bother me one
bit.
I'd rather be here with you.
So manage that time.
(10:42):
All right, so we've definedwhat balance is.
We are managing our times.
That's great.
Here's a tough one.
Prioritizing mental andemotional space.
So when we're creating, a lotof our inner stuff comes out in whatever
we create.
(11:03):
So you want to make sure thatyour mental and emotional space is
taken care of.
Back in the day, I used tolike to, you know, go to the bars,
get drunk, write poetry, and,you know, have all that noise around
me.
But what I find is, is I getbetter work done when I'm here in
(11:26):
my man cave.
And, you know, it's nice andit's calm and it's quiet, and I can
really focus on stuff.
I can focus on the project.
Now, the other thing, too is,and this is going to sound counterintuitive,
but give yourself permissionto take that rest when you need it.
(11:52):
I gave myself permission totake a.
A break for a couple of weeksfrom episodes because there's stuff
I wanted to get done.
There's other stuff that wasmore of a priority for me.
And one of those things wasresting, you know, resting on Sunday
mornings and just not doing anything.
Just letting you know life happen.
(12:14):
So you can give yourselfpermission to do that.
If you need me to give youpermission to do that, I give you
permission to do that.
Something else you can thinkabout doing is, you know, doing a
mindfulness practice orjournaling, and that will reconnect
you with your why.
Now, for me, I do somemeditation on occasion, and it really
(12:38):
helps.
It really gets me focused onmy why.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I sitting here talkingout into the ether to you and doing
this?
Well, I want to help youcreate more than you consume.
It's not just a slogan.
It's a way of life.
For me anyways, and hopefullyfor you, too.
(13:01):
But we need to make sure thatthe stuff that's up here is good.
Now, I'll be honest with you, I.
When I was much younger, Ithought, you know, the crazy artists
were, you know, you had to bea little bit crazy and nutty and
jumping all over the place andbeing weird.
No, you don't.
I'm fairly normal looking, I guess.
(13:23):
Yeah, I have a lot of tattoosand I love skulls.
But you don't have to be, youknow, crazy or outrageous or anything
like that if you don't want to be.
And a lot of times when I, youknow, step up to the microphone at
poetry readings, people arelike, oh, who's this, you know, middle
aged white guy?
What's he going to say?
And then I lay down some, somewords that they're like, oh, my God,
(13:48):
he's really into this.
And, you know, to my Fridaynight crowd at OG's poetry scene,
it's been a minute since I'vebeen out there, but, you know, it
really helps me get out thereand, you know, interact with the
audience and let them knowwhat's going on in my life and hearing
(14:09):
what's going on in their lives.
So make sure that you'rehaving a practice of mindfulness
or journaling or somethinglike that.
Who knows?
That could turn into another project.
Give it a shot for yourself.
(14:33):
All right.
We're going to talk about whenlife interrupts art, because it happens.
It.
Did I tell you that I'm a. I'ma dad of twins and they're 11.
Oh, my God.
Life gets interrupted everyfive minutes.
So when stuff like thathappens, we have a lot of tools that
(14:54):
are available to us.
It doesn't need to stop your creativity.
You can write it down on apiece of paper or have a little notebook
with you at all times, or useyour voice notes or a voice memo
in your cell phone.
Life is going to happen.
It's going to happen.
But if you get some crazything in the back of your head and
(15:18):
you're like, oh, oh, I want todo this, write it down.
The actual act of writingthings can help bring them into reality.
And you can, you know, use acreative triage.
If you've got a couple ofthings going on, decide, you know,
what's got to be done now,what can I not, you know, it's vital
(15:43):
that this gets done, you know,and maybe it's a, you know, a portion
of the project that it can'twait for anything else.
Okay, cool.
Then make that the priority.
If other stuff can kind of,you know, fade in the background
a little bit Let it fade inthe background.
You know, sometimes if you seesomething like just the other.
(16:06):
Just yesterday, my wife and Isaw this beautiful sunset and this.
These clouds that were justmaking these wonderful patterns.
And I was driving, and my wifewent ahead and took a picture of
it, and I'm going to ask herto send it to me because that's something
I'd like to paint.
(16:26):
I was taking a look.
Obviously I was looking at theroad, but I was looking at the sky,
too.
And I was like, man, thatwould make a wonderful painting.
That's what's going to happenwith it.
So even if you can't take thenote or take the photo or whatnot,
have somebody there with youthat can write it down, especially
if you're driving.
(16:46):
You know, focus on that driving.
But you never know when that,you know, that next idea is going
to hit.
And for me, it hit while I wasdriving, and luckily, my wife took
a photo of it, and we'll goahead and make a painting of it.
But these are just thingsthat, you know, life happens.
If I would have been by myselfin the car, I wouldn't have been
(17:08):
able to, you know, whip out myphone and take a photo of it really
quick.
I. I would have had to havedone it by memory, or I would have
had to get to where I was going.
You know, write some stuffdown, take a sketch, something along
those lines.
But always have pen and paperhandy, or at least have your phone
handy, so that way you cantake notes on it, and that's what
(17:31):
you can do to beat life whenit's trying to interrupt your art.
All right, so let's, you know,kind of refocus on some takeaways
that you're going to have for this.
(17:51):
First thing is, you know, yourart, in your life are not enemies,
they're dance partners.
So try to fit your art aroundyour life.
Try to fit your life aroundyour art.
Art is very vital.
It's very important.
It's not on the scale of foodand water, but it kind of is a close
(18:16):
third because it helps a lotwith your mental and your emotional
state.
So make them partners, maketheir life, and make your art partners.
And realize that it's going tochange daily.
You're.
You're going to have stuffthat interrupts you, and that's okay.
It's not a problem.
(18:37):
Just try your best to not letit interrupt.
And when it does, pivot, getdone what needs to get done and then
come back to the art.
I'm prime example of it.
Like I said I had stuff to getdone, so I took a break for a few
weeks from the podcast and nowI'm back and that happens.
(19:00):
And it's okay.
It's not a problem.
You can do that.
You.
You have a lot of leeway.
You can do that.
And then, you know, when thatstuff happens, give yourself some
grace.
And I'm talking to me too.
Give yourself some gracebecause there's going to be challenges,
there's going to beinterruptions, and it may or may
(19:26):
not be your fault, but it'smore than likely not your fault because
life is going to happen regardless.
It's going to keep on going.
So realize that.
Don't necessarily blameyourself and give yourself permission
to create things that are imperfect.
I joke that I paint like afour year old on crack, but I have
(19:50):
tools now that helps me looklike an 8 year old on crack.
So definitely, you know, diveinto those tools that you have for
yourself and give yourselfsome grace and then just find that
balance, find that happy spot.
And is it going to make every,you know, make everything super duper
(20:13):
easy?
It's, it's going to make it easier.
I mean, I make it totallyeasy, but it's going to make it easier
for you.
All right, I'm going to closeus out here today.
(20:34):
Balance isn't static.
It's like the tide coming inand coming out.
You know, you're.
You're going to find balancesome days, you're going to find imbalance
other days.
But just do what you can totry each and every day.
And, you know, each day is anew day.
(20:56):
You get a new chance and justrealize that, hey, you know, Tuesday
was horrible.
I didn't get anything done.
And this and that and theother thing happened, okay, let's
make Wednesday better.
Let's realize that.
Identify what happened, andthen try to do better the next day.
And if you can do that, thedays will get better.
(21:18):
Maybe not right away, but theywill get better.
Okay, so the next time youfeel all, you know, stretched too
thin, remember, take fiveminutes, do it with your craft, whatever
project you're working on, andkeep your artistic heart beating
(21:42):
and just be with it for a fewminutes and then get back to the
stuff that needs to get done.
All right?
So, hey, keep on creating,keep on breathing, walk this path
and don't trip over perfection.
That's all I have for you this week.
I want to thank you so muchfor joining, joining me.
(22:03):
If you'd like to reach out tome, you can email me.
Timothyartpodcast.com I'd loveto hear from you.
I'd love to see what kind ofprojects you're working on and you
know, I could use some, youknow, critique on the show too.
Is this filling you with whatyou need?
Let me know about that.
I'd love to hear from you.
(22:26):
I do run another show.
It's called Find a Podcast About.
You can find it atfindapodcast about xyz.
And that's where I help mylisteners there find their next binge
worthy podcast and outsmartthe algorithm.
You can find it atFindapodcast about XYZ.
I've also started a businessin 2025 and it's called TKB Podcast
(22:51):
Studio.
You can find it attkbpodcaststudio.com and I help folks
start up their own podcastsand, you know, help you lead through
the noise with quiet professionalism.
So from idea inception all theway to production and everything
after that, that happens.
(23:11):
I'd like to help you out.
Take a look at my website, seethe projects I've been working on.
See if I mesh with you.
All right, that's all I gotfor you today.
Thank you so much.
And I just want to say, createmore than you consume.
(23:32):
Tame that inner critic and goout there and make some mark for
somebody you love yourself.
I'll talk with you next time.
It.
Hey, have you ever had one ofthose weeks where your creative spark
is ready to roar, but your todo list looks like a villain trying
to snuff it out?
Between work, family errandsand remembering to feed the cat,
or in my case, two cats, thecanvas or the microphone starts to
(00:21):
feel like a luxury.
But here's the truth.
Balance isn't about doing it all.
It's about giving what mattersthe space it deserves.
This week on Create ArtPodcast, as part of the new Artist
Compass series, we're going totalk about what it really means to
(00:43):
balance art and life and hownot to lose yourself or your joy
in the process.
(01:15):
Hey there, friends.
This is Timothy Keem o',Brien, your head instigator for Create
Art Podcast, where I use myover 30 years of experience in the
arts and education world tohelp you tame your inner critic and
create more than you consume.
So in 2025, and we're as I'mrecording this, we're in December,
(01:38):
December 14th, I believe, andwe're getting ready to end out the
year.
But in 2025, I started thisnew series, the New Artist Compass
series, to help out newartists just kind of figure out where
to go.
So I really wanted to focus inon them.
And we'll be wrapping up theseries probably in January, and we
(02:03):
got a couple more episodes togo, and it's going to be fantastic.
And I want to thank you forcoming along with me on this journey.
You know, even some of us oldartists are us veteran artists.
We're like, you know, this newstuff, you know, the newbie stuff
I don't need.
But I've found in this journeythat I've picked up things that I
(02:28):
needed and I've even starteddoing some paintings.
I've got some paintings for mywife and my kids that I'm working
on right now.
So if you haven't heard fromme in a couple of weeks, here, and
you're like, oh, hey, he's back.
That's what I've been doing isI've actually been practicing what
I preach.
I've been painting now I'vebeen using acrylic, and I'm not doing
(02:49):
the paint by numbers thing.
I'm actually watching a video.
And then it's, you know, it's instruction.
But it's nice because theymake great gifts and it's been a
lot of fun doing that.
So, yeah, I've let the podcastget away a little bit, but that's
okay because I have an excuse.
(03:12):
I was creating art like Iasked you to do every time you have
an episode here.
So today we're going to betalking about, you know, art and
balance.
So let's get right into that,shall we?
(03:36):
You know me, I like definingmy terms.
So let's first talk about theword balance and what that actually
means.
Balance, when we're talking inartistic terms is, isn't perfect
equality, it's adaptability.
(03:56):
Think of it like this.
Think of it as a creative tidewhere it goes in and it goes out
and not a tight rope whereyou're, you know, very focused on
one little thing, you know,the, the next step right in front
of you.
Focus on, you know, being inwaves in a tide.
(04:18):
It comes, it comes in and itgoes out.
And we also want to recognizethe seasons are of our productivity
and rest keeps your art sustainable.
Trust me, I know.
I used to write back in theday, back when I first started writing
(04:39):
poetry.
I was like, yeah, I'm gonnawrite four poems a day.
And I was able to do that.
And three out of the fourpoems were crap.
And I wasn't going out thereand looking at other poets that much.
But now when I do poetry, andit's been a while since I've written
(05:02):
a poem, I'll be honest withyou, it's been a while.
But now when I do poetry, I'mreading a lot of other poets and
I'm getting a lot ofinspiration, a lot of ideas on how
other people do it.
And sometimes, yes, if you gotthe bug and you've got to do it right
then and there, go into it,dive into it, but then make sure
(05:25):
you're saving time for yourself.
That's when the tide is in,when the tide is out.
Educate yourself, giveyourself that time, give yourself
that space.
And also give yourself time torest where you're not doing anything,
you're not educating yourself,you're not practicing your craft.
(05:47):
You do need that time.
I'm getting ready to turn 53and trust me, if I can take a nap,
I take a nap.
Because sometimes I just needto because I have so much going on.
I've got a family that Idearly love, whose lives I want to
be a part of.
I have a side business that Irun and then I have my day job and
(06:09):
that's a lot of stuff.
And I'm continually lookingfor ways to add more to it.
I know I want to join up withToastmasters for some God awful reason.
I know I want to do moretalking at podcast conferences and
attend more conferences.
(06:29):
That's A lot of time and a lotof money.
So I need to make sure that Iam scheduling myself correctly.
So that way, when it does cometime, when it's go time and I'm sitting
there and knocking stuff outand creating, I have the energy to
do that.
Because with all the otherthings that I do, plus the podcast,
(06:51):
I can run out of energy really quick.
And, you know, just a little,you know, side note, if you've forgotten
or if you didn't know, I havems, so my energy level is already
cut.
So I need to really protect myenergy levels for whenever I'm doing
projects.
(07:11):
And, you know, you may nothave a neurological disorder like
I do.
Maybe you're just a normalperson just going on with your day.
You need that time to rest, too.
Because before I learned thatI had ms, yeah, I was boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom all over theplace, and I ran out of steam and
(07:34):
I didn't finish a lot ofthings and I didn't study a lot of
things.
So I'm just trying to help youavoid that mistake.
Give yourself time to rest,give yourself time to educate, and
give yourself time to go inand get that creativity knocked out.
(08:01):
Okay?
So we've kind of defined whatbalance is.
It's not equality, it'srecognizing the seasons of your productivity.
Now, we want to talk about, orI want to talk about the royal we
managing time like an artist.
(08:21):
So as an artist, we do need tomanage our time.
And with me, Sunday morningsis usually my time out of the whole
week.
I'll have a couple of hours inmy man cave to go ahead and knock
stuff out or when everybody'sasleep in the house, that's when
I can go ahead and knock stuff out.
(08:43):
We need to protect thosecreative windows.
Schedule them in.
Don't let anything interrupt them.
Okay?
Treat it like a job.
Treat it.
Put it in your daily to do list.
Maybe it's 10 minutes, maybeit's a half hour.
Maybe it's, you know, twice a week.
(09:04):
With me, it usually ends upbeing about once a week where I can
do a bigger project like apainting or a podcast or something
along those lines.
But protect those smallcreative windows for yourself.
And again, schedule that intoyour life.
Make it an appointment andrespect it.
(09:26):
Don't let anyone steal yourthunder from it.
Now, if stuff happens again, Ihave a family.
Stuff happens all the time.
Okay.
You know, I can let that slideevery once in a while, but protect
that time.
And, you know, another thingthat you can do is, like, turn off
your phone because if you'relike me, yeah.
(09:51):
You get a notification and ittakes you out of whatever you're
doing, and it takes 5, 10, 15minutes to get back into it.
And you've already now for aping on an email.
That is a spam email.
You're wasting five or 10 minutes.
Don't let people steal your time.
(10:11):
Protect that time.
Turn off that phone, Turn offthat tv.
I know in the background yousee the TV going on.
That's just because I'd liketo have noise in the background.
But I'm here with you, and I'mnot letting that TV bother me one
bit.
I'd rather be here with you.
So manage that time.
(10:42):
All right, so we've definedwhat balance is.
We are managing our times.
That's great.
Here's a tough one.
Prioritizing mental andemotional space.
So when we're creating, a lotof our inner stuff comes out in whatever
we create.
(11:03):
So you want to make sure thatyour mental and emotional space is
taken care of.
Back in the day, I used tolike to, you know, go to the bars,
get drunk, write poetry, and,you know, have all that noise around
me.
But what I find is, is I getbetter work done when I'm here in
(11:26):
my man cave.
And, you know, it's nice andit's calm and it's quiet, and I can
really focus on stuff.
I can focus on the project.
Now, the other thing, too is,and this is going to sound counterintuitive,
but give yourself permissionto take that rest when you need it.
(11:52):
I gave myself permission totake a.
A break for a couple of weeksfrom episodes because there's stuff
I wanted to get done.
There's other stuff that wasmore of a priority for me.
And one of those things wasresting, you know, resting on Sunday
mornings and just not doing anything.
Just letting you know life happen.
(12:14):
So you can give yourselfpermission to do that.
If you need me to give youpermission to do that, I give you
permission to do that.
Something else you can thinkabout doing is, you know, doing a
mindfulness practice orjournaling, and that will reconnect
you with your why.
Now, for me, I do somemeditation on occasion, and it really
(12:38):
helps.
It really gets me focused onmy why.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I sitting here talkingout into the ether to you and doing
this?
Well, I want to help youcreate more than you consume.
It's not just a slogan.
It's a way of life.
For me anyways, and hopefullyfor you, too.
(13:01):
But we need to make sure thatthe stuff that's up here is good.
Now, I'll be honest with you, I.
When I was much younger, Ithought, you know, the crazy artists
were, you know, you had to bea little bit crazy and nutty and
jumping all over the place andbeing weird.
No, you don't.
I'm fairly normal looking, I guess.
(13:23):
Yeah, I have a lot of tattoosand I love skulls.
But you don't have to be, youknow, crazy or outrageous or anything
like that if you don't want to be.
And a lot of times when I, youknow, step up to the microphone at
poetry readings, people arelike, oh, who's this, you know, middle
aged white guy?
What's he going to say?
And then I lay down some, somewords that they're like, oh, my God,
(13:48):
he's really into this.
And, you know, to my Fridaynight crowd at OG's poetry scene,
it's been a minute since I'vebeen out there, but, you know, it
really helps me get out thereand, you know, interact with the
audience and let them knowwhat's going on in my life and hearing
(14:09):
what's going on in their lives.
So make sure that you'rehaving a practice of mindfulness
or journaling or somethinglike that.
Who knows?
That could turn into another project.
Give it a shot for yourself.
(14:33):
All right.
We're going to talk about whenlife interrupts art, because it happens.
It.
Did I tell you that I'm a. I'ma dad of twins and they're 11.
Oh, my God.
Life gets interrupted everyfive minutes.
So when stuff like thathappens, we have a lot of tools that
(14:54):
are available to us.
It doesn't need to stop your creativity.
You can write it down on apiece of paper or have a little notebook
with you at all times, or useyour voice notes or a voice memo
in your cell phone.
Life is going to happen.
It's going to happen.
But if you get some crazything in the back of your head and
(15:18):
you're like, oh, oh, I want todo this, write it down.
The actual act of writingthings can help bring them into reality.
And you can, you know, use acreative triage.
If you've got a couple ofthings going on, decide, you know,
what's got to be done now,what can I not, you know, it's vital
(15:43):
that this gets done, you know,and maybe it's a, you know, a portion
of the project that it can'twait for anything else.
Okay, cool.
Then make that the priority.
If other stuff can kind of,you know, fade in the background
a little bit Let it fade inthe background.
You know, sometimes if you seesomething like just the other.
(16:06):
Just yesterday, my wife and Isaw this beautiful sunset and this.
These clouds that were justmaking these wonderful patterns.
And I was driving, and my wifewent ahead and took a picture of
it, and I'm going to ask herto send it to me because that's something
I'd like to paint.
(16:26):
I was taking a look.
Obviously I was looking at theroad, but I was looking at the sky,
too.
And I was like, man, thatwould make a wonderful painting.
That's what's going to happenwith it.
So even if you can't take thenote or take the photo or whatnot,
have somebody there with youthat can write it down, especially
if you're driving.
(16:46):
You know, focus on that driving.
But you never know when that,you know, that next idea is going
to hit.
And for me, it hit while I wasdriving, and luckily, my wife took
a photo of it, and we'll goahead and make a painting of it.
But these are just thingsthat, you know, life happens.
If I would have been by myselfin the car, I wouldn't have been
(17:08):
able to, you know, whip out myphone and take a photo of it really
quick.
I. I would have had to havedone it by memory, or I would have
had to get to where I was going.
You know, write some stuffdown, take a sketch, something along
those lines.
But always have pen and paperhandy, or at least have your phone
handy, so that way you cantake notes on it, and that's what
(17:31):
you can do to beat life whenit's trying to interrupt your art.
All right, so let's, you know,kind of refocus on some takeaways
that you're going to have for this.
(17:51):
First thing is, you know, yourart, in your life are not enemies,
they're dance partners.
So try to fit your art aroundyour life.
Try to fit your life aroundyour art.
Art is very vital.
It's very important.
It's not on the scale of foodand water, but it kind of is a close
(18:16):
third because it helps a lotwith your mental and your emotional
state.
So make them partners, maketheir life, and make your art partners.
And realize that it's going tochange daily.
You're.
You're going to have stuffthat interrupts you, and that's okay.
It's not a problem.
(18:37):
Just try your best to not letit interrupt.
And when it does, pivot, getdone what needs to get done and then
come back to the art.
I'm prime example of it.
Like I said I had stuff to getdone, so I took a break for a few
weeks from the podcast and nowI'm back and that happens.
(19:00):
And it's okay.
It's not a problem.
You can do that.
You.
You have a lot of leeway.
You can do that.
And then, you know, when thatstuff happens, give yourself some
grace.
And I'm talking to me too.
Give yourself some gracebecause there's going to be challenges,
there's going to beinterruptions, and it may or may
(19:26):
not be your fault, but it'smore than likely not your fault because
life is going to happen regardless.
It's going to keep on going.
So realize that.
Don't necessarily blameyourself and give yourself permission
to create things that are imperfect.
I joke that I paint like afour year old on crack, but I have
(19:50):
tools now that helps me looklike an 8 year old on crack.
So definitely, you know, diveinto those tools that you have for
yourself and give yourselfsome grace and then just find that
balance, find that happy spot.
And is it going to make every,you know, make everything super duper
(20:13):
easy?
It's, it's going to make it easier.
I mean, I make it totallyeasy, but it's going to make it easier
for you.
All right, I'm going to closeus out here today.
(20:34):
Balance isn't static.
It's like the tide coming inand coming out.
You know, you're.
You're going to find balancesome days, you're going to find imbalance
other days.
But just do what you can totry each and every day.
And, you know, each day is anew day.
(20:56):
You get a new chance and justrealize that, hey, you know, Tuesday
was horrible.
I didn't get anything done.
And this and that and theother thing happened, okay, let's
make Wednesday better.
Let's realize that.
Identify what happened, andthen try to do better the next day.
And if you can do that, thedays will get better.
(21:18):
Maybe not right away, but theywill get better.
Okay, so the next time youfeel all, you know, stretched too
thin, remember, take fiveminutes, do it with your craft, whatever
project you're working on, andkeep your artistic heart beating
(21:42):
and just be with it for a fewminutes and then get back to the
stuff that needs to get done.
All right?
So, hey, keep on creating,keep on breathing, walk this path
and don't trip over perfection.
That's all I have for you this week.
I want to thank you so muchfor joining, joining me.
(22:03):
If you'd like to reach out tome, you can email me.
Timothyartpodcast.com I'd loveto hear from you.
I'd love to see what kind ofprojects you're working on and you
know, I could use some, youknow, critique on the show too.
Is this filling you with whatyou need?
Let me know about that.
I'd love to hear from you.
(22:26):
I do run another show.
It's called Find a Podcast About.
You can find it atfindapodcast about xyz.
And that's where I help mylisteners there find their next binge
worthy podcast and outsmartthe algorithm.
You can find it atFindapodcast about XYZ.
I've also started a businessin 2025 and it's called TKB Podcast
(22:51):
Studio.
You can find it attkbpodcaststudio.com and I help folks
start up their own podcastsand, you know, help you lead through
the noise with quiet professionalism.
So from idea inception all theway to production and everything
after that, that happens.
(23:11):
I'd like to help you out.
Take a look at my website, seethe projects I've been working on.
See if I mesh with you.
All right, that's all I gotfor you today.
Thank you so much.
And I just want to say, createmore than you consume.
(23:32):
Tame that inner critic and goout there and make some mark for
somebody you love yourself.
I'll talk with you next time.
It.
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