I need to pivot, but how?

Change is inevitable, even more so when you have a creative soul in need to stretch and flex and try new things

Welcome to Follow Your Gut, a newsletter about the artist life and business from a mother of two. After soon a decade as an independent artist and writer, the question is not only how to do it, but how to continue to follow your gut in a world that tries its best to stuff it with fluff.

Hello,

This is where I’m at today;

I feel that I need to pivot.

I know it.

But I don’t know how, where, what.

I just know I have to do something.

This is the typical rollercoaster ride of being an artist. Frankly, it’s the same being a mother.

When you think you’ve figured out what’s working for you and your family, something changes and you’ve got to find a new routine again, until that one breaks too. And so it goes. Forever, with the difference being that your real baby hopefully grows up whereas your artistic soul remains as vulnerable as ever.

I don’t want to sound negative. I’m usually even an annoyingly optimistic person, but I’ve come to realize first hand that creative endeavors really are cyclical.

It works until it doesn’t. A cycle can last for years, months, days or sometimes it runs its course within a few hours.

Now I have the itch again. I feel that something needs to change. But it’s uncomfortable because I don’t know what.

What I do know however is that I spend disproportionately much time on Substack in relation to how much income it generates (almost non-existent relatively speaking to my main art business, which I still keep separate to this project).

It wasn’t an issue at first when I was mostly desperate to rediscover my creative force after some years of slumber due to entering motherhood and a whole lot of other stuff.

I’ve now found my voice again. And it’s stronger than ever. The energy is flowing as fast as my daughter finishes her piece of chocolate so that she can ask for another.

If my daughter knew that I sneak into her and her sisters playroom at night to finish a drawing, she’d definitely demand MANY more pieces of chocolate… This is a glimpse of a series of illustrations I want to make for a “Slow living dream collection”. I’ll probably make simplified versions too to transform into embroidery patterns.

Are more paywalls the answer?

I tried to figure that out by doing another public survey “what do we think about paywalls”, and the answer was as expected: YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT YOUR OWN SHIT 💩😂

Joke aside, the polls were hugely insightful and the commentaries even more so. It’s given me loads of food for thought, which to some extent enhanced the feeling of needing to pivot…

Truly, I’m contemplating on the value aspect where the energy input vs. output is very out of balance currently.

It doesn’t have to be a problem, but I feel that I need to experiment with some new things while still keeping the creative freedom to pivot again when I need to.

Because after all, to pivot is an as inherent part of the creative process as the air we need to breathe. You cannot enter artistry thinking that it will look the same for eternity. It won’t.

This is both scary and exciting depending on how you look at it. What do you think?

Thanks for reading, have a lovely day

Elin, xx

Ps. Below is a soothing process video drawing on the first illustration in the Slow Living Dream Collection

Hi there, new here?

I’m Elin, Swedish (expat) artist and mother of two who have plunged into the unknown of Substack as a new writing home. Despite having 500k+ across mainstream social media platforms for my embroidery art, I decided to start afresh here. It’s hard, thrilling and joyful all in one. Come and join me for the ride if you haven’t done so already! You can expect thought-provoking and poignant writing about creativity, life and soulful art business with a touch of motherhood.

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More reading;

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