Closing Thoughts: A Season Reflection
As the season comes to an end, I have a few things that I want to reflect on. In this writing I will be looking back at mainly what I’ve learned about myself as a creative and an individual as being a part of the Season 2 team.
Goals
I will be addressing the goals that I set for myself as a creative and individual prior to the start of Season 2. The first goal that I had for myself was to have fun and enjoy the process. What this goal has taught me is more so being realistic about my creative process. I found that it was difficult for me in times when I had school, work and practice.
The reality was that not every part of the process would be smooth sailing. In my case, sometimes finding the topics to discuss on some of the creatives or developing graphics was difficult for me, especially at times when I felt like I was in a creative funk. Sometimes the creative process will not always be going my way and pleasurable as I might not always have a flow of ideas or motivation and that’s okay. The thing is to be kind to myself and maybe take more breaks and come back to what I am working on. But also, it’s important to cherish the times that I do have fun and enjoy the process (which I caught in 4k in the image below).
My second goal was to create, learn and explore. I think I have done a good job in meeting this goal. I have been able to create content that inspired me and the different creative avenues that I thought were most intriguing to me. In addition, I have learned more about myself and my creative process during this season. I have learned to use the app, Procreate to create graphics to post on instagram. For example, prior to being a part of the team, I wasn’t sure how to make an instagram carousel post, which allows for viewers to swipe through a series of images or content in one instagram post. I had to use my resources, thanks to my friend YouTube, I was able to figure it out within an hour or two. (Below you can find both a link to the post and an example to refresh your mind about a graphic I had created). Still a work in progress, but the point is, I learned. In my journey of exploration, I am starting to find different creative outlets that I would like to put more of my energy towards. I really want to get more into writing children's books that go into topics related to mental health and living life as a black girl.
My third goal was to embrace self-expression and reflection. In a sense I kind of met this goal. The reason I say kind of was mainly because I was writing about other creatives and diving into their process and creative expression. On the other end, I was able to have my own way of expressing how I felt about their work and how it impacted my perspectives on different things. For example, in each of my pieces I tried to connect it back to how the particular creators' work allowed me to find myself in some way. In the piece about Icykof, I mentioned how I learned more about fashion and style and how people express themselves through clothing. Overall, how it changed my personal style to fit me more than societal trends. In terms of reflection, well this article does exactly that. I have been going through a creative journey and this is one of the pit stops that I may have needed to take to learn more about myself as an individual and creative.
My fourth goal was to share my inner child with the world. This goal I think was a little bit ambitious, but I think I was able to incorporate it, mainly in the piece I did about Quentin Blake. This is because I could quite literally relate it to my childhood and reading books with Mr. Blake’s illustrations all over. In terms of figuratively, my inner childhood led me to be interested in joining the team in the first place. That yearn for creativity and exploration and being able to share and how I process things creatively. I can thank my childhood mind. A lot of times being an adult can be so serious and not fun to be honest. However, it allows me to tap into a part of myself that I don’t usually on a daily basis.
Enjoy this picture of me as a child. :)
Overall, I am thankful for the experience that I was able to have this Season and all of the creatives I was able to engage with on the Monday evening meetings. Seeing the creative talent and expression of others is cool.There was a lot of energy and time that I gave to these projects and I did the best that I could during this experience despite all of the commitments I had during the season.
Thank you for joining me on this rollercoaster but for now the ride has come to an end. Til next time, Avia.