"Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fall, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But you keep going."
~ Yasmin Mogahed
Resilience in art-making, and in a mixed media practice especially, is not just about finishing a piece. It's about understanding that the process itself is valuable. It's about recognizing that the challenges we face in our creative work are opportunities for growth, both as artists and as humans.
I want to tell you about a commissioned portrait I worked on not too long ago. It was, without question, a true test of my resilience.
Commissions always push me out of my comfort zone. I embrace a new challenge, but there is something particular about combining it with the pressure of a paid job and a personal request. One commission that comes to mind was a book cover for an author's autobiography, someone's life story distilled into a single image. Another was a portrait of someone's wife. Each one asked something different of me, and each one reminded me that making art for someone else carries its own particular weight.
I started and covered this portrait twice before reaching the final version. Not long before finishing it, I almost messaged the client to say I couldn't do it. But my partner, seeing what I was about to do, simply said: "No, you can do this." So I didn't give up. The next day, I returned to the canvas with renewed determination and worked until I reached a point where I liked what I saw. I could finally see how the finished painting would look, and I liked it.
A commissioned portrait
When you struggle this much to complete a piece of art, the payoff is something else entirely. It's a triumphant feeling like no other. And this resilience you build through art has a way of carrying into other areas of life too.
As for the painting itself, I'm not sure which part I love most. The patchwork jean jacket. The flowing, flowery skirt. The background that reminds me of Turkish carpets. And then there's the cat. Both the client and his wife loved it too. Now that it's behind me, I think I just loved the whole experience.
In the journey of creating art, there are moments that feel awkward and difficult. A piece doesn't come together, doubt creeps in, and the urge to abandon the work can feel very convincing. But resilience is about staying with the process, even when it feels uncomfortable. Staying with it allows the work to evolve, often into something more honest and more powerful than you first imagined. A consistent creative practice builds this muscle quietly, over time.
A commissioned book cover.
Art and resilience are more connected than we sometimes realize. When a painting feels stuck or off-balance, it's not so different from those times in life when things don't unfold the way we'd hoped. In both cases, something in us has to decide to keep going, even when the outcome is uncertain.
The satisfaction of finishing a piece that once seemed impossible is worth every difficult hour. It reminds us that the creative process is not always smooth or clear. But with a little patience and a willingness to stay, it can lead somewhere we couldn't have found any other way. That is what it means to be a resilient artist, not someone who finds it easy, but someone who finds their way back.
If this resonates and you'd like to explore your own creative practice in a supported, gentle space, I'd love to welcome you into one of my workshops. You can find out what's available at Creative Delight Studio.
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