St-ART-ing Fresh in a New City

What it's like to move to a new city and bring your craft with you

Many of you now know, but I've recently relocated to a new part of Ontario. Aside from the obvious challenges surrounding packing, moving, unboxing, etc. I am now realizing the changes that will come to my art business and networking opportunities as well. Now, these aren't all with negative connotations; there are many ups and downs I've faced thus far, but I'm learning to navigate this new space along with my craft in harmony.

Challenges

I'd say the biggest challenge I've faced has actually been finding time to set aside for creativity. If you've ever moved before, you know that there are lots and lots of things to unpack and organize, so it makes sense that you'd be short on time to do things for fun.

Though I'm such a big advocate of taking a break, I got in a really hustle-culture frame of mind in which I truly believed that my unpacking couldn't wait. I wanted to 'speedrun' (for a lack of better words) the moving phase to get to the art I had been wanting to make, and as a result, I put everything on hold to do so. So, all the creative juices I had while packing, I channelled to my moving process. It didn't occur to me that I could use this for fun as well.

Unexpected Joys

The most surprising bit of this move is how much more creative I feel on a day-to-day basis, and how inspired I feel by my community. The other day, for example, I was sitting in the park and doing a mushroom watercolour painting.

A lady and her dog (named Poppy) came to say hello and chat about what I was working on. She told me that she had a friend back in England who was similarly, going out and about and looking for inspiration from nature. This friend was working on an illustration for a children's book she was writing, which I thought was very neat (especially because this is something I want to do in my future too).

I've also explored the local shops and have been happy to see how many small businesses are all around me. There is one thrift store in particular that I've stopped into many times already and it has local, Montreal-made clothing items. I am just so overjoyed to see people doing their craft passionately and getting recognition for it.

Even now, I'm writing this blog post while in my local library and I notice a small craft station for kids to complete as they browse the bookshelves. There are little supplies and pencil crayons with pages out for them to try at their own leisure. Again, all these things make me feel right at home, despite only moving to this neighbourhood very recently.

Final remarks

I'm slowly finding my groove in this new city and am thankful for the inspiration that has seemingly followed me to this new place.

Also, as I write this now, I have just hit 800 followers on my Instagram page – it's crazy to me that people are interested in what I have to say. I'm incredibly grateful to have multiple platforms to share my thoughts with you and connect at a deeper level.

I hope you can find some groundedness today and appreciate your own creativity. Wishing all of you a great September day 🍂

xx Jade