Outsmarting the Artist Brain 🧠✨

It is important to carve out space for art.

It is also quite challenging. 😅

Sometimes creating that space means sending random emails and making slightly unhinged phone calls to fellow artists, asking them to make something, brave an art show, paint something public, or commit to a creative idea before they have enough time to talk themselves out of it. 🎨📞💥

And then, of course, I have to do the same thing to myself.

As an artist, a creative, or really just a person trying to make something exist in the world—have you ever had to outsmart yourself into doing the thing? 👀

Because I have.

I’ve discovered that my most productive creative time—and by "productive," I mean the actual output phase—usually happens when there is a deadline attached. A show. An event. A date on the calendar. Something with a timestamp that says:

⏰ Welp. You said you were doing this. Better make some art.

Once I commit, the question becomes how I am going to show up.

And showing up publicly is HARD. 🫣

That is when the opinions I imagine other people having arrive. The self-doubt. The self-judgment. The internal battle that sounds something like:

WHAT HAVE I DONE?! 😱

WHY WOULD I DO SUCH A THING?!

MY IMAGINATION! MY VISION! IT IS NOT WORTHY OF BEING SEEN!

Everyone else’s is, obviously.

Just not mine. 🙃

Very reasonable artist-brain behavior.

So, when one of my employers came to me with the idea of covering the picnic tables surrounding a community-, music-, and art-driven brewery with work from local artists—and asked me to cultivate the project—I couldn't say no.

Apparently, it was time to outsmart myself again. 🧠⚡

And, while I was at it, drag a few fellow artists into some good old-fashioned creative duress with me. 😈🎨

Thus...

✨ THE BONSAI ART TABLES WERE BORN. ✨

Now, if you visit Bonsai Brewing in Whitefish, Montana, you’ll find picnic tables covered in the imaginations of seven different artists who rallied together and painted their tables in just 24 hours. 🎨🍻🌲

Twenty-four hours! ⏳😳

There is something fascinating about making art under that kind of pressure.

So much of the art we experience comes from years of teasing out nuances—changing ideas, images, thoughts, shades, hues—until eventually something cohesive emerges. 🌈

Some artists have honed a more methodical approach, but even then, I think the work is still a culmination of everything they have experienced. Sometimes creativity leaks out rapidly. ⚡

Other times, you have to squeeze it.

And then squeeze it again.

And then stare at it for three hours wondering if you've ruined everything. 🫠

One of my favorite parts of this project, though, had very little to do with the finished tables.

It was bringing artists together. 🎨

It was inviting people into the Bonsai beer garden, handing them a table, and watching them take up space as artists.

Because simply by being there and making something in public, they were saying:

✨ I AM AN ARTIST. ✨

And that is no small thing.

So, next time you find yourself in Whitefish, Montana, swing by Bonsai Brewing, grab a beer, wander around the beer garden, and check out the tables created by: 🍺🌲🎨

Caspian Ashby
Jason Lawyer
Khalila Friedman
Kat Thompson
Sara Gould
Lorinda Smith
and yours truly 👩🏼‍🎤

And now...

Speaking of creative duress... 👀

🧑🏼‍🎤🚨 HERE IS YOUR DEADLINE. 🚨👩🏼‍🎤

The window to submit ideas for the 2026 Raskol Hoodie Design is closing at the end of July! 🧵✨🎨

If you're already part of the Hoodie Club, send me your ideas! What should make its way onto this year's wearable canvas? What images, creatures, stories, symbols, weird little thoughts, or creative sparks have been following you around lately? 🦁🌿🌙🪲✨

Not in the Hoodie Club but still want to throw your creative ideas into the mix?

Or gift someone a year-long membership and pull them into the creative chaos with us. 🎁😈

So many options. It is…very easy. True story.

✨ Spark your creativity.
🎨 Support an artist.
🧵 Contribute to the next piece of wearable Raskol art.
🔥 Or simply prepare yourself for a rad hoodie.

Either way, I’m glad you’re here. 🖤

Now go make something before your brain talks you out of it. 🎨⚡🧠