Agency in Art: Finding Joy Through Everyday Creative Practice
Sometimes I like what I create, and sometimes I (absolutely) don’t. That’s just how it goes. Some days what lands on the page feels right, and other days it doesn’t.
But one thing is always true:
every single day I add something to my little book of watercolor sketches, it makes me happy. This growing collection of colorful pages fills me with a quiet joy.
It’s the feeling of having made something that didn’t exist before.
It gives me the sense that my time was spent meaningfully. Like the satisfaction of finishing a project in kindergarten, or painting something for my mom on mother’s day, as a child. The feeling it stirs in me is simple but profound: agency.
For me, agency means being able to take the feelings I carry inside and give them an outward form, instead of being stuck with them. It gives them a meaning, a place to belong. Agency reminds me that everything happening inside me is not for nothing. It has a purpose, even if I don’t always see it in the moment.
Every time I create something, no matter how small, I feel more anchored in myself.
Remembering Early Sparks
When I look back, I realize that my belief in creativity as a core part of who I am was sparked early: In kindergarten, teachers encouraged me and praised my creativity. I was even invited to join the older kids in their crafts, learning things like braiding friendship bracelets, which were considered “too complicated” for children my age.
Later, in elementary school, I was chosen for the lead role in our second-grade play.
Maybe this is why a part of me still believes so deeply in my ability to express myself creatively: because creativity was the first thing recognized and nurtured by people outside my family system. It was the first time external voices affirmed:
This is something you’re good at.
Of course, there are plenty of critical voices in me as well, always ready to push back. But today, I want to focus on that other truth: that from a very early age, there were people who believed in my potential. People who lit a flame that is still burning, all these years later.
And now, at 36, I feel it is my responsibility, and my privilege, to tend to that flame myself.
This is what painting reminds me of: not perfection, not results, but the power of agency.
Creating Your Own Ritual of Agency
I believe we all need spaces where we can feel this sense of agency, where we can take what lives inside us and give it form. Your ritual doesn’t have to look like mine. For some, it may be journaling every morning, as Julia Cameron suggests in The Artist’s Way. For others, it could be painting, sketching, or picking up an instrument daily; even if it’s just for five minutes. It could mean writing a page, or producing a tiny piece of music.
The only goal: flow. Not perfection. Not judgment. Just the steady act of showing up and letting something move through you.
Over time, these small acts accumulate. They become a visible record of your inner life: like pages in a sketchbook, or entries in a journal, or songs that only you may ever hear. They remind you that your time has been spent meaningfully, that what happens inside you matters.
Because in the end, agency is not about creating masterpieces. It’s about giving yourself permission to create at all.
