After nearly three and a half years working full-time for a fast-paced company, focusing mainly on workwear and graphic design, it is strange to suddenly have the freedom to explore my creative passion and purpose again. It feels almost as if I have been up in a spaceship these last few years, and just recently got back to Earth again - only that Earth looks a little different and spins a little faster now compared to before I got hurdled into space.

The technological development is going so so fast these days, with the ever-growing presence of AI in the creative field. Just barely two years ago, me and my team were searching “manually” for the perfect stock images, and spent hours on blending the edges and adjusting the colours and lighting to match each other correctly - and I would on top of that do research and composition for all of the written content myself. Today, the new team has automatisations doing most of the thinking and writing for them - and any visual elements can be added almost seamlessly into anywhere you want in an image just by the click of a button.

I remember the moment where I felt like I had passed that dreaded barrier from young and curious to old and defensive, hearing myself uttering set-in-my-way phrases such as: “Oh, but I will still continue doing *insert specialty* manually the way I always have. Someone has got to feed the machine that feeds the AI.”

Nowadays, I try to catch myself whenever I think or say something that sets myself against efficiency and progress, and instead take a step back to analyse, with an open mind, what the risks and benefits are, and how to apply myself and my skillsets to any new development. I will still hold onto a healthy little amount of granny-style stubbornness, however, so all the texts on this website, for example, are typed out by me - letter by letter, with their little kinks and flaws and all - keeping my writer-muscle strong and the experience of this online corner as authentic as it can be.

Photo: The office/dining corner of my tiny Copenhagen-outskirts apartment, where I spend most of my morning hours these days, accompanied by an ancient iMac from 2011.

Over these past few weeks, with much time for self-reflection and a much-needed mental reset, I also learnt that I have luckily not grown tired of drawing yet - which I was very convinced that I had not so long ago. It is sadly oftentimes the case, for creative spirits, when being too busy pouring into external projects. When I was asked a while ago about why I had stopped drawing, I jokingly answered that it’s probably because I don’t carry enough emotional misery to enjoy making art anymore - that I had somehow become too happy and fulfilled in my everyday life to enjoy the solace and solitude of drawing. Truthfully, my mind was too occupied with worrying about how to meet this and that deadline, for these and those projects - so just creating for the sake of creating became the last thing on my mind. One can therefore imagine how happy and relieved I am to rediscover that I still love looking at art and making art, and working with colours and layouts and whimsy details - and I intend to take it at least one step further, along with other new hobbies I have picked up, during this period of relative stillness.

I also downloaded the Shuffles app not so long ago, to put together visual wishlists and collages whenever I am bored and on the road. I love how the app feels really casual and playful, similarly to when we used to do magazine cutouts for moodboards in art school, or when scrapbooking and die-cut collections was still a big thing. The collage-aesthetic, tacky as it can be, allows for creativity without the pressure of perfection - which is just what one needs in order to decompress.

With my partner additionally spending extra much time away for work this month, I seized the opportunity to do a couple of quirky portrait exercises, based on the few photos I have of him. Shhh, don’t tell that camera-shy creature I did so. Maybe there is some truth to the previous statement after all, about misery being the best source for one’s creativity, with the sudden lack of daily companionship - except for my two house-plants, Herman and Miguel - generating a decent amount of loneliness to fuel my urge to start drawing again.

I do have a habit of drawing my close friends and loved ones, which I get reminded of whenever any of my childhood friends are doing a big cleanup, and stumble upon some really old drawings I’ve made for them in the past. It is equal parts touching, amusing and cringe-inducing every time they send me their excited “look what I found”-messages. Hopefully, in three years or more, I can look back on the things I have posted here today with a huge feeling of cringe - which I have learnt to see as a positive sign, as it is basically means that I have developed beyond where I used to be. This applies to most other areas in life as well.

If you can look back on your past and think “what the heck was that”,
it probably means that you are on the right path for self-development.

Anyways, this post is getting a little longer and more chaotic than planned, which is apparently also very typical of me, so I will stop myself here. I am looking forward to log and share some more little thoughts and news from my everyday creative life in here - aiming to post bi-weekly or more - and you are welcome to read along anytime.

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Lots of love,
Marianne

Rediscovering one’s passions.