creative tag Archives - Page 9 of 20 - Tiffany Joy

Tiff’s Tips: Decide If You Are A Hobbyist or Artist

by tiffanyTiff's Tips March 3, 2020June 4, 2020No Comments

In my mind creative people can fall into 2 camps; the hobbyist and the artist.

The Hobbyist

The Hobbyist is creative for the joy and pleasure of being creative. Their idea of success is just having time to be creative and enjoying it.

Being creative to them is either relaxing or simply a fun time. They do not need anything else out of their art or creativity. The hobbyist is someone who will have another job and is simply being creative because it is their hobby.

It is a simple and pure reason to create art of any type.

The Artist

The Artist is a person who wants a career focused around being creative. Art is more than a hobby to them. It is a passion that they can’t get enough of.

Yes, they enjoy creating and art most likely started as a hobby for them too. It has since grown and changed into something they want to do more of.

Where I fall

I fall into the artist camp. I started as a hobbyist. For most of my life I wrote because it was just something I enjoyed doing. I started to draw and doodle, because it was fun.

The issue I started to face was that I wanted to write more and do more with my visual art too. I never feel like I have enough time to do everything I want to do with my creative career.

I started to make life changes to help me make more time for my creativity. First it was small things, like making sure I had Saturdays to be creative and setting goals for my creativity. Then the changes became bigger, like leaving my office job and the commute, so that I had more time and less mental drain.

Another change I made in order to fall more into the artist camp was that I simply started to refer to my creativity as my art business and my creative career. I switched my brain into realizing and accepting this is the path I’m on.

Whether you chose to be a hobbyist or artist both are valid and can be successful. Just like life your art and creativity is yours. Only you can decide how much time, effort, and emotions you put into.

If you are hobbyist that does not mean you are less passionate about your creativity. It simply means you have decided to keep it as a hobby instead of a career.

This is part of Tiff’s Tips a blog series. I have also done a goal setting video series on YouTube.

Tiff’s Tips: Define Success for yourself

by tiffanyTiff's Tips February 18, 2020June 4, 2020No Comments

Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. It is the attainment of popularity or profit. Success is based on achievements and accomplishments. What you aim for and strive to accomplish will be unique to who you are.

You need to define what a successful life looks like to you. Who do you want to be? How do you want your life and art to look? What accomplishments and achievements mean most to you?

No one can define success for your life, except for you. A successful life for me will look very different than your successful life. We are all unique with different passions, personalities, and life styles.

Let Me Share My Definition

In my life success is defined as living a life I’m proud of, where I am allowed to be fully me. This definition will allow me to grow, but also allow contentment as I grow.

I live a successful life by keeping a journal for self-exploration, so that I can keep in touch with who I am at my core.

One reason why I pray and read the Bible daily is so that I can learn more about my spirit/ soul and grow closer to God who made.

Living a successful life for me also means being creative often and sharing my creativity with others.

Notice, I have defined a successful life with things that I can control. I can decide to journal or not. I can focus on building healthy habits or I can ignore those habits. It is up to me.

I learned through goal setting and striving to be a better version of my self that the focus has to be with you. You cannot focus on the achievements, but that what you do to get to the achievements.

This means that it if you want to get to point B, don’t focus on point B. Focus on walking to point B and the steps. You’ll get there, but if you focus on the end goal and achievement it becomes easier and easier to see that you’re not at point B. This is especially true if point B is far far away.

Focus on your habits and what you can control and you’ll get to your successful life.

This is part of Tiff’s Tips a blog series. I have also done a goal setting video series on YouTube.

The Road (A Poem)

by tiffanyPoetry February 12, 2020June 4, 2020No Comments

The road is long.
The path is hard,
and I keep thinking
I haven't gone far yet.

Maybe I'm good,
but need to be great.
Perhaps I'm struggling in vain
and being an artist is not my fate.

I could run.
I could hide,
but then there'd be
a deadly gnawing inside.

So I'll stay my course
and walk my path.
Perhaps one day I'll look back,
see my struggles, and laugh.

I do have more poetry in the poetry section of my site and poetry readings on YouTube.

Introduction: Love Nerd

by tiffanyLove Nerd February 4, 2020January 21, 2020No Comments

I am a Christian, a sister, and a friend. I’m an avid learner and artist. Also, I am a huge fan of love and a romantic. You can say I am a love nerd. Oh and another thing you should know is that I am single.

Being single is an identifier in my life’s current stage. It is also my blessing and my struggle. It is my freedom and my curse. Singleness has caused me to cry and caused me to dance with joy. Yeah, it’s a bit of an oxymoron, but both sides are true.

Being single has even taught me a lesson or two. It has showed me who I am and given me confidence in being the person I am made to be.

I am grateful that this is the struggle I’ve been given and the life issue that is closest to my life. My health, job situation, or family relations could be a lot worst. I could have actual real struggles, but I don’t.

Of course sometimes not having a partner feels like the end of the world and worst thing possible. During those dark moments I imagine bargaining away my health, a limb, or one of my senses, just to have a partner in life.

If you have been single for any major length of time you know the yearning for a partner comes in waves. Like any emotional thing in life relationships or lack there of are emotional roller coasters. As for right now I’m at the part of the roller coaster where I am at peace with the pain of being alone. It’s not that I’m numb to the loneliness. I’m just use to it.

My Singleness

I have been single for 10 years now. I have only kissed 1 guy in those 10 years and that was about 8 years ago. You can trust me when I say I know the single life.

I am truly chronically single. That does not mean I do not love or that I have not learned lessons about love. It is at the center of everything that is important to me. I just haven’t personally experienced romantic love in a very long time.

I also love learning about love and sharing my thoughts on love.

What are the different definitions of love? What comes first the action of love or the feelings of love? What does it truly mean to love?

I hope to answer these questions and more in this series. I also will share my journey to accepting my life stage with you and how I became a love nerd.

Want to learn or read more?

This blog series stems from my book “To Love” which I until February 13,2020 I have a kickstarter for. I will also be posting more in this series on the Love Nerd page of this site.

Kickstarter for To Love

by tiffanyTo Love Updates January 23, 2020January 29, 2020No Comments

I have been working on my book “To Love” for over 3 years. My book is in the end stages of being ready to be published, which is very exciting for me. I am realizing I need to fully focus so that the world can get a chance to read it. That is why I decided to create a Kickstarter for “To Love.“

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that allows creative folk an opportunity to raise funds to get their projects produced. There are many different projects being funded with Kickstarter.

How it works is that first a creative person launches a project on the site and sets up rewards. Some rewards are pre-ordering the finished product, while other rewards are special bundles, especially for the Kickstarter bundles.

Once the project is live friends, family, fans, and other people can find the project and back it. You can either back it without a reward or you can pick from the reward tier that best suits you. Then as a backer, you pledge that amount.

Once enough people pledge enough money the project gets funded, then all those who pledged will get charged. That is when the creative person will get to work putting together the reward packages and finishing the project.

If the project doesn’t get fully funded no one is charged and the creative person can’t produce the product. In my case, I would have to slow down on finishing editing, pause on the visual artwork, and not do as much promotional work right now. Without the Kickstarter project for “To Love” succeeding I won’t be able to as much as I need to do in order for it to be a success.

What is “To Love?”

“To Love” is my memoir about my views and relationship with love and how it has changed over my life. It is formatted as a long love letter to my future husband. “To Love” also has my creative writings mixed in as examples of my views towards love.

It is truly an outpouring of love that I hope to one day give to my future husband, whoever he may be. And what does the world need more of in today’s society than the outpouring of love and joy? I hope each person who reads this book will feel connected to it or me and feel the love I have for all.

Here is a YouTube Playlist telling you a little more about “To Love”

Depart Oh Darkness (A Poem)

by tiffanyPoetry January 15, 2020June 4, 2020No Comments

Depart oh darkness.
You are not welcomed here.
Storm I will not surrender to thee.
You can let me be.

I am not a flower.
I am a tree.
Though you may try
I will not bend, break, or die.
 
I am here to stay,
so depart oh darkness.
You are not welcomed here.
Storm I will not surrender to thee.
You can let me be.

I do have more poetry in the poetry section of my site and poetry readings on YouTube.

Tiff’s Tips

by tiffanyTiff's Tips January 7, 2020January 3, 2020No Comments

We all know things other do not. It’s a fact of living. You’re not going to have the same knowledge base or experiences as someone else. No matter where you are on your journey you can help other people. I have been on my creative journey for a few years now and I have been learning things every step of the way. That is why I’m sharing things I know with this blog series, Tiff’s Tips.

My experiences and my life have taught me things that you may not know. What I have to say may help someone just by the facts I share, or who I am may explain it in a different way, with a different light that makes the tip click into their mind.

Yes, some of these things may seem common place or obvious to you, but others may not realize or know those tips.

I hope you enjoy this series and I hope you learn from it. Please allow it to help your mind grow and your thinking to shift, so that you can achieve your goals. Hopefully by the end you will see your art and goals in a new light.

I will leave you now with the first ten tips of this series. In the coming months I will explain and expand on each of them.

Define Success for yourself
Decide If You Are A Hobbyist or Artist
Have an Ideal Life
Start where you are
Assess and Have Goals
Do Not Give Up
Have Creative Friends
Try Different Things
Do Not Be Afraid To Change
Regularly Reflect On Your Journey

Side note: I did do a video project about goals years ago. Check out the playlist if you’re interested.

Ending note

This is part of Tiff’s Tips a blog series. I have also done a goal setting video series on YouTube.

Without You (A Poem)

by tiffanyPoetry December 5, 2019June 4, 2020No Comments

A tiger can be caged.
A bird can live without flight,
and I can live without you.

He can hold his breath.
She can close her eyes,
and I can live without you.

Life will go on.
I will see the storms and sunshine,
and I can live without you.

But something inside longs to thrive.
Something inside longs to be free
and can only be when I live with you.

This was written on August 1, 2019.

I do have more poetry in the poetry section of my site and poetry readings on YouTube.

Poetry Readings

by tiffanyPoetry, recorded November 26, 2019November 5, 2019No Comments

I, Tiffany Joy, have started a new YouTube project. You must all be absolutely shocked! I do always feel like I’m starting new projects. This one is part of my efforts to promote what I’ve already written, by recording readings of my work. I’ve started by recording my poetry readings.

Most of the poems are from my book Growing Poems. I am starting to mix in my newer poetry that I published here.

I figured that I would share my favorites with those who either have stumbled on my site or frequent it more that Youtube. I’ll also be sharing this on my social media accounts, so I guess the post will just be spreading the word more.

Now onto the Poetry Readings

The first is one of my newer poems, but the first reading. It is called, “To Those Who Struggle.” For personal reasons, I needed to share this first. After all I always meant to have it as a reading.

Poems and Memories is a poem I wrote right after I realized what I was going to be calling my first poetry book. It reflects the idea of poems growing and being part of me.

Lady Isabella is again from my poetry book and is about my dog. I wrote it as her life was ending and it has always been a hard one for me to read. However, I do love it.

The last poem is Power. It is also from my poetry book. It is a 3 stanza poem that I wrote in college about a relationship.

There is a complete playlist of all my poetry readings, including older ones, on YouTube.

Note: This is the entire playlist.

I hope you enjoyed my poetry readings, as much as I enjoyed making them. Feel free to give me any feedback you have. All is welcomed.

Slow Down Sunshine (A Poem)

by tiffanyPoetry November 13, 2019June 4, 2020No Comments

She said slow down sunshine
you have all your life to live.
Slow down sunshine
you have all your love to give,
so slow down sunshine
let your mind be inactive.
Simply slow down sunshine.

This is a journey not a race,
there is no medal to win;
no champion to face.
You can do all you want
in time you will see.
Enjoy what you have now
before it becomes a memory.
All you need to do is slow down.

She said slow down sunshine
you have all your life to live.
Slow down sunshine
you have all your love to give,
so slow down sunshine
let your mind be inactive.

This is another poem that started it’s journey as a song.

I do have more poems on my site and poetry readings on YouTube.