Many adults were never told to stop making art.

They were told to be realistic, to choose stability, and to put creativity on the side.

In this first episode of Create Anyways series, we're going to talk about the quiet desire to to create that never fully disappears, even after careers, families and responsibilities take over.

Foreign.

Hey there.

This is Timothy Keem o', Brien, your head instigator for Create Art podcast, where I use my over 30 years of experience in the arts and education world to help you tame your inner critic and create more than you consume.

So I've started a new series.

It's called Create Anyway, you're allowed to make art.

Kind of crazy, I know, but here's the thing.

If you've ever felt like there's something more you want from life, not more success or productivity, but more meaning, then this episode is going to be for you.

This series is for people who chose responsibility and still want something more.

And today, to start with something simple, you weren't wrong for wanting more.

Now, a lot of people think they stopped wanting to make art, but most of the time they didn't.

They just.

They got busy.

Careers happen, families happen, expectations piled up, and slowly art became something that you'd get back to later.

And the problem is, later doesn't arrive the way we think it will.

What does arrive is this quiet feeling, a restlessness, a sense that something essential has been set aside.

Now, if that's you, I want to be very clear.

Wanting to make art doesn't mean you're ungrateful for everything that's going on in your life.

It doesn't mean you're irresponsible, and it doesn't mean you fail to grow up.

You know, most of us were taught, either directly or indirectly, that art was fine as long as it stayed small, as long as it didn't interfere with real life.

So you did the practical thing, and now, years later, the wanting has come back.

And it's not because you're lost, but because you're stable enough to listen.

You're not starting over.

You're starting with experience, with taste, with emotional depth.

And this series isn't here to tell you to quit your job.

It's here to give you permission.

Permission to create quietly.

Permission to make imperfect work.

Permission to let art exist without explaining itself.

You weren't wrong to want this, and you're allowed to create anyway.

So let's just start off with this first segment here, and I want to call it the Want that Never Left.

You know how art doesn't disappear, but it goes quiet.

I can't tell you the amount of times, the amount of years that I haven't written poetry or I haven't painted a picture or I haven't done something artistic.

Life happens.

I'm the dad of twin.

Well, at the time of the recording, they're 11.

Right now I work full time job.

I've got responsibilities and sometimes I didn't have time for art and sometimes I still don't have time for art.

But that doesn't mean that it hasn't gone away from me.

Okay?

It just goes quiet sometimes and that's okay.

We have to be okay with the fact that it may go quiet.

We may have other responsibilities, other priorities that we need to bring to the front.

But that art, that special feeling that we get when we create art is in there and it's waiting to come out.

You know, we can have the busiest life.

And it doesn't erase that desire to create something.

It's still there.

You find different ways to utilize it.

Sometimes you utilize it at work, sometimes you use it a lot.

Utilize it with your family, sometimes you utilize it with your friends and with your social life.

But it's still in there.

It's still in there and it wants to come out.

And when you're ready for it to come out, let it come out.

Prioritize the time to let yourself create.

I understand.

Hey, you're talking to a guy that.

I used to work two 40 hour jobs a week.

I used to work 80 hours.

And yeah, I still wrote some poetry.

Not good stuff, not my best stuff, not stuff that I read at poetry readings anymore, but I still felt the desire to create something and I did.

And I still painted.

And with all that going on, with all the emotional baggage that I was carrying at the time, and that's what helped me get through a lot of that.

Wanting to create art does not equate to dissatisfaction with your life.

It enhances your life.

It makes life bearable, it makes life worth living.

And there's a reason why that desire is inside of you.

And it wants to come out and it wants to be expressed in whatever discipline you want to express it in.

So there's a want in you that hasn't left you.

Sometimes it waits patiently, sometimes it doesn't wait patiently.

For me, I don't know which way it's going to come out.

Sometimes when it's impatient, it just comes out as, you know, verbal vomit.

But it comes out and that's okay.

Your busy life is not going to kill your creativity.

But you may get, you know, some ideas and some inspiration from that busy life to put into your art, to reference that, to show that life can get really busy.

And that could be your inspiration for making that piece.

It could be a reaction to what's going on in your life, but that little spark that's still inside of you no matter how busy you are.

All right, so this next segment I'm going to call When Practicality Took Over.

So, you know, school, family, money, culture, whatever it is that takes over our life.

And sometimes it needs to.

Sometimes we need to take a break from the art that we want to create.

Sometimes we need to be quiet, let life happen and observe.

Because artists observe and they report on what they see.

So, you know, because, you know, let's say you're in school right now or, you know, you're like me, you've got a couple of kids, a mortgage to pay, you got a full time career, that's okay.

Sometimes you don't have the money to create the art you want to create, that's okay too.

Sometimes the culture that you're in, and I noticed this a lot when I was working for the army, for the United States army as a civilian helping folks transition from their career in the military to a civilian career.

And the culture that was in the army was very not friendly towards art.

But luckily we did have art therapy there, which helped out a lot of the soldiers in their transition.

And it's funny because I was just talking to a soldier the other day as I'm recording this here, one of my former soldiers, and he creates these wonderful wood bowls, pens, salad forks and spoons and all that kind of good stuff, stuff that, you know, I would love to do.

I just don't have the talent for it.

But he utilizes that to create his art.

He works a full time job, he's looking at getting a second career.

And at some point when he retires from his first job, go goes into this new career that he wants to go into.

And it's got nothing to do with art, but the second career in his life that he wants to start is about helping other people, helping other veterans.

And right there, that's beautiful.

That's absolutely beautiful.

And he's still creating his art, he's still going back to it.

That's the influence that I had on him.

And he called me out of the blue the other day and wanted to thank me for that.

And, you know, he had questions about starting this new career and all that stuff.

But school, family, money, culture, that's Going to get in the way.

It will, but that's not going to kill that spark inside of you.

That spark is going to stay there.

You know, sometimes we get to a point in our life or a moment in our life when artists, the extra stuff, if I've got time for it later on, these things happen.

That's okay.

But make sure that you do make that time later on.

So I'm not going to tell you, you know, after this episode, you know, make some art for me right now.

I, I, at the time of this recording, I'm part of a thing that I found online that, you know, it's 29 or 25 days of creativity, and they're on day number 12 or 13, and I haven't done a thing for it, but I'm looking at what other people are doing.

And the reason I'm, I haven't been doing is because I'm creating my own art outside of that.

And, you know, this thing that is happening, this 25 days of creativity, it's, you know, you spend 20 minutes and do all that kind of good stuff.

One thing it did inspire me to do is to get a journal that I can paint in or scribble in or draw in or stuff like that.

And, you know, just sit with and, you know, put ideas from pen to paper.

There's.

So that's one good thing that it did, that it did for me, that inspired in me.

But art sometimes is going to be that extra thing.

Sometimes that's going to be the, the ice cream at the end of the meal.

You know, it's going to be your dessert.

You can get to it once you get other things situated, but have a plan to get the things situated.

And you want to identify slowly.

You don't have to have this all figured out by the end of this episode, but identify how your art got replaced by your obligations.

And then find ways to meld that art right back in to your obligations and make that an obligation to yourself, because again, you have that spark within you.

So honor that spark.

Make it like an appointment with yourself if that's what you got to do, but make it a priority.

It will come back to you.

It's like riding a bike.

It will come back to you.

You may get back on that bike, you may be wobbly, may skin your knees again like you did when you first learned how to ride a bike, but it will come back.

So this next section is talking about, it's going to be talking about why it comes back later.

And you may be saying to yourself.

But, Tim, how do you know it comes back later?

I know because it came back later for me.

Okay.

When you have stability in other areas of your life, it'll give you room to make your art a priority, and it'll give you room to be honest with yourself about how important your art is to your life.

Okay?

We talk a lot about midlife crisis.

I'm 53 at the time of this recording, so I'm, you know, in my midlife crisis, I guess it's not a crisis, it's clarity.

I have 53 years of experience.

I have 53 years of observations, valid observations of what I've seen in the world that I want to comment on.

I can look at things that are happening today in our society, in our world, and because of my experiences, I have a valid point in how I'm interpreting it.

So art is going to wait for you until your survival mode calms down.

Okay.

Where a lot of us are in survival mode at the.

At this point because of the job, we're trying to keep the job, trying to keep the family together, you know, trying to keep our money, right?

And we get in that survival mode, and it's like.

But when we hit that midlife clarity, not crisis, but midlife clarity, art is going to wait for you because you're going to be able to add that much more depth into your art because of your experiences, because of the rough times that you went through, and you'll be able to show how you came out the other side a better person.

That art is going to be inspiring.

People are going to see that art and go, wow.

If he can get through all of that and still come out on top and still be able to do this, that's amazing.

I'm just saying give it a shot for yourself.

So in this next part, I'm going to talk to you about why you're not starting over.

This isn't a start over.

This isn't a redo in your life.

Okay?

You're not starting over.

Now.

Your skills may have gotten rusty.

And I was talking earlier about, you know, it's like riding a bike.

You're going to wobble.

You're going to skin your knees like you did when you first started.

But the learning curve is much lower than, you know, the second or the third time or the fourth time around.

You kind of know that you're going to get skinned knees.

So that's not going to scare you.

You're going to be much better for it.

The experience that you have, that's your creative fuel right there.

The experiences that I've had in 53 years of life, I have done some amazing things.

I've met some incredible people.

You know, I've been doing a podcast since 2006, and it's 2026 right now.

I've been doing a podcast for 20 years out of 53 years.

20 years out of 53.

That's almost half public school math.

I know.

Shut up.

But that experience allows me to come and talk to you about what I've done and what I've seen and what I've experienced.

Your taste, your patience, it builds that emotional depth.

When I first started listening to jazz, I would only listen to John Coltrane.

Only would listen to him.

That's it.

Didn't care about anybody else.

Hated Miles Davis.

He was a hack.

But years and years and years and allowing myself to open myself up and experience other people, other musicians, has really enriched my enjoyment of jazz.

I'm listening to things that I never would have thought of.

I'm getting excited about things that I never would have thought of.

I'm hearing things that I never would have heard before if I hadn't evolved from that one simple song that I heard from John Coltrane way back in.

What was it, 1992, which was my favorite things.

The minute I heard that song, I knew I was into jazz.

I loved it.

Absolutely loved it.

Played it a million times in a week.

And now I look back over my shoulder here, and I see literally hundreds of records from various artists.

Some of it's jazz.

Well, most of it's jazz, but some of it is other artists that I have found through jazz, other artists that have been influenced by jazz.

And I'm in a much better spot.

I'm much more educated about it.

Yes, I do still love John Coltrane.

In my heart, he is the best out there that ever was.

But now I've experienced these other people, and some of them are still alive, so I can see, you know, their evolution because it's continuing.

But if I would have just stayed with John Coltrane, I would have been stuck with that because he only has a certain amount of stuff.

He's not coming out with any new stuff because he's been dead since the 60s.

So he hasn't put out a new record since then.

So I couldn't have evolved unless I, you know, I couldn't.

If I didn't want to go past that, I wouldn't have evolved as a person that appreciates really good music.

And that built my taste, that built My patience.

Know, when we get back into art, we're not starting over from scratch.

We're bringing our experience, we're bringing our taste.

We're bringing all that emotion with us.

So you're not starting from ground zero.

You're starting from where you're at.

And that's not ground zero.

You're not a brand new day one baby, fresh out of the womb, screaming your head off, getting smacked in the butt.

You're you.

I'm 53.

I'm not a brand new baby.

I've got experience.

You have experience.

So you're not starting over from point zero.

You're starting over from where you're at.

And sometimes you're gonna have to, you know, because of life, you're gonna have to start over again and again and again and again.

And every time I've done that, my art has gotten better and better and better and better, and it's allowed me to evolve as an artist, and it'll allow you to evolve as an artist.

And I think that's something that we all want here.

I think that's why you're listening to this podcast.

So this section I'm calling permission, not pressure.

Now, when you're starting over, there's no monetization requirement.

You can start over anytime.

Maybe it's just for you.

Maybe nobody sees your art.

Maybe it's just friends and family.

That's fine, too.

I'm not telling you.

Yeah, you got to go make art so that way you can make extra money.

Do it as a side hustle.

Talk to you about one of my former clients when I was working for the army calls me up out of the blue.

One of the questions I asked him was, I was like, well, are you selling your stuff?

And he says, no, I just do it for me.

Great.

His stuff is fantastic.

I love it.

He gives it away.

He donates it to charities.

He donates it to other veterans.

Great.

It's filling something in his life, which is wonderful.

So there's no monetization requirement for this.

You don't have to make money from it.

You don't need to.

When I got back into acrylic painting, I asked a friend if they would be my accountability partner, and they said, yeah, sure, absolutely.

And, you know, I've been showing him my artwork that I've been doing.

I've been getting critique from it, and it's been great, and it's really egged me on.

And just recently, I decided to show a bunch of friends what I've been doing, and they're like, wow, that's great.

And everybody really keyed into one of the paintings that I did.

So what am I going to do?

I'm going to make a bunch more of those in a similar style.

Not the same exact thing, but in a similar style.

And I'm going to give that to them.

I gave that painting that everybody liked.

I already gave the original to a friend.

But these other friends, I'm going to give them that painting because it's going to provide them with joy in their life.

And they all asked about it.

They're all like, hey, can I get that?

Can I get a copy of that?

I'll make you something just for you.

I'll make something similar with you in mind.

Wow, that's.

There you go.

How many friends do you have?

Can you do that for your friends?

I don't know.

What's it going to cost me to do that?

Well, you know, the supplies to do it and the shipping to do it.

Merry Christmas.

There you go.

It's not that expensive.

It's a great Christmas gift, birthday gift, what have you.

Doesn't matter.

But you're creating the art and you're impacting people, and you're getting a reaction out of it.

Done.

Enough said.

Enough said.

You don't have to share this with the public.

You can keep it to yourself.

I'm not gonna.

You know, in the past, I know I've said, hey, share it with me.

I'd love to see what you're doing.

If you don't want to share it with me, don't share it with me.

That's okay, too.

That's okay.

You know, I don't have to see it.

I mean, you may know me.

You may not know me in your.

In my personal life, and that's okay.

It's not a problem.

All I'm trying to do is try and turn on that light bulb for you and go, oh, yeah, I can do this.

Because you can.

You're out.

Or your art is allowed to exist quietly.

You don't have to, you know, be like Van Gogh, who got famous after he died.

And with, you know, and with the legend of that and all the stories that are told about that, you know, he's super famous now, but back in his time, he was not.

And, you know, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of stories out there about it, you know, so it can be quiet maybe, you know, you get famous after you die.

That's okay.

That's cool.

But at least you did Something which is more than the vast majority of the population.

The vast majority of the population are not in touch with their artistic spark.

You are.

How do I know you are?

You're listening to this podcast.

It tells me all I need to know.

You're listening to me.

I know you have the spark.

They all have the spark, too, but they don't pay attention to it.

You do.

That's the difference.

All right, well, that's all I have for you here on this episode.

Want to let you know, in the next episode, we're going to talk about the voices.

The ones that told you weren't an artist.

Should be an interesting one, I think, because you and I both know that you are an artist.

But for now, just sit with this.

The wanting was never the problem of wanting to create.

Your art was never the problem.

It was just you didn't have time.

Things got in the way, and that's okay.

That's life.

That happens.

I'm not going to be mad at you for that.

Heck no, I'm not gonna be mad at you.

I'm happy.

If you're getting back into it, that's great.

Or if you're, you know, getting back into it a little bit later on in life, cool.

Rock and roll.

That makes me happy.

Go for it.

If you got something out of this, great.

If you know somebody that's getting back into their art, give them, you know, share this episode.

Toss it on over to them.

You know, maybe they need to hear this too.

Or maybe you're doing just fine with your.

You're rocking it out.

Not a problem.

Great.

I'm pretty sure you know somebody that is having a bit of a struggle with it.

Knock it out, shoot it on over to them.

Speaking about sharing this episode, I run another podcast called Find a Podcast about.

You can find it at findapodcast about xyz.

And that's where I help my listeners over there find their next bringworthy podcast and outsmart the algorithm.

Check it out if you need a new podcast to listen to.

Also want to let you know that in 2025, in the beginning of 2025, I started my own podcast consulting business called TKB Podcast Studio.

You can take a look at my portfolio@tkbpodcaststudio.com and that's where I help my clients over there lead through the noise with quiet professionalism.

Give it a look.

See.

If you're looking to start a podcast, I'd love to help you out again.

That's all I've got for today.

I want to thank you so much for taking a lesson.

Now go out there, tame that inner critic.

Create more than you consume.

We need your art.

But go out there and make some art for somebody.

You love Yourself.

I'll talk to you next time, Sam.