The Beauty of Becoming

Wonderings from my experience with watercolor and trusting the cycles of life.

Lately, I’ve been using art as an outlet for inner child healing and self-expression. Last night I took a watercolor workshop at my local art studio, and working with watercolor in a new way felt like medicine for my soul. The water and pigment interacted in unpredictable ways. Soft, fluid, and surprising in the end. It reminded me of what this season of life has been teaching me: to let go, to release control, and to trust the unfolding.

Growing up, my relationship with art was complicated. My 3rd grade art teacher gave me C’s on my report cards even though I always tried my hardest and poured my heart into my work. From that moment, I decided I just wasn’t “good” at art. And yet, despite that story I carried, art always held a special place in my heart. These days, I could linger in the impressionist wing at the Musee D’Orsay for hours on end admiring Monet and Degas with deep appreciation.

Looking back, I wonder if I was trying too hard. Maybe I forced my art to be perfect or to look like someone else’s, the same way I’ve tried to shape myself in the past.

But watercolor is teaching me to loosen my grip. To let the moment be what it is. To step back, return later, and see something new has emerged. Isn’t that how life works, too?

Watercolor has been the ultimate teacher and I am fully immersed in the process of creating while becoming an artist in my own right.

Here are three lessons watercolor (and life) have been giving me lately:

1. Don’t measure your worth by someone else’s standards.
For years, I let a teacher’s grade define my creativity. But luckily no one else gets to decide what lights up your soul but YOU! For a brief moment during class, I started to compare my work to that of two other art school grads at my table, but then I stopped myself and appreciated my original piece and how it was evolving.

2. Surrender to the flow.
Watercolor (like life) is fluid. The more I release control and stop forcing the outcome, the more beauty I see emerge.

3. Let self-expression lead, not perfection.
We don’t need to have it all figured out, tied neatly with a bow. When I allow myself to create, explore, and simply be, I discover parts of myself I’d forgotten.

Like watercolor, self-expression flows best when I stop forcing it. When I trust the process, I’m often pleasantly surprised by what emerges on the other side.

And this summer has been a reminder that beauty exists on the other side of resistance.

It’s what inspired my new program, Becoming: a space to dive deep into self-expression, shadow work, and your unique Human Design. A space to live with more authenticity and alignment. To honor the endings, trust the beginnings, and flow (not force) through the cycles of your life.

I cannot wait to share more with you soon.

Thanks for being here.

XOXO,
Ashley