WHAT is Creative Alchemy?
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What is Creative Alchemy?
When people ask me what does the title of Creative Alchemist mean, I smile. It’s not a job title you’d likely find on LinkedIn, yet one that I feel most accurately describes me as an artist. At its heart, creative alchemy is the transformation of the raw human experience expressed through a medium. It’s the space where we turn our pain into poetry.
Referencing the ancient alchemists who sought to turn lead into gold, I believe creatives are here to take grief and turn it into growth. This process is not about bypassing the pain, but moving through the emotions through brushstrokes, words, dance, song, and symbols. It’s allowing the creativity to reshape what sits inside us and transform it into something meaningful and healing.
Cosmic Wanderlust
Cosmic Wanderlust (192 pages) personifies the dual natures which exist within us all. The debate between the darkness and the light is explored through black and white pages, illustrations, philosophical poetry and existential musings. Through universal subjects and themes, this book addresses the important questions in life such as mindfulness, suffering and healing, and begs the reader to answer these questions for themselves.
An excerpt from Cosmic Wanderlust.
Art has been a way of life for me. A way of being. A lifeline. I would not have survived the traumas of this world if I weren’t allowed to use them to express myself. Cosmic Wanderlust is a philosophical book of illustrated poetry and musings between the light and dark within us all. It’s based on the depression and anxiety I battled with in my teenage and young adult years and how mindfulness helped heal parts of me. Magikats! is a magical girl adventure graphic novel series about friendship born out of the loss of my childhood pets. Within the colorful pages of this fantasy adventure, I am able to preserve the bonds I so deeply cherish. When I learned my pain was for me to use, I was able to channel it into some of my most magical creations and breathe once again.
When I draw, write, design, sing, or dance, I’m not only making something for others to witness: I’m making something to be felt and shared. Every line, every word, every stroke, carries a fragment of my experience: the reminder that beauty can be born from struggle and often is. Where do we turn to when we carry grief? We find our salve in creativity. We turn to the artists, the poets, the dancers, the singers to help us understand a part of ourself and put form to the formless. When there are no words for the inner wounds we carry, we find reprieve in the language of the soul through creativity.
Creative alchemy is both personal and universal. It’s the gentle reminder that we all have the ability to create not just on paper, but in our lives. We can take our hardships and re-imagine them into lessons, stories, or symbols that guide us forward. Instead of carrying the heavy weight of our emotions, we can make the intentional decision to set them free through the act of creation.
I often imagine being human as starting out like a slab of marble. We are whole, unshaped, and full of potential. Life, with all its joys and sorrows, becomes the sculptor. Each loss, each heartbreak, each challenge leaves its mark, chiseling away at the surface of who we thought we were to reveal the truth of who we are. Over time, these cuts reveal form, depth, and definition. Creative alchemy is the practice of engaging with that sculpting process intentionally by taking the raw edges of pain and guiding them into expression. Instead of being destroyed by the blows, we use them to reveal the art within, transforming our wounds into wisdom, our scars into stories, and our heaviness into something that inspires and heals both ourselves and others.
So, what is creative alchemy? It’s the courage to sit with your pain, the willingness to shape it, and the faith to share it in a way that sparks a connection with someone else’s heart. Your pain is yours to use so use it.