Time Machine
Your Monday Art / Life Prompt
Happy Monday,
Do you feel carried away by time? Where has it gone? What are you doing now? What did you used to do, and why? Today’s Monday Artist Prompt invites you to spiral back the clock for creative investigation, and possibly a resurrection.
11/24/2025
time machine
Has your creative practice evolved over time?
How can you tell?
More specifically, has time birthed new ideas that have whisked you away from a prior idea not fully tapped that may currently hold some dormant magic for you to rediscover?
I suggest for you to do some digging.
Locate a project, an idea, a style, a technique, a process, a format, a concept, a something that you used to do or make that you don’t any more, but you don’t really know why you stopped.
Not everything is like this, some projects have a coordinated, intentional end point. I am referencing instead the projects or ideas that you might not realize until now still contain lots of potential for continued expansion. Maybe you just got side-tracked!
Investigate what side-tracked you, and see if any inspiration arises to tap back into that former concept.
How to dig through your creative time capsule:
Visual Receipt Catalog. Also known as: your phone’s photo library. Scroll through years back until you find something that makes you go “oooh, I remember that!”
Visual Receipt Catalog Deluxe: Do you have a website for your art? View older documented projects in the same way.
Your actual memory… Is there something you were making before that you really enjoyed but stopped doing, possibly unintentionally?
Your physical archive. Physically dig around and unearth an old sketchbook or some work that you made in the past. Listen and see if any of it speaks or asks (begs?) for more.
Is anything coming to the forefront?
For me, early in my painting practice, I created a large ongoing series of tiny 4x5 inch paintings I titled “Peace Offerings”. This practice brought me so much joy and purpose. And for some reason, I stopped making them. I didn’t do this intentionally. But I think, according to my Visual Receipt Catalog, when I had a bigger studio space for a couple of years, I started experimenting with larger pieces, and the peace offerings tapered out of practice.
I unearthed a Peace Offering the other day and remembered why I loved them. Making these felt like a devotional practice, and something I could easily be regular at. Since they were small, they were approachable often. I could tap into my practice any time without being overwhelmed.
What can you unearth? Is anything calling you back in?
I’d love to hear about something you worked on years ago that you’d like to bring back into your life and practice:
We often move so fast we might move onto the next thing without fully realizing a previous idea. I wonder if rekindling a relationship with something inactive from the past could spark a renewed connection to a part of yourself in the present, through making and revisiting, or even incorporating a past technique into your current work.