Carving Out Time For Art

12/31/20254 min read

December is the month we get to sum up the year. We get to decide what to leave behind and what to bring with us to the next year. The year of 2025 did not go as intended.

Our intercontinental move did not make it easy to keep up my creative act. Despite the daily challenges of settling a family of five in a new country, I did make an effort to find the time to do it. I talked about the Whys behind that choice in my previous post. This month I want to talk more about the Hows.

How did I carve out time for creativity? How did I block the exterior noise filled with online distractions to find the time to paint? How did I stay away from the social media feeds even when my business relied on it?

In 2025 I adopted three simple phone habits that helped me find the time to keep my creativity alive:

1) I WOKE UP WITH BREAKFAST, NOT THE SCREEN

Break the habit of waking up and looking at your phone. I stopped looking at my phone before my family had a proper breakfast and my trio was off to school with snacks and lunches in the backpacks. It seems like a little inconsequential thing to do, but it is backed by science. By doing so, we break up the addiction pattern and find ourself using it less over the course of the day. Not waking up with the phone in the morning saved me one hour that I got to spend on self-care (running and yoga).

2) I GAVE MY PHONE SOME SPACE

Consider keeping your phone out of view instead of on you. The less you see it, the less tempted you’d be to check it. This too has been backed by science. Rather than checking my phone constantly, I set specific time slots to do it and respond to messages during the day. The time I saved by keeping my phone away from me added up to an hour when I got to write.

3) I SEARCHED, NOT SCROLLED

I had often found myself going online to check one thing and then an hour later I kept scrolling having forgotten what I came to find there in the first place. Instead, I learned this year to seek information that I needed instead of letting it find me. 'Be a hunter, not the hunted' kind of strategy. I searched for what I needed instead of letting the social media feed me what I didn’t. That hour of not scrolling was one hour I got to paint.

As a result, carving out one hour daily to create has added up to a decent creative output this year comprising:

Studio Florida portfolio - a dozen of artworks painted on cotton, many of which resonated with art collectors and found new homes in the US (January-May 2025). The remaining paintings will be joining me in Italy in 2026 and will be available to purchase/collect as well.
Studio Liguria portfolio - my first series of paintings on jute, centered around quiet simplicity and sustainability, is a result of the last six month of work in Italy - slowing down, noticing, seeing, recording, collecting, playing, experimenting, and finally making the marks (July-December 2025). Selected paintings will be available for purchase in the next months (see my Instagram updates).
ArtFull Newsletter - a collection of essays documenting my painting practice, the first anniversary of which I celebrated this month. I willed myself to find the time to write it first in December 2024 and have enjoyed the habit of doing it ever since.
ArtFull Postcards Giveaway - a selection of unique postcard-size originals ($75 value) given away as gifts to three lucky winners in France and the US. Hosted on Instagram as a celebration of my ArtFull Newsletter anniversary, the idea behind it was to introduce the idea of original art being affordable for everyone and mailed directly to art collector’s post boxes just as it used to be when I was growing up.

So, yes, all the above efforts to carve out time for creativity are paying off and I’m pleased with the quality and the quantity of the creative work I’ve put out.

I’ve realized over the years that we all tell ourselves stories to get through life, to make us feel better about the life choices we make. In light of all the changes and challenges that occurred this year, my choice not to give up on creativity was key. Embracing it so that I stay strong, keep calm, create something that didn’t exist before and share it with the world was the choice I made and the story I told myself.

Well, it looks like my story as a painter keeps writing itself and that’s what I would like to bring with me to the next year.

Thank you for staying curious about my work. New ideas are already percolating for 2026. New projects are being formulated. I can’t wait to share all of it with you.

From Italy with love,

Anya

Sign up below to receive my ArtFull Newsletter via email.

ArtFull Newsletter is a human-written monthly publication by Anya Baboyedova filled with art, creative inspiration, personal notes, studio updates and new work announcements.