diana pressey

When I was little, I used to fill up sketchbooks with asymmetrical drawings. I think I even had pastels. I stopped in middle school, when academics started taking up more of my time, creativity, and energy.

Last year, I took it back up again. Lately, I have been painting whenever I get stressed out and overwhelmed, which is to say that lately, I have been painting A LOT.

This does not mean that every so often, I’ve been producing high-quality paintings with actual technique and skill behind them. Usually, it’s more an accumulation of generalized anxiety about the future and existential weltschmerz—which I basically get every time I read the news—that bursts out of me in hour-long frenzies over the weekend. This results in pages filled with vivid colors and blobs.

Here are a few examples:

I rediscovered painting with friends last year, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most important things I will take away with me from college aside from my education, friendships, and work experiences. The act of creating enables me to find my balance and force my brain to shut up (which, as you can imagine, is no easy task).

This makes a lot of sense; art has demonstrable therapeutic effects. It can improve people’s ability to live in the moment and deal with their emotions more effectively through self-expression. And in some cases, it can even lead people to modify their behavior.

Free-flowing art helps me let loose some of my wild, frantic creativity–the kind that lacks strategy and is not at all client-friendly. I make sure not to place any expectations on my painting, because I always defy them. I’ve learned that the art doesn’t have to be pretty for me to like it. It’s when I worry about how it’ll look that I screw up and make things I don’t enjoy. The lack of standards makes painting a nice escape from all the other pressures in life.

The stress-relief benefits of art are undeniable; one study found that 45 minutes of creative activity effectively reduced participants’ blood levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. This applied regardless of skill or talent. It doesn’t matter if you’re not any good; it can make you feel better and distracts you from anything that’s worrying you.

I’ve tried to modify my mindset around this so that instead of looking at every page I paint as an opportunity to criticize, it’s an opportunity to develop further. Imperfections and mistakes are just growth opportunities. That’s a lesson that will always apply in every area of life.

It’s nice to work on something at which I don’t feel as competent with no stakes. I set so much pressure on myself at work and school. Sometimes, I need to step away from that and re-evaluate how I treat myself and my work.

When I paint, I set no expectations for myself. There are no constraints or requirements, so this is the perfect way for me to let my imagination and ideas run wild. I believe that as a result of this, I’m more likely to be focused, on-task, and clear-headed in work situations. It’s the ideal balance.