Using Art and Creativity to Cope

What’s your superpower for slaying stress? Here, Red Skies staffers Krystal Yin, Regan Doyle, and Samantha Flaherty share some artful methods for staying calm and enjoying life.

Krystal Yin

Since I was eight years old, I've been learning the Chinese Violin and calligraphy. They are excellent teachers and friends to me. I used to practice a piece of music several times a day, both when I first started studying it and afterwards when I had a better understanding of it. I realize that I must practice many times before I can comprehend the music, and I also understand that I must practice in other aspects of my life to gain a variety of skills and knowledge. Everything is an accumulation process.

Learning the Chinese Violin and calligraphy assured me that if I took one step at a time, I would arrive at my destination. When I'm feeling irritable, I'll listen to music of the Chinese Violin. Any grief or frustration I experience will pass quickly. I can unwind and relax. Because mastering the Chinese Violin and calligraphy takes time, my personality has gradually become calmer and steadier as a result. When confronted with a difficult situation, I no longer panic; instead, I quietly think out a solution. They are a spiritual home for me, and act as a beautiful ray of sunshine on my life's path.

Regan Doyle

Whether I am stuck with an idea for a story or am bored of lockdown, art has been a tool that I have come to rely on. I’ll find myself doodling random ideas that pop into my head. Some of them make no sense, and others are for when I want to draw something but lack the imagination. I have currently been fixated on this image of ghosts acting as humans. Imagining, if ghosts weren’t previously people and instead were just these entities that existed and lacked human knowledge, how would they function?

This gave way to a ghost named Jerry, who is part of a larger project on which I am working. He steals a boot from his ghost friend, and by not understanding how it works (as he has a lack of feet), places it on his head. “A sunflower?” Jerry has heard that people often enjoy the seeds and such, so, “might as well try it.” Upon being a ghost, how is he to know that you’re not supposed to eat the whole flower? He also created a sock puppet. Perhaps they could teach him how to be human. Not only did Jerry lead me to create another ghost scene, but he provided me hours of relaxation. I could be focused for one minute and the next thing I knew, an hour had gone by.

Samantha Flaherty

Tense shoulders. Pulsing temples. Whirling thoughts. I think, “I have got to loosen up.”

Without fail, different forms of creativity have been there for me to fall back on. One method of artistry that helps me combat stress is collaging. Every time I have needed release, this act has made my anxious moments feel more manageable. With collaging, I feel an experimental freedom that allows me to express what’s going on up in the belfries of my mind--something that other arts don’t offer.

I’ll compile old magazines, patterned paper, stickers, and a whole slew of other materials to add different textures and visual balance. When playing around with these components, I’ll catch myself in this flow where everything around me just sort of melts away. I’ll no longer feel so imprisoned by my thoughts. This is my meditation. Paper crafts have also given me the space to explore myself without the mess of paint or oil pastels. I guess as much as I love both of those creative practices too, I’ll take papercuts any day.