Feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the fast pace of life? You're not alone. In a world that never stops moving, losing touch with creativity is easy.
To help our readers unwind and unleash their creativity, the CULTURED team tapped some of the most inspired minds we know to share how they protect their peace. From grinding away with a mortar and pestle to hiding away in hyperbaric chambers, these creatives are not just making art—they’re making time.
Larry Ossei-Mensah
The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has worked with the likes of Steve McQueen, Judy Chicago, and Catherine Opie, pushing the boundaries of contemporary art. As co-founder of ARTNOIR, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing equity for creatives of color, his current projects include "The Poetics of Dimensions" at ICA San Francisco and "The Space We Exist In" at Heather Gaudio Fine Art.
- Reconnect With Your Hands: Working with your hands in an increasingly digital world offers a tangible, grounding experience that brings you back to the present moment. Over the past year, I’ve been immersed in ceramics, and it has been transformative—slowing me down, fostering mindfulness, and serving as a powerful pathway to creativity that enriches my work as a curator.
- Cultivate Mindful Consumption: Be intentional about what you consume—media, conversations, or food. Curating these inputs ensures that your creative well is filled with meaningful inspiration.
- Spend Time in Nature: Nature has a restorative effect on the mind and sparks creative thought. Even a short walk outside can provide clarity and perspective.
- Prioritize Deep Work: Dedicate uninterrupted blocks of time to fully engage with meaningful tasks, whether reading, writing, journaling, or pursuing a creative activity. By minimizing unnecessary multitasking, you can sharpen your focus, enhance productivity, and unlock deeper levels of creativity.
- Practice Saying No: Being selective about commitments allows more energy and time for projects that align with your purpose and values.
Fanny Singer
After earning her PhD in Art History from Cambridge and penning art reviews for a multitude of publications, Singer returned to her California roots to write her culinary memoir in 2020, Always Home: A Daughter's Recipes & Stories, an exploration of growing up as the daughter of legendary chef Alice Waters. Singer also channels her artistic vision into the Permanent Collection, a design brand she founded that collaborates with craftspeople across the globe to create understated homeware pieces.
Use tools that take time. We’ve become so indoctrinated by the idea of time as a commodity—time equals money, for instance—that we’ve bought into virtually every time-saving device on the market. But sometimes connecting with the analog process of making something has value beyond the immediate task: our senses are stimulated, our cortisol levels drop, and our brains are differently activated. In other words, use a mortar and pestle to make a salad dressing every once in a while.
Kimberly Drew
From her early days at the Studio Museum in Harlem to becoming Pace Gallery's curatorial director, Drew champions Black artists through her influential social presence and publications like Black Futures (co-authored with J Wortham) and This Is What I Know About Art.
- Put your phone down for three hours a day... I dare you.
- Work from home can be done from the bathtub or bed. There's wifi there, too!
- Dance hard and often. Book solo karaoke. Let it go! Be cringe!
- Embrace a discipline in which you are not an expert and actively avoid becoming an expert. I've become a huge fan of Kyle Abraham's AIM company, if only because I have no idea how to judge dance... I just enjoy it.
- Take a f'ing vacation. Go, run, sit, rot, play, swim, and explore. The best work/life balance requires living!
Kennedy Yanko
Working at the intersection of painting and sculpture, Yanko breathes life into salvaged metal by welding, torching, and bending it to her will, then drapes it with her signature "paint skins." This spring,Yanko will exhibit her work at Salon 94 in collaboration with James Cohan.
Walking meditation is key for me—moving with intention lets my body lead, and my mind wanders, creating space for new ideas. I think creativity flourishes when you make it about play and experimentation. Forget perfection and let curiosity guide you—you never know what might happen. Give yourself exorbitant amounts of time for everything. Be obnoxious about it.
Jenny Walton
Walton has seamlessly bridged the worlds of fine art and fashion, combining her career as an artist with her current role as a vintage fashion columnist for Vogue. Her artistic practice has garnered her a suite of fellowships and residencies, while her refined eye for vintage fashion and Miu Miu-filled wishlists reach the eyes of the fashion world.
Give yourself time to be inspired. If you want to update your personal style, don’t go straight to websites or stores. Instead, watch an old movie or read a book from a time period you’ve always been curious about. Go to a museum. Reading A New Earth and The Power of Now helped me to understand that there is only ever the present moment. Realizing this helped me to slow down and not overly obsess about the future or the past. Install a landline and only use your phone as a camera. Talk to strangers. A new perspective could change everything. Never stop being curious, and always engage with people you meet.
Sho Shibuya
Shibuya is a Brooklyn-based Japanese artist best known for turning New York Times front pages into meditative paintings that feature vibrant gradients and abstract forms. What began as a personal Instagram project during the pandemic has since become his signature style, with work shown in venues like the Triennale Milano, Art Basel Miami Beach (in collaboration with Saint Laurent), and the Momu Fashion Museum.
I've been adapting to a new morning routine with a newborn. Having a newborn has changed my mornings. I used to follow a set routine—reading, exercising, and capturing the sunrise—but since my baby arrived last November, I no longer have that structure. I now read while feeding her and often start work in the late afternoon. Though it may not feel productive, I’ve adapted to this new lifestyle and truly enjoy it.
Misha Kahn
This New York-based artist, who creates wildly imaginative furniture and sculptures that blur the lines between function and fantasy, has built a career combining everything from hand-sketching to virtual reality design. Kahn's pieces have landed everywhere from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to an underwater sculpture garden in the Maldives.
Like all of us, we’re simultaneously wanting ourselves to have a Caravaggio output––some grand three-year focus on a single work… but then we get stuck on a quick turnaround pinwheel. I find the pinwheel is best serviced by coaxing myself along with the promise of treats. For the slow, elusive focus of which you speak… The only thing, if I’m really brutally honest, that works for me is to essentially pay someone else to trap me in a room with nothing in it to think clearly. So far, this is usually a hyperbaric chamber or a float tank, but in a pinch, stacking up a ton of Ikea bins to make a very small corner to hide in can kind of help.
Xin Liu
As both an artist and engineer, Liu's work explores the intersection of science and human experience, from space exploration to planetary metabolism. In her sculptures, installations, videos, and virtual-reality experiences, she creates experiments that measure everything from tears to cosmic phenomena.
Enjoy the best sleep with hot tea and custom-molded earplugs, soaking your feet in hot water for 10 minutes before bed, and taking reishi mushroom capsules (my record this month was 11 hours!). Auto reply emails during holidays. Listen to music from your teenage years, it just hits different. Call a friend out of the blue to say "hi." Stone carving and K-pop dance classes.
