How To Keep Creating When Life Is Anything But Spacious

Make A Portable Art Studio In A Box

If you’ve been struggling to make art lately — feeling overwhelmed by too many supplies, too many decisions, or simply not enough time or space — take heart.

You’re not the only one.

Lack of time and space to create isn’t just about the physical space around us or the shape of our schedule.

We can also feel it as a lack of emotional bandwidth or even physical energy to sit down and get started.

After a while, with so many starts and stops and long stretches of inactivity in between, it’s easy to lose momentum — or to forget why we were so excited about our project in the first place.

A Portable Art Studio for Real Life

Today’s newsletter offers one of my favorite creative practice tools for navigating all of this: a small, portable studio that makes it possible to return to your art no matter what’s happening around or within you.

I filmed a video* on how I create a portable art studio in a box, but for those of you who prefer reading, I’ve outlined my setup, below.

My Last Few Months Have Looked Like This

This tool has carried me through many seasons when life — or physical space — felt anything but spacious.

Last month, for example, I moved from one place to every week: temporary rentals in France, visiting friends and family in Michigan and Chicago, and now back to France in yet another short-term rental.

December is typically full and busy for most of us with festivities, travel, and end-of-year projects. You might have guests sleeping in the room that’s normally your creative space. Even if you’re not traveling, December has a way of filling up.

So if your creative practice feels out of rhythm, it’s okay. ’Tis the season.

The Myth of the Perfect Studio

You might imagine that in order to make art, you need a in big dedicated studio with beautiful natural light and perfectly organized supplies.

If I were waiting for a space like that, I’d still be waiting! Most of us work in corners of our homes that serve multiple purposes — kitchen tables, dining rooms, spare bedrooms, or on bits of floor space.

Having the perfect space has very little to do with whether we create.

What Actually Matters: A Way In

What does matter is having a way in — a simple, reliable way to begin, especially when life feels chaotic or out of rhythm.

Your portable art studio in a box gets you set up to begin, and it’s easy to clean up and put away.

What’s Inside My Portable Art Studio

My large plastic shoe box of art supplies isn’t filled with everything I own — just the things that reliably help me start: my sketchbook, a few paints, wet wipes, a paint scraper, glue stick, scissors, collage scraps, and pens that feel good in my hand.

Why This Works (and Why It Works Anywhere)

This portable box is perfect for seasons when you want to minimize decisions and still keep your practice close at hand.

It’s ideal for travel — especially by car, when you can simply toss this shoebox of supplies in with your bags — and if you’re checking luggage, the whole kit tucks easily into a suitcase. You can also move the contents into a tote if that works better.

And if you’re moving house or living in temporary rentals, as I’ve been these past months, having only your essential supplies gathered in one place makes all the difference.

You don’t have to search for anything or decide what to bring out. Everything you need to begin is already there, waiting.

It’s simple and portable — which is exactly why it works.

Customize Your Art Studio Box

If you have particular materials you love, add them. This box isn’t meant to be prescriptive — it’s meant to fit you. If there’s a brush you reach for every time, a pen that always feels right, or a color you’re obsessed with, tuck those in.

You can scale the box up or down depending on your space and how portable you want it to be. Some keep a tinier version in a purse or tote bag; others use a larger box they can bring in the car for road trips. The point is to make beginning easy.

Reduce Overwhelm, Increase Momentum

A portable art studio in a box is also a powerful antidote to overwhelm when you have too many supplies and don’t know where to start. Instead of choosing from everything you own, you gather only your favorites — whatever fits in the box — and let that be your creative container.

This helps minimize decision fatigue, because you’re no longer staring at endless possibilities. You’re opening the box and creating with what you’ve already selected.

Simple Supplies Make Starting Easier

The supplies I use for my own creative practice are intentionally simple. I never want to feel precious about materials or hesitate because something seems too fancy or expensive to waste.

That’s why I reach for paints, glue sticks, papers, and tools from department stores or drugstores. They’re inexpensive, forgiving, and easy to replace — which makes beginning much easier.

A Meaningful Gift for You or Someone You Love

A portable studio-in-a-box also makes a wonderful gift anytime for yourself or your creative friends. It’s something I love putting together for others. I do mini versions of these in small pouches for my travel workshops.

Start Where You Are — Not Where Conditions Are Perfect

If you’ve been waiting for your conditions to improve before returning to your art, I want to gently challenge that. What if your art could meet you exactly where you are?

What if your creative practice could begin with assembling a shoebox or tote bag that holds the essentials long enough for you to sit down, breathe, and make your mark?

You don’t need a dedicated studio.

You don’t need the “right time.” You don’t even need to know what you’re doing.

If you put together your own art studio in a box, or if any part of this newsletter helped you today, let me know — and feel free to share this with anyone who could use a little creative support.

*I filmed this video when I was still living in Mexico, and there is a cameo at the end of my beloved rescue dog, Rocky, who died this year. I’m so glad to have him in the video. He was always sitting right next to me as I worked.

A related creative practice for working with this is shared with paid subscribers in a separate post:

Share your setup in the comments:
Do you have a portable art studio? What kind of container do you use? What’s in your kit? We all want to know!