Exercise 7: Personal Qualities

As I reflect on the recent period of intense emotional and creative work, I realise that much of what I’ve produced hasn’t been about finishing something in the traditional sense, but about becoming someone. My work,especially pieces like The Bird Who Came From Afar, Aeolus and Nausika, and the poem fragments born from my personal turbulence—isn’t measured in completed outcomes, but in emotional movement, symbolic expression, and internal clarity.

Developing Through Process, Not Product

There were moments in this self-directed project where I felt like I was losing direction—where I questioned whether what I was doing had meaning or value. But I see now that it was through these very uncertain moments that the most profound personal qualities were developed.

Key Qualities I’ve Been Cultivating

1. Self-awareness

I’ve had to listen deeply to myself—to my emotional triggers, to my recurring thoughts, to my creative impulses. Writing poems to people I love (or who never responded) has been a way of hearing my own inner voice more clearly. It helped me realise the difference between projecting a fantasy and holding space for truth.

2. Resilience & Endurance

This journey hasn’t been easy. Between career changes, emotional letdowns, and navigating manipulative relationships, I’ve been living through constant transitions. Yet I’ve used these hardships as creative material, refusing to let them break me. They’ve taught me endurance in both art and life.

3. Curiosity & Critical Thinking

Studying artists like Kiki Smith, Anselm Kiefer, and Sophie Calle has expanded how I think about storytelling, vulnerability, and the visual language of trauma and memory. These investigations have changed how I approach narrative, image, and the body in space.

4. Compassion & Empathy

This entire project has required me to look at myself and others with kindness—even when I’ve been hurt. I’ve tried to represent people not as villains or heroes, but as complex beings. And that includes myself. This ability to soften into compassion, especially while expressing emotional truth, is perhaps the most transferable skill I’ve gained.

5. Motivation & Grit

Even when the emotional weight has been heavy, I haven’t stopped making. That matters. There’s a drive that pushes me to express—even if what I make doesn’t get seen, or loved, or understood. There’s a quiet grit in showing up again and again for your creative self, especially when no one is clapping.

Do These Skills Need to Be Measured?

No. In fact, much of what I’m learning isn’t visible in a portfolio or measurable in grades. The ability to sit with discomfort, to reframe rejection into a poem, or to distill heartbreak into a drawing—that is not measurable. But it is powerful.

These qualities ripple outward: into how I parent, how I connect with friends, how I handle conflict, and how I speak to myself in the quiet hours. The act of turning pain into poetry is both a creative act and a survival act. I am learning to live through my work—not hide behind it.

Final Reflection

The qualities I am building are not dependent on success, but on presence. On honesty. On the willingness to stay in the process even when it doesn’t yield immediate clarity. This project has been my storm and my shelter. I’ve developed a deeper sense of wonder about the ordinary, a sharper eye for symbolism, and a newfound trust in my instincts.

Success, for me now, is not a finished piece—it’s a moment of emotional resonance, where the art helps me breathe more deeply, or feel more seen.

And that, I think, is enough.