🌿 The Beauty of Side Quests
In every quest, there are places you stumble upon that feel secret, carved out just for you. This moment, barefoot in a coral dress, holding a mirror to stone dragons reminds me that my side quests are not distractions. They’re discoveries. Each detour, whether it’s a photoshoot, a film experiment, or a teacup ritual, adds another relic to my inventory. I am both the wanderer and the world-builder, finding treasures in the cracks of the map and carrying them back to the main story.
In every video game…
the main quest pushes you forward. But it’s the side quests the odd jobs, the hidden villages, and random characters; that give the game its soul. Life works the same way. My artist journey is filled with side quests: film, photography, modeling, writing, tea-making, even collaging flowers into skies. Each one feels like a tangent, but really, it’s treasure I carry back to the main quest.
🌙 What Side Quests Teach
People often dismiss side quests as distractions. But what if they’re the secret curriculum? The little “extra credit” assignments from the universe. Film taught me how to frame stories. Photography sharpened my eye for light and intimacy. Modeling taught me presence, aura, and the art of becoming my muse. Tea-making taught me the value of ritual and patience, showing me how creation begins with stillness.Flowers taught me symbolism, how even the smallest bloom carries an epic of its own. None of these were throwaways. Each was an ingredient. And when I return to my canvas, I carry all of them with me.
🌸 Life’s Unexpected Detours
It’s not only in the studio. Life itself hands us side quests:
• A spontaneous trip.
• A conversation with a stranger that lingers.
• Motherhood moments that shift your pace.
• A heartbreak that blooms into self-discovery.
Each detour bends the light in a new way. Each one gives us a tool, a scar, or a song to bring back to our main quest.
🌹 Why Side Quests Matter
Side quests are where you learn resilience without pressure. They prevent burnout from chasing one goal too hard. They’re where you unlock hidden parts of yourself you didn’t know you needed. Without them, life is just a straight line. With them, life is a constellation.
✨ Returning to the Main Quest
The main quest gets you to the destination, but it’s the side quests that make you unforgettable when you arrive. Without them, the story isn’t half as rich. So here’s to the detours, the experiments, the unexpected blooms. Try something just because it sparks curiosity. To build worlds within worlds.
They’re not distractions.
They’re not wasted time.
They are the soul of the game.
🌿 Your turn: What side quest are you on right now, and what treasure is it giving you to bring back to your main story?
Photo by Cynthia Penter
Art Is Not just a Luxury — It’s the Alchemy We Need
In this expressive and introspective post, Asia Armour explores why art is not a luxury but a vital, visionary force — especially in uncertain times. Inspired by the TED Talk Your Art Is Activism, this soulful reflection reminds readers that creation is a powerful form of healing, resistance, and rebirth. Through lush, symbolic language and her signature soft feminine aesthetic, Asia shares how artists can turn emotion into alchemy. Whether you work in floral art, collage, or everyday rituals, your voice matters. This is emotional visual storytelling for the contemporary creative.
Inspired by the TED Talk: “Your Art Is Activism” by Bayeté Ross Smith
We’ve been sold a lie — that making art in dark times is frivolous, selfish, or insignificant. But lately, I’ve been reminded how false that is.
I recently watched a powerful TED Talk titled Your Art Is Activism by Bayeté Ross Smith, and it stirred something in me: a deep remembering that what we create, especially in times of uncertainty or fear, isn’t just expression — it’s resistance. It’s healing. It’s alchemical.
As artists, we are translators of energy, emotion, and truth.
We turn grief into gardens.
We turn silence into color.
We turn pain into poetry.
That is not passive — that is power.
We are not here to escape reality through our work.
We’re here to reimagine it.
And the world needs that now more than ever.
So it is your duty—your prime purpose—to create.
Not because the world is perfect, but because it isn’t.
Not because it’s easy, but because it’s necessary.
Creation is how we remember who we are.
It’s how we feel.
How we dream forward.
And we don’t have to think narrowly about what creation means.
Creation does not start and end with a canvas — it starts and ends with you.
With the way you tell your story.
With the way you arrange your altar or your garden, or your home.
With the softness you allow in rooms that have only ever known sharp edges.
With the beauty you dare to bring into spaces that feel forgotten.
If the world is on fire, then artists are the water — and sometimes the spark.
Let this be your reminder:
Keep going.
Keep making.
Keep blooming through the cracks.
Because this is how we grow past this.
This is how we alchemize — together.
In this moving TED Talk, multimedia artist and cultural curator Bayeté Ross Smith explores how art functions as activism — especially in times of uncertainty, fear, and social change. He reminds us that creativity is not a luxury, but a powerful tool for truth-telling, community-building, and healing. Whether you're painting, performing, writing, or simply choosing to live intentionally, your expression matters. This talk is a call to action for all creatives: your art is needed now more than ever.
