After my move back to Toronto, I’ve felt something shift — a quiet yet insistent pull to step back, breathe, and re-evaluate everything I thought I knew about my art practice.
Before I rush into studios, galleries, or the next big project, I need to understand what I’m truly honouring when I create — what part of my soul is asking to speak.
For years I’ve made art: paintings, illustrations, books, community projects. But this season feels different. This is not about making more.
It’s about making with purpose.
Relearning My Practice
Before I begin new collections or collaborations, I want to get crystal clear about my artistic “why.”
Why I create.
For whom.
And how I want to show up as both an artist and a facilitator of creative growth.
My plan is to explore the city with a sketchbook and an open heart — visiting murals, public art installations, and creative spaces. I want to see where art breathes here, where spirit gathers, and whether I feel that pull of belonging.
Mapping a City of Possibility
I’m going to explore every possible place that could hold space for art to live and connect —
spaces for ongoing shows, residencies, and gatherings where music, poetry, painting, and spirit can share the same air.
I want to find rooms that hum with creation, places where ideas cross-pollinate, where artists can witness and inspire each other.
Places where art is not just displayed but experienced.
This is about community — discovering where I can bring my work, my teaching, my energy, and also listen to what others are creating.
A Living Palette
As I wander through the city, I’ll also be asking: What does my palette need to be?
I have a lifetime of creative vocabulary — drawings, paintings, designs, installations, writing — but now I want to discern which languages of expression truly serve what I yearn to communicate.
What forms, colours, and textures carry the stories I’m meant to tell now?
Maybe my next body of work will be large-scale, rooted in body and motion.
Maybe it will be intimate, poetic, emotional.
Maybe both.
This next phase isn’t about perfection — it’s about alignment.
Questions That Guide Me
As I rediscover my artistic rhythm, I expect more questions to arise — and that’s the beauty of it.
- Who are the artists, poets, and musicians I want to gather with?
- Who wants to travel abroad to experience and exchange art?
- Who needs help publishing their catalogs or collections?
- Who would be open to coaching sessions that connect creativity, embodiment, and storytelling?
- Where can we do figure drawing consistently?
- Do I want to teach again — and if so, what form should that take?
These questions aren’t just mine — they’re invitations.
To connect.
To collaborate.
To create a shared field of inspiration.
Stillness Before the Flow
I know that once I truly articulate my why, the creative flow will pick up again — stronger, clearer, more directed.
Until then, this is a time of meditation and exploration.
I’ll be walking through Toronto’s public art, sharing mural discoveries, meeting local creators, and slowly sketching the map of what’s next.
Maybe you’ll see me out there — notebook in hand, camera slung over my shoulder, tracing colour and energy through the city.
An Invitation
If you’re reading this and something stirs inside you — curiosity, recognition, longing — maybe you’re on a similar path.
Maybe you, too, are asking what art wants from you now.
Let’s find out together.
Follow me as I explore, share, and slowly shape this next chapter — not as a finished artist, but as a creator in becoming.
We’ll walk through murals, visit galleries, attend shows, meditate, and dream up installations that might one day stand in the world.
This is the beginning of something new.
A living process.
A shared creative pilgrimage.
About the Author
Maria Kelebeev is a Toronto-based artist, illustrator, and creative facilitator. Through her studio HannaTess ArtHaus, she explores the intersections of embodiment, storytelling, and art as collective experience. Her current work includes The Bodywork Book, mural research across Toronto, and collaborative projects that bridge art, movement, and spirit.
Next in the Series
➡️ Toronto’s Mural Magic: A Walking Guide to the City’s Painted Stories
➡️ Dreaming the Public Installation
➡️ Artist Encounters: How They Find Their Flow