Finding creative outlets

I have been doing a lot of art lately. Mainly painting. I took up painting when I was in college and found that I really love doing so, although Im not really that "good" at it. Typically when Im depressed or in one of my manic bipolar moods it really seems to help, if I throw on some music and just paint my emotions. Does that mean the piece im doing is all dark and emo? No, it just means that im angry, or sad and put paint to brush, to canvas, and what transpires is whatever comes out.

I am one of those people who dont typically plan out a piece. I let the canvas and the painting tell me what im doing. What that means is if I sit down to do a landscape, then something like an impressionistic or abstract thing will come out instead. I have taken to looking at inspirations before doing a painting. That has been fun and interesting. Because I look at what the original artist has done, and then try to improve or add my own flare to the piece. Some of the questions I get asked, other than what inspires me to paint, is what music do I listen to? Well that

is kinda hard to describe. My playlist has everything from Gospel to Mega Death. So one moment it will be hardcore Gangster Rap and then it will transition into Bach or something like that. Though a good majority of it is R&B.

My other favorite thing to do is take pictures. Again it was a passion I found in College. I dont have a super expensive camera. The two camera's that I use are my Samsung Galaxy S5, and my GE 500X. The Samsung is a 8mpx and the GE is a 16mpx. Now when Im actually going out on a photoshoot, I like to take my GE, as there are a lot of features and functions that my phone just doesnt have. The one thing that my cam has that my phone doesnt is Image Stabilization. I really miss that feature on my phone as I have to take 3 pictures to get one, many times.

So these are just a few things that I have been doing to try and manage my depression and what have you over the holidays. What kinds of things do you do, and what do you find works the best for yourself?