Posts: Art
For the Sake of Personal Expansion
An invitation to return to the blank page
Jun 25, 2024
It was when I started dusting the living room blinds that it really became apparent. I had been engaging in avoidance behavior for weeks but never really called it out as that; I was simply being productive, getting things done. But when dusting entered the picture, my least favorite house chore, I couldn’t deny it any longer—I was seriously avoiding writing.
Permission to Create Freely
Seeing writer’s block from a different angle
Jan 10, 2024
I have to say, I don’t always feel like being “self-aware” when I sit down to write. Sometimes I just want the ideas and words to flow without having to go to a deeper place within me. But Victoria argues that making art involves the whole person, all of me. No shortcuts, no sidestepping. This is indeed both a blessing and a curse.
Because the World Needs Beauty
Thoughts on creative work and why it matters
Jul 16, 2023
Create anyway. This seems to be a buzzword (or “buzzphrase” rather) at the moment, a phrase I’ve been hearing quite a bit in different creative circles. In fact, there is a book that just came out by that very name. The idea is as it sounds—no matter what is going on in your life, or in the world, go ahead and create beautiful things anyway, even if in the larger scheme of things, they’re not essential.
Called to Create
Art as a reflection of God’s character
May 14, 2023
Lately writing in and of itself has not felt like enough. In this day and age, it seems to be all about product. I feel an immense pressure to monetize my writing, to package it up into a beautiful box, market it, and sell it. Not just that, but to ensure it stands out among others in order to be valuable. The mere act of writing, of finishing a blog post and publishing it, seems to have lost meaning.
A Welcome Landing Place
Revisiting the why behind our work
Apr 30, 2023
It’s the last full week of April. This is around the time of year where my motivation to keep going with my goals and resolutions that were set at the beginning of the year begins to take a deep dive. And it doesn’t help that Mercury is in retrograde. The old insidious questions I try hard to push to the back of my mind resurface—what is the point of all this? Why am I wasting my time?
The Alchemy of the Written Word
The sacred unity of writer and reader
Mar 11, 2023
I’ve been thinking a lot about “writer identity” lately. How we come to see ourselves as writers. What type of writers we think we are or are not. As much as I don’t want to be boxed in, I also understand that the whole point of branding and self-marketing is, by definition, putting ourselves into some type of recognizable box that readers can connect with.
A Force to Be Reckoned With
When resistance shows up in the creative process
Feb 25, 2023
It was when I found myself cleaning my vacuum filters in my kitchen sink that I knew something was definitely off. I had spent the last month deep cleaning, organizing, and decluttering every inch of our home. House projects typically reserved for once a year suddenly made their way to the top of my to-do list.
What Our Work Is Really About
Discovering our artistic subject
Jan 20, 2020
18° outside this Sunday evening. Slight headache. Trying to keep it at bay. Thinking about the chocolate chip cookie I’ll have a little later on. With milk. Candle lit on the kitchen counter. Dog is napping. Steven Pressfield’s book The Artist’s Journey sits next to me. In it he says that all artists have a “subject,” what he defines as thematic — “subject is deeper than topic.
Creating for Creating’s Sake
Would you keep making art if no one saw it?
Mar 05, 2019
I think the question all writers must ask themselves at some point in their writing journey is this: if no one read my work, would I still write? Would I still show up to the empty page and string words together for the mere pleasure of the act of writing itself? This defines the true artists from the ones doing it simply for profit, or fame, or some other external reward.
The Battle of Creative Resistance
Why it’s so hard to show up for your art
Jan 22, 2019
Let’s talk about resistance. Not the kind at the gym, but the creative type that artists all over the world experience and suffer through when initially faced with their calling to create. The one Steven Pressfield talks endlessly about in his writings. Let’s tackle that beast. Because it’s not talked about enough.
What To Do When You’ve Quit Your Creative Pursuit(s) Too Many Times
Oct 01, 2018
This is the quote I turn to when I want to write again but hesitate knowing all too well how often I’ve given it up. Or when I’m lacking creative inspiration because my muse hasn’t come around in a while. I remind myself why my endless attempts to start writing again matter. Because it’s way too easy to give up. To find something else to do.
Keep Chasing Your Muse
Nov 07, 2016
Creativity happens in the pause between these two moments: feeling sorry for yourself and feeling proud of what you’ve made. And these alternate pretty regularly in the cycle of a creative’s life. Take the 37 minutes prior to me starting this post. They were filled with self-pity, confusion, tears, frustration, and fear of never measuring up.
An Experiment with Writer’s Block
Sep 21, 2016
This is what happens when nothing comes. Not one ounce of inspiration. Not one single idea to expand into a post. I’ve been sitting here staring at the blank screen for 31 full minutes, listening to the clock in my living room tick-tock away, taunting me. This is what it looks like to have nothing to say. Not. A. Single. Thing.