Posts: Art

green typewriter on table

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.

Creative Writing Creative Process Growth Art Creativity

gray concrete statue of woman

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.

Creative Process Creativity Artist Art Writing

tree trunk engraved with red heart

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.

Creativity Creative Process Art Artist Persistence

person hands with paint on them

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.

God Creative Process Art Artist Creativity

black and white photo of human palm with leaf

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?

Motivation Writing Creative Process Creativity Art

painting of two human hands reaching

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.

Writing Artist Art Personal Growth Reflections

gray stainless steel armor

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.

Creative Process Writing Art Life Purpose Battles

abstract illustration with an eye in the center

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.

Art Creativity Creative Process Artist

black typewriter on table

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.

Writing Art Artist Motivation Creativity

woman holds her head in palm and leans on wall

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.

Creativity Art Artist Habits

crumpled yellow ruled paper

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.

Creativity Inspiration Dreams Artist Art

illustration of a young girl fishing in lake

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.

Writing Art Artist Creativity Inspiration

notebook, pen, and crumpled pieces of paper

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.

Art Growth Writing Creative Process