Posts: Creative Process
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?
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.
The Reflection Behind the Blank Page
Resistance to doing the work and the courage to persist
Jul 05, 2022
The desk arrived, finally, after four months of waiting. My writing desk, as I call it. Beautiful rustic whitewash finish. I’d like to believe it was the desk not having been delivered yet that kept me from writing, but I know how untrue that is. I’d like to tell myself that I wasn’t writing because my “writing room” was not complete, what with the unfinished walls and all, multiple paint samples next to each other, none making the cut.
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.
The Ordinary Part of Extraordinary Pursuits
Every dream is full of mundane repetition
Mar 12, 2019
March. It may seem like an inconspicuous month, nicely tucked in-between February and April, trying not to draw attention to itself. But when it comes to New Year’s resolutions, it’s a rather important month. It’s that time when even the most well-meaning, dedicated of us trying to keep our resolutions going have slipped and fallen back into our old ways, or flat out given 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.
The Myth of Motivation
Sep 05, 2016
I must confess, motivation and I have not been getting along lately. I am finding myself more often griping about her. She does not understand me, you see. And I have a feeling she has been duping us all along. To quote Jamie Varon — “You don’t need more motivation or inspiration to create the life you want.” I agree. We can have plenty of both and it will still never be enough.
Committing to the Creative Process
Aug 15, 2016
Maybe it is knowing that these words, by the mere act of being written down for others to read, are opening themselves up to judgment and scrutiny. Maybe it is the imposing Ms. Perfectionist within me with her unattainable expectations pointing her snarky finger at me. Or maybe it’s the feeling of having planted seed after creative seed and never seeing any of them bear fruit.