We have reached the final month of this ragged year. I had hoped this year would be far better than 2020, but 2021 proved rough, painful, and confusing in many ways. Nonetheless, beautiful things also happened. December is a good time of year for taking stock, for reflection, and harvesting of the year that’s nearly […] Continue Reading
Creative Sparks
Real tools and firelight for artists and dreamers to create inspired lives
Dealing with Disappointment in Art and Life
Recently, I suffered a big disappointment. It felt like a physical blow to the chest. I was reeling with pain and shock. In a moment I will share what happened and the six steps I took to recover from it. It is important to deal with disappointments in a good way, so they don’t block […] Continue Reading
Dreaming New Creations In My Work
A profound process of dreaming and creation is going on. I am deep in an incubation period on so many levels. Often I sit down to share some of it with you, and I fall silent. When you are in the cocoon, and your old body has dissolved into formless goo, and your new wings […] Continue Reading
How to Stick to Your Goals and Have Fun in the Process
Would you love to write or paint or play guitar every day? Would you like to kindle a meditation practice? Or a gratitude practice? Or a new eating habit? Do you keep procrastinating on a project you want to complete? Writing that book, cleaning out your closet, putting together a portfolio of your art. Stickers […] Continue Reading
Inspire Your Muse With Creative Foreplay
The process of creating is as much about the time spent not creating—and how you use that time in service to creativity—as it is about the time spent actively engaging with making art. I am a huge walker and daydreamer. I might say that I’m a professional daydreamer. And that’s always been the case: the […] Continue Reading
Letting in the Wondrous: How to Cultivate the Optimum State for Creativity
For me, the essential “trick” to creating my best work is to cultivate that inner state in which I release conscious control and open to influence. I enter the wildness and wilderness, that state in which I can let the wind of inspiration blow through me, allow the strange to happen, the wondrous to seep through the cracks. It’s all about availability and surprise. Continue Reading
A Little Beauty Every Day
“Filling a space in a beautiful way – that is what art means to me.” –Georgia O’Keefe I find myself thinking a lot about this idea of making a little beauty everyday, to which I was introduced by Laurie Anderson via Austin Kleon’s brilliant, down-to-earth book on creativity, Keep Going. I wrote about this previously, but […] Continue Reading
Creation and Revision: Letting Your Art Find Its Radiant Form
The process of revision or honing, polishing and shaping a work of art is one that often stumps creative people. Where to begin? How to go about making the work stronger, better, truer to itself? Will I ruin it in the process? What to cut, keep, add, change? Some time ago I published a post […] Continue Reading
7 Steps to Inspire Your Creativity Again and Again
How do you foster inspired creativity? And how do you know when you’ve had a good creative day? Is it when you have finished a wonderful painting, written 1000 words, or worked out the ending to your dance piece? Or is it when you spent four hours in your studio, puttering around, seemingly accomplishing nothing? […] Continue Reading
Are You Trying to Do Too Much?
Find what’s yours and leave the rest This past year, our world has turned more virtual than ever. Every event, concert, class and workshop is happening online now, thanks to the pandemic. Suddenly, we are not limited to what’s happening in our own town or even our state or country. We have an overwhelm of […] Continue Reading
