How do we dance with focus and variety to live rich, full, beautiful lives? How can we get the gifts of focus to attain mastery in our art and life but not become one-sided automatons? Continue Reading
Creative Sparks
Real tools and firelight for artists and dreamers to create inspired lives
The Gifts (and Perils) of Focus
This is the beginning of a two-part series on Focus. We’ll look at how you can bless your creativity and your life with its gifts. And, avoid its pitfalls. Focus is about getting out of overwhelm, over-doing, and the feeling of spinning your wheels. It’s about aligning your life with what matters most to you. […] Continue Reading
Clearing Space for More Joy and Ease
I recently had Covid. The experience brought some unpleasant sensations and challenges, but it also brought rich, unexpected blessings. I’ll share my experience with you here. Particularly, what I discovered about clearing space, within and without, to create more joy, ease, and a deeper alignment with Self. This clearing, re-evaluating, and re-aligning is perfect for […] Continue Reading
Harvesting 2021, Making Space for the New
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
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
1 Comment
I love this Max. And you. Thanks for the reminder, and so much more. xoxoxo