Recovering the spark
Your invitation to The Artist's Circle.
Hello friend!
Before you have a strategy, you just need to follow your soul. When my intentions for creating are not pure, I get these two things turned around. I put the cart before the horse.
You can’t wrangle a spark into submission. As soon as you do, it disappears. You douse the very thing that was your energy. It needs oxygen & space. When I’m merely container, not controller, that spark stays alight. Motherhood is teaching me this. My career is simply benefiting from the lesson.
It’s a most frustrating challenge because there’s little to do. There is nothing to fix. It is only holding space, not knowing what the outcome will be. Faith?
Do you ever read a book & feel like it was meant for you to read at the very moment you are reading it? You come across a sentence — Crazy, I was just thinking that! How did she know?
Just last week I was whining about being burnt out (again) & then voila! One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune sings to me from my nightstand;
Alice is a freelance photographer working herself into the ground after a rough breakup. She’s on the hamster wheel of making clients happy with strong craft, hitting deadlines, & losing her love for photography with every batch of edited photos sent. She never smiles or laughs. She’s lost the spark.
Enter: the lake.
Good things happen at the lake & you can read the rest to find out what Alice has learned alongside a hot man on a yellow boat. Sounds like my cottage summers with J. 😉
If you read last week’s letter to the end, you know I’m also reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron this summer; 12 chapters for 12 weeks with her promise of creative fulfillment (faith, again). The container for my findings is The Artist’s Circle.
You can subscribe to The Artist’s Circle newsletter for $5/mth. for the insights I discover as I invest my time into the chapters & the deep work (click the upgrade to paid button below & select “monthly subscription plan”).
Book resources & art supply lists included. It arrives in your inbox weekly through the summer — may it help you crawl out of a creative rut, I’ll be crawling along with you.
No worries if not, I’m tired of people online telling me what to do too. lol. You’ll still receive these main letters from me, sporadically, for free.
Studio Things
The printer is hooked up! Embarrassing fact I’ve been humorously secretive about — I haven’t had a printer for my studio for 5 years. What designer can’t print in their studio?! I can now rest easy at night knowing my 8.5x11s for marking up & meetings can be in tangible form at a moment’s notice.
Shared a little brag about my cousin who’s attending KCAD for digital art & design. She’s an amazing illustrator whose work has already been exhibited twice before her junior year. I can’t wait to see how her art career unfolds.
Found this book in my library when looking for a different book. Great resource to have on hand for shipping your creative work before it’s perfect (just do the damn thing already!).
What’s one thing you’re doing this weekend to fill your tank?
✌🏼 In peace & art,
