Inspiring ideas can be elusive. Yet, I often find that having too many ideas feels overwhelming. It is knowing which idea to pursue at any given time that is the real strength of an artist. How will we know which idea we need to develop unless we let that idea exist in a draft? When…
Category: art
Blind Contour Landscape Drawing Exercise
If perfectionism is the antithesis of creativity then what can help us access more creative ideas? One answer is to approach art making with a sense of experimentation. Yesterday, I felt overwhelmed with ideas that I didn’t know where to start. Then I realized that I needed to create an experiment that would help me…
Sketching And Walking With Juniper
My biggest source of creative inspiration is this artist I know who lives with me, my daughter Juniper. Yesterday, we walked around outside in the slightly windy afternoon and made drawings in our sketchbooks. In the past I have taken many photos of her with my phone because she’s my kid and makes the best…
Stars Falling From The Night Sky
A Gift From The Universe
What am I supposed to do with this?
Tiny Birds
From my writing desk I see only trees and sky. When I don’t know what to write, sometimes I look out into the trees. I marvel when many birds are flying from branch to branch. The branches flutter when they leap off. If it has been raining, drops of water spring off. I watch a…
Lie In The Grass For Just A Little While
It’s okay to lie in the grass for a little while feeling listless, uninspired, and invisible. However, do not stay there too long. Gather yourself up and keep moving. There are magical things to find, but they do not just step out of the clouds and present themselves. They need to be searched for, excavated out…
She Wondered About Particles
Clouds
I marvel at the cloud’s shifting, mysterious shapes. How they can expand across the horizon, scatter delicately, or envelope the sun in shades of color. Clouds are like life experiences; fleeting, constantly moving, changing, sometimes ordinary yet always unique. I wonder how many people are staring at the clouds right now, taking a photograph of…
Drawing
One of the most fascinating things is to see what your hand will draw when you simply start without weighing your mind down with any sort of plan of how it will turn out. Moving the pencil along the paper. Inventing a the rules as you go. Drawing can thrive with uninhibited mark making. And…