You are creative. You, me, all of us.
I created this 8-page mini zine to encourage you to live your biggest creative life!
It’s free, check it out.
Boost your creativity the Einstein way
Write your design manifesto
Read about one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom
Explore your resistance
Be the beautiful you that you are
I was going through some of my old art yesterday. I love how distance gives perspective. Trash, trash, save, trash. It feels great to throw things out and it feels great to know how you feel about your work.
I also hate this. Why can’t I know in the moment if an idea is good or not so good? It would save me some time, ya know?
My musician friend, Michael, taught me this trick of creative work. I remember asking him how he writes his songs. I keep notebooks and then I go back and pull the good ideas when I’m ready to make an album, he said. When you look back, you know which ideas are good.
Read MorePaint it hope because at the end of the day, hope is all we have.
Paint it hope, digital collage, 2024
Last week, I drove up the coast to the Bay Area.
Thirty minutes into the drive, I realized I’d forgotten things—migraine medication, running shoes, a 6-pack of beer. Important things. I’ll be fine, I said. I don’t need my medication, I said. These were lies, of course. We turned around and went back. I cried.
It wasn’t forgetting the things that upset me. And it wasn’t having to turn back and add an hour to our trip, either (though that was really annoying). It was that…
Read MoreCreativity is one of my favorite things. I love to pursue it, read about it, support it. I love to write about it. I share this in common with my friend, Robin. She writes a beautiful Substack called Creative Letters and asked me to participate in her new interview series. In this interview I answer questions like…
Read MoreSpotify is the devil. No one believes this more than I do. Their CEO is a bazllionaire. Meanwhile, it takes artists 334 streams to make $1. Nothing like profiting off the backs of creators.
If it weren’t for streaming, I’d still be releasing records. Ever since streaming destroyed my label’s business model, I’ve been musing on ways forward because I do not give up. How do you create a feasible model of releasing records (or simply giving artists a leg up) in the streaming era?
And in the meantime, how do you work with what is?
Spotify isn’t ideal by any means. And it isn’t all bad either. It’s still is a place to discover music. That’s what my friend, Derek, is creating with…
Read More
Let’s immerse ourself in the things that bring us joy. Because in the immersion we find rest. We find peace. We find joy. We find answers to problems. And these things aren’t “nice to haves” like culture would like you to think — THEY ARE ESSENTIAL. YOUR JOY IS ESSENTIAL.
Read MoreOne of the things I offer and really enjoy creating is Monthly Mail Art via Patreon. It’s $5/month and you get original art in the mail — sometimes digital collage, other times analog cut and paste. Sometimes other random goodies. This month, I sent small prints of my latest digital collage. This collage!
I’ve decided to offer this as a free digital download this month, too. Maybe you want to download, print and send to a buddy in the mail? Or hang in your office. Or on your fridge. Or cut up and collage into something new. The possibilities are really endless…You’re welcome!
Still getting settled in the new studio, hanging things. Art, peg racks, more art. It’s an art in and of itself to find flow in a space, to find what feels good, what makes sense. I’m getting there and I’m not forcing it. These things have a way of working themselves out. Enjoying the process.
Two Very Enthusiastic Thumbs Up by Lindsay Rush
Today I will be my own best critic / I will give myself 5 stars just for showing up / I will notice every nuanced effort and fine touch / I will applaud the debut performances of new talents / or habits / I will rave about the pacing, the blocking, the lighting, the writing / I will exclaim that this is the best life I’ve ever tasted / I will close my eyes and chew slowly / I’ll give compliments to the chef / and the director / and the artist / and the muse / (me, me, me, and also me) / I will dub myself the voice of a generation / ahead of my time / reinventing the genre / blazing a new trail / a savant / “who knows what she’ll think of next!” / I will insist that everyone see the show / at least once / if not twice / there’s not a bad seat in the house / I will write up the review nicely / unlimited word count / no edits / post it in the Sunday Times / 10 out of 10 would be me again.
If you ask me to cat sit, you may come home to a tape art bomb.
I’ve been blessed by the fabric gods with enough scraps to keep me busy for a while and I’ve been really loving playing with them.
There’s something about the constraint of only using the scraps at hand that brings me alive. I’ve actually been trying to leave them alone as much as possible too - no cutting, just making what’s there fit.
What if everything belongs? What if everything fits? What if everything has a place, and a place to flourish?
And there’s this other thing I like about working with “trash”: making beauty out of something that served no other function before. Beauty is a function. We need it.
Beauty helps us form relationships - to our world, to each other. When we see beauty in the world, we recognize it, because we know it in ourselves.
This makes us feel at home.
This makes us feel like we belong. We do.
I asked my sewist friend if she kept her left over scraps and a few weeks later, a pile of them appeared in my studio.
Been chewing on a fabric collage. For now, take a look at this one by fellow Ojai artist, Carol Shaw Sutton. Beauty.
Last week, the latest Ojai Studio Artists show opened at the Ojai Valley Museum.
“Turning Corners” includes paintings, sculptures, fiber arts, collage, jewelry, glass, prints, mixed media pieces and more.
The show includes works inspired by the theme of “a new beginning, a new direction, a new path in life.”
My piece in the show is called “I Need Space”. The show will be on view through October 9.
This weekend was the world-renowned Ojai Music Festival and by some stroke of luck or magic, I was this year’s program cover artist. This piece is called “Look For the Light”.
File under: Things I Never Imagined / Big Blessings From This Tiny Town.
I’m learning every day what it feels like to put myself and my work out there. What it feels like to let myself feel proud. Pride is a funny thing for me. I’m still unlearning oppressive messages I received growing up about remaining small. Even as I share this, something churns in me. Who are you to be an artist?
Maybe the better questions is: Who am I NOT to be?
What if the sun decided to not be the sun?
Marianne Williamson:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
The mind is a funny thing. It can play all sorts of tricks on us, telling us stories that may have once held truth, or never did, and maybe don’t hold truth anymore or at all. If we’re not careful, we can buy into these stories, live them out. And we can miss what life has for us. We can miss the joy of being who we are, today, in this moment, right now.
May we know our brilliance and may we embrace it. If we are the sun, may we shine with all our might.
When one of the most esteemed organizations in town ask to use your art for their program cover, you don’t say yeah, you say heck yeah!
Ojai Music Festival has been bringing beauty to our valley for over 70 years. A self proclaimed, “laboratory for the special chemistry that results from combining insatiable curiosity with unbounded creativity.” Do you love it?
Last week they hosted a special preview of what’s to come this weekend and man - wow. Some things can’t be described in words.
They also did an unveiling of the program cover and I said a few words. I blacked out so I can’t be sure, but I think I said something along the lines of loving art, loving music, loving Ojai, and being so grateful for this honor.
Checked a big, scary thing off my list last week and had some professional photos taken. Why is having your photo taken so terrifying? Much prefer to be behind the camera.
photos by Britt Bloom Photography
My baby girl is in her first band, writing her first, official song. She was working on the bridge yesterday. She’s learning the thing anyone who makes anything knows all too well: you can’t force creativity.
It never comes if you force it.
Billy Rae Cyrus:
We all play by ear and we play by what we feel. I play music that way and I play life that way, to a fault.
I’ll wait till the last minute sometimes to make a decision, to wait and see what feels right. My dad had the best advice. He always said:
“Son, when you don’t know which way to go, stand still.”
And I’ve always found that to be valuable. To get into that moment of crossroads of not knowing which way, sometimes if you’ll stand and just listen it’ll reveal itself.
