Welcome to Illustrated Life!
A creative practice in mindfulness, memory, and meaning.
I’m Amy Cowen. I’ve been publicly writing, drawing, podcasting, and documenting creative life for almost twenty years, inviting people to notice more, create more, and make meaning in the quiet margins of their day.
Illustrated Life is the continuation of that invitation.
Even in five-minute windows, we can create, write, draw, look, ask questions, discover, and see. I hope to always remind you that finding pockets and windows of time for your creative life is important.
Initially, I thought of Illustrated Life as the podcast on the page, part illustrated journaling, part creative reflection, and part slow and intentional living, a reframing of what matters.
Illustrated Life has grown beyond that.
Shifting from spoken essays to written ones has given me new wings. I am free again to explore on the page, and I inhabit that freedom fully in essays that are lyrical, woven, and playful with structure and narrative. I delve into the juxtaposition of topics that include gratitude, the search for meaning, simplification, affirmations, memory, aging, and more. I layer these topics with science and philosophy.
On top of this, I became a widow last year when my partner of more than thirty years died. There are, unavoidably, new layers interwoven in my words as I navigate this new terrain and give voice to the shape of grief, loss, and the unmooring of self.
What you’ll find here:
Essays and reflections on creativity, habit, memory, mindfulness, loneliness, gratitude, aging, and the beauty of ordinary life
Weekly illustrated journal prompts through my Illustrate Your Week series
Art series and visual experiments as I explore, day to day and month to month, what it means to me to hold creativity as a lifeline
Why subscribe?
I email once a week, sharing:
A featured essay or reflection
A roundup of the week’s posts, including postcard prompts and read-along posts
New Illustrate Your Week prompts (partially restricted to paid subscribers)
If you’re looking for creative encouragement, permission to slow down, a reminder of the value of the quotidian, a nudge to document your life with intention, and guidance and inspiration for doing that, I hope you will join me.
For paid subscribers:
If my writing and art resonate with you, and you would like to support Illustrated Life, paid subscriptions help make Illustrated Life sustainable and give you access to:
My weekly writing
The full Illustrate Your Week series (including calendar notes)
More personal posts, writing experiments, and deeper looks into art series and processes
I work full time for a non-profit and spend all of my free time here at Illustrated Life. This is my passion, but Illustrated Life is not simply a hobby. I depend on reader support to supplement my work.
Subscriptions not your thing? Tip Jar donations are always appreciated.
A bit more about me
I’m the host of the former Creativity Matters Podcast, which began as the Creative Mom Podcast in 2006 and ran for more than 17 years. My creative kids grew up while I simultaneously discovered the creative habit that is now the balancing force in my life. I will be forever grateful for the space the podcast offered me and the ways in which I have continued to understand and evolve my interests in art and creative habit.
Illustrated Life is a continuation, grounded in the same values, but grown up and exploring creative life and illustrated journaling in a more visual, intentional way.
Welcome to Illustrated Life. I want all of us to have, build, nurture, and treasure an illustrated life.
