Responding quickly because I’m trying not to overthink things: flamingo, orange, a spot with no clutter, Frankenstein, early mornings. The only thing that surprised me was flamingo! Also, a year ago I would have laughed if anyone suggested early mornings.
I love the poem of your list! — Flamingo, orange, a spot with no clutter, Frankenstein, early mornings. That’s delightful. Early mornings are exquisite if you can manage them. Thanks, Linda!
I love all your creative habit suggestions! I keep several books in view in my studio (I used to call it my craft room but I changed it to "studio" to sound more official 😂) and one of my favorites is The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Right now my creative time is all over the place- I need to set a time and guard that time. That's my goal this week!
A good goal for the week. It’s not bad to take and make creative times “all over the place” if that works for you. I know a lot of people really like the Rubin book. I have it checked out, but it isn’t one I’ve read before. I’m glad to see you mention it. Thanks for commenting, Melissa!
Ostrich. Pink. Assembling a caddy of the art supplies I almost always use in my illustrated journal. Menewood, by Nicola Griffith.
I use my journal to decompress, so I frequently draw after finishing a large, time-consuming chore (ie: spending three hours in the car getting kids to therapy appointments) or at the end of the day.
Working on a zine this month has been a different process. I’m using printer paper and it seems really delicate. It exists outside of my sketchbook, so I need to find a specific surface to draw on, not just wherever I happen to be. It feels more like a product than an exploration, even though the materials couldn’t be less precious.
A caddy is a good approach, for sure. I hear you on the difference between the time in the journal and the time working on your zine. The latter probably requires a dedicated pocket of time in a set space. I hope it’s going well!
Pink AND orange, always. Two of my favorites together or apart! I loved reading this list Amy, and I was so proud to be able to say “I’ve addressed that friction in this way” for a few! Your podcast and writing has done so much to encourage my creativity the past few years. So one friction for me that I have been working through lately is the aversion to letting people around me see me draw or paint. It was embarrassment about the stage of the art, or it was embarrassment at the impression that I was doing something so leisurely, it was also partly my young kids that just didn’t yet have the boundaries to let me be occupied with my own materials for a few minutes. I have gotten a lot further with all that this year and it feels great.
Thank you, Lauren. It means a lot to know that I’ve been helpful. That is interesting about people watching … your work is so fantastic, but I know how much we internalize certain fears and voices. I am glad that is something you are consciously working on. (The comment about others thinking it’s just something so leisurely….oof. I hear that.) I admire how much you are doing even with younger children, and I hope that does continue to be something that grows. It is so good for them to see you being creative and taking that time, really.
Oh - and I love pink and orange together. I saw some Instagram reel the other day with a guy who had been challenged to come up with an outfit in pink and orange, and he just couldn’t get past thinking it would be awful. (It turned out great.)
Good morning! Ostrich, orange, dining room table is always set up to draw and the desk in my small room. Art supplies are fingertip away. About to start reading The Back Yard Bird by Amy Tan ( she is an amazing author and only in her 60’s or older started to appreciate birds and bird watching and drawing them. I draw or paint starting in the morning and often for several hours. Guilty of having too many projects on the go. It is like meditation to me. I am older and not working so I can create whenever I want. This week I decided to create in a very large sketchbook. I am using all sorts of things but a lot of collage and loose abstract. I am all over the place and I do use art to keep my head in the sand about other things. Couldn’t manage Inktober this year. Still doing Sketchbook Revival. Guilty of looking at others art and wishing I could do it that way too.
You give us hope, Gail, that we might all have more time at some time, right? But, really, it’s fantastic that you spend so much time on your art. I love seeing what you are working on. Your new large sketchbook sounds like a great project. I have heard about Amy Tan’s nature journaling. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the book.
i have never been able to stick with a daily habit, other than in the short-term, as in ICAD or NaNoHaiMo. i am good for the short burst and not the long road.
however, it is grand to watch the progress of others who do have a daily art practice AS IT SHOWS in their work. (bravo, y’all - well done!)
pink and flamingo to end this and not post a lengthy, dry novella. now i have sweet visions of dozens of flamingos at the san diego zoo when i was a child. it was an improbable sight, this cloud of shell pink feathers en masse, wondrous and dreamy.
What a great memory of the flamingos, Kathi! That’s lovely, and isn’t it wonderful how a moment like that sticks with you through the years? I guess a more regular habit only matters if when you are doing challenges like ICAD you really enjoy and find fulfilling the daily practice. If so, then I would also suggest trying for some kind of regular practice — even if that’s just a few times a week. But it may just be that there are other things in the day that serve you better — and that’s okay!
Sometimes I think the best morning routine is letting the morning direct itself. Like you, I can't stick with any habit. Other than coffee. And that's because I like coffee, not that it wakes me up, because it doesn't.
Ostrich, because I just adore the idea of being a gigantic bird! Orange, because I like the idea of not losing track. The thing that makes it easier for me to maintain my creative habit is accountability, often one with a deadline. I'm currently listening to The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, but it's due back to the library tomorrow and I won't be able to finish it by then. So, I suppose there's going to be a bit of a break in the story. :) I can't say that it's my favorite window for creative time, but the time I seem best able to really dive in is late at night. At that point, there are no more phone calls, emails popping in, people wandering through. It's just me and my brainchild.
My favorite of your strategies is identifying repeatable pockets of time. That feels like something I'm not yet doing but could.
I’ve heard several people mention The Comfort of Crows recently. I had it checked out and didn’t get to it. Sorry your reading will be cut short. I have habits both in the morning (before work) and then in the evening and then late night. So I totally hear you on the benefit of the margins. Maybe your new habit is an early morning one? Doesn’t that brain look a bit like a cauliflower? lol.
Omigosh -- of course it does!! Duh! Somehow my brain, which might actually BE a cauliflower, didn't connect the two.
Based on existing commitments and schedules, my new habit (or attempted habit) fits easily into early mornings four days out of seven. Which isn't so great in the consistency department.
I'm thrilled to read this. And I need to spend some more time with it. "Sometimes, our metaphors are false, and we knowingly stick with them." Yup. I love flamingos and flamingoing is fab. I used to be better at standing on one leg than I am at present...but I'm practicing. These pointers are wonderful, will read them carefully one at a time. Really great to cultivate habits. I've been writing something every day and I like being in that practice. And no, every day does NOT yield a masterpiece. Sometimes it's just a paragraph, sometimes it's a thousand words. Some of it gets kept, some gets sent to the snippets folder. Thanks Amy, for always showing up with new insights and your ever-present generosity. And I have to say that I think you've been amazingly prolific over these months of loss. I don't think I could have been. Lots of love to you.
Thank you, Nan, for all parts of this, including the acknowledgment of these months. I think continuing to show up for these habits I have has probably been a lifeline. I’ve relied on the balance these things (writing and art) provide for many years, and I know that has been helpful. I appreciate you pulling out that line about metaphors. It really is a bummer when you realize, in the end, you have something totally wrong. Lol! I hear you about the one-leg thing. I had been practicing (months ago), and I need to get back to that. We need to be steady on our feet! I am with you on the writing — I love hearing about your approach. I definitely am not always working on a “piece” when I write. I even try and make sure I just get some regular notes down first no matter what. I was brought up on Natalie Goldberg, but Cameron is, of course, the other popular person for some people. I’m still a Goldberg person. But however one gets there, I think there is a lot to be said for daily freewriting. Thank you for reading and commenting. I am grateful to have met you this year. You are such a positive presence — and a tremendous writer.
Thank you for this great reply. And the compliment. I've learned a lot from you this last year, and I am so happy we're connected. Keep doing what you do. You're a creator for sure. I savor what you bring every week. Treasures.
Beautiful and helpful insights. I know my anchor is list making, a sense of control over time and space.Reading the "House that Horror built". Thinking alot about the Greek Gods full of hubris and how we project our human experiences on external forces beyond our control. And lovely October rolling in bright and full of chaos.
Thank you for commenting, Jetton. I agree with lists being such a good tool for so many of us. Interesting about your current focus on Greek gods! I've heard several people talking recently about a new series (Netflix, I think) called Kaos, which is about the Greek gods in current time. I keep meaning to give it a try. I hope the chaos of October is manageable and that all is well.
I have been reading Natalie Haynes books throughout the spring. She has beautiful and interesting insight of womens roles in Myth and Greek society. Divine Might is in my que now. Kaos is delightful very clever and well cast. Take care❤✌
Very small, very simple things that I find fun are most easy for me to maintain in a creative habit. I have maintained a tiny bit of time most mornings this year to jot in my Illustrated Journal with your prompts! It’s not a lot but it’s a gentle way to wake up with coffee and reflect before the day starts. Currently reading a few books with artist characters/art themes/art: Angle of Repose, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Great Believers.
I don’t think I’ve read any Stegner. That’s an interesting trio of books you have going. Thank you for commenting. It is delightful, really, to hear that you spend those few minutes with coffee and your journal and the prompts. (I really love hearing that!) I think a “just right” sized habit is, in so many ways, a perfect approach to a habit that feels balanced, inviting, and that you feel good about day to day.
What an exhaustive list! I do many of these things already, but so good to be reminded and to see new ideas.
I so wish I could start my writing early in the day, but my diurnal rhythm dictates that I start sometime after 9 most mornings. I begin with a 20-minute writing exercise. Just freewriting for that time, but trying to sero in on emotions.
I write in the mornings. in the afternoons, I often ride the bus, sometimes stopping at a library of coffee shop to write more.
After dinner, I quilt and read.
Poetry intrudes when it damn well pleases. Sometimes in the middle of the night.
Book: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry, by Ransom Riggs. He wrote Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I'm interviewing him next week in connection with his appearance at the Portland Book Festival in November.
This is such a helpful and actionable list of ways to ensure that our creative practice becomes an integral part of our lives. “Know your why” has been big for me. Acknowledging that a creative practice is necessary and valuable enough to give it that chunk of time. For me that is just having low pressure “me time” in my sketchbook, and connecting that practice with the effect it has on my mental well being as well as how it contributes directly to my creative “work” side of my art has been helpful. There have been times (and still are) when I feel like I should be doing something more “productive” with that time. It is surprising how hard it sometimes is to explain things to my brain.
Having a set up ready to go is such a great point too. I am fortunate to have a whole studio waiting for me to make art, but honestly just a chair with a side table (or piano bench) next to it with a sketchbook, some drawing tools, and a tiny box of watercolor paint has played the same role for me. A small space carved out can be just as powerful as an elaborate studio space, I think. It’s always been the mental hurdle that is bigger for me.
I really enjoyed your flamingo descriptions. I always enjoy your descriptions. Often I feel like they are somehow visually tangible… is that a thing? I don’t think you can touch things with your eyes, but that’s kind of how I feel when I read many of your descriptions.
Ostrich. I think they are uglier than flamingos which I find beautiful.
Responding quickly because I’m trying not to overthink things: flamingo, orange, a spot with no clutter, Frankenstein, early mornings. The only thing that surprised me was flamingo! Also, a year ago I would have laughed if anyone suggested early mornings.
🦩🍊🪟🧌🌅
I love the poem of your list! — Flamingo, orange, a spot with no clutter, Frankenstein, early mornings. That’s delightful. Early mornings are exquisite if you can manage them. Thanks, Linda!
I love all your creative habit suggestions! I keep several books in view in my studio (I used to call it my craft room but I changed it to "studio" to sound more official 😂) and one of my favorites is The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Right now my creative time is all over the place- I need to set a time and guard that time. That's my goal this week!
A good goal for the week. It’s not bad to take and make creative times “all over the place” if that works for you. I know a lot of people really like the Rubin book. I have it checked out, but it isn’t one I’ve read before. I’m glad to see you mention it. Thanks for commenting, Melissa!
Ostrich. Pink. Assembling a caddy of the art supplies I almost always use in my illustrated journal. Menewood, by Nicola Griffith.
I use my journal to decompress, so I frequently draw after finishing a large, time-consuming chore (ie: spending three hours in the car getting kids to therapy appointments) or at the end of the day.
Working on a zine this month has been a different process. I’m using printer paper and it seems really delicate. It exists outside of my sketchbook, so I need to find a specific surface to draw on, not just wherever I happen to be. It feels more like a product than an exploration, even though the materials couldn’t be less precious.
A caddy is a good approach, for sure. I hear you on the difference between the time in the journal and the time working on your zine. The latter probably requires a dedicated pocket of time in a set space. I hope it’s going well!
Pink AND orange, always. Two of my favorites together or apart! I loved reading this list Amy, and I was so proud to be able to say “I’ve addressed that friction in this way” for a few! Your podcast and writing has done so much to encourage my creativity the past few years. So one friction for me that I have been working through lately is the aversion to letting people around me see me draw or paint. It was embarrassment about the stage of the art, or it was embarrassment at the impression that I was doing something so leisurely, it was also partly my young kids that just didn’t yet have the boundaries to let me be occupied with my own materials for a few minutes. I have gotten a lot further with all that this year and it feels great.
Thank you, Lauren. It means a lot to know that I’ve been helpful. That is interesting about people watching … your work is so fantastic, but I know how much we internalize certain fears and voices. I am glad that is something you are consciously working on. (The comment about others thinking it’s just something so leisurely….oof. I hear that.) I admire how much you are doing even with younger children, and I hope that does continue to be something that grows. It is so good for them to see you being creative and taking that time, really.
Oh - and I love pink and orange together. I saw some Instagram reel the other day with a guy who had been challenged to come up with an outfit in pink and orange, and he just couldn’t get past thinking it would be awful. (It turned out great.)
Good morning! Ostrich, orange, dining room table is always set up to draw and the desk in my small room. Art supplies are fingertip away. About to start reading The Back Yard Bird by Amy Tan ( she is an amazing author and only in her 60’s or older started to appreciate birds and bird watching and drawing them. I draw or paint starting in the morning and often for several hours. Guilty of having too many projects on the go. It is like meditation to me. I am older and not working so I can create whenever I want. This week I decided to create in a very large sketchbook. I am using all sorts of things but a lot of collage and loose abstract. I am all over the place and I do use art to keep my head in the sand about other things. Couldn’t manage Inktober this year. Still doing Sketchbook Revival. Guilty of looking at others art and wishing I could do it that way too.
You give us hope, Gail, that we might all have more time at some time, right? But, really, it’s fantastic that you spend so much time on your art. I love seeing what you are working on. Your new large sketchbook sounds like a great project. I have heard about Amy Tan’s nature journaling. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the book.
i have never been able to stick with a daily habit, other than in the short-term, as in ICAD or NaNoHaiMo. i am good for the short burst and not the long road.
however, it is grand to watch the progress of others who do have a daily art practice AS IT SHOWS in their work. (bravo, y’all - well done!)
pink and flamingo to end this and not post a lengthy, dry novella. now i have sweet visions of dozens of flamingos at the san diego zoo when i was a child. it was an improbable sight, this cloud of shell pink feathers en masse, wondrous and dreamy.
What a great memory of the flamingos, Kathi! That’s lovely, and isn’t it wonderful how a moment like that sticks with you through the years? I guess a more regular habit only matters if when you are doing challenges like ICAD you really enjoy and find fulfilling the daily practice. If so, then I would also suggest trying for some kind of regular practice — even if that’s just a few times a week. But it may just be that there are other things in the day that serve you better — and that’s okay!
Sometimes I think the best morning routine is letting the morning direct itself. Like you, I can't stick with any habit. Other than coffee. And that's because I like coffee, not that it wakes me up, because it doesn't.
Ostrich, because I just adore the idea of being a gigantic bird! Orange, because I like the idea of not losing track. The thing that makes it easier for me to maintain my creative habit is accountability, often one with a deadline. I'm currently listening to The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, but it's due back to the library tomorrow and I won't be able to finish it by then. So, I suppose there's going to be a bit of a break in the story. :) I can't say that it's my favorite window for creative time, but the time I seem best able to really dive in is late at night. At that point, there are no more phone calls, emails popping in, people wandering through. It's just me and my brainchild.
My favorite of your strategies is identifying repeatable pockets of time. That feels like something I'm not yet doing but could.
Do tell me about the cauliflower. 😂
I’ve heard several people mention The Comfort of Crows recently. I had it checked out and didn’t get to it. Sorry your reading will be cut short. I have habits both in the morning (before work) and then in the evening and then late night. So I totally hear you on the benefit of the margins. Maybe your new habit is an early morning one? Doesn’t that brain look a bit like a cauliflower? lol.
Omigosh -- of course it does!! Duh! Somehow my brain, which might actually BE a cauliflower, didn't connect the two.
Based on existing commitments and schedules, my new habit (or attempted habit) fits easily into early mornings four days out of seven. Which isn't so great in the consistency department.
I'm thrilled to read this. And I need to spend some more time with it. "Sometimes, our metaphors are false, and we knowingly stick with them." Yup. I love flamingos and flamingoing is fab. I used to be better at standing on one leg than I am at present...but I'm practicing. These pointers are wonderful, will read them carefully one at a time. Really great to cultivate habits. I've been writing something every day and I like being in that practice. And no, every day does NOT yield a masterpiece. Sometimes it's just a paragraph, sometimes it's a thousand words. Some of it gets kept, some gets sent to the snippets folder. Thanks Amy, for always showing up with new insights and your ever-present generosity. And I have to say that I think you've been amazingly prolific over these months of loss. I don't think I could have been. Lots of love to you.
Thank you, Nan, for all parts of this, including the acknowledgment of these months. I think continuing to show up for these habits I have has probably been a lifeline. I’ve relied on the balance these things (writing and art) provide for many years, and I know that has been helpful. I appreciate you pulling out that line about metaphors. It really is a bummer when you realize, in the end, you have something totally wrong. Lol! I hear you about the one-leg thing. I had been practicing (months ago), and I need to get back to that. We need to be steady on our feet! I am with you on the writing — I love hearing about your approach. I definitely am not always working on a “piece” when I write. I even try and make sure I just get some regular notes down first no matter what. I was brought up on Natalie Goldberg, but Cameron is, of course, the other popular person for some people. I’m still a Goldberg person. But however one gets there, I think there is a lot to be said for daily freewriting. Thank you for reading and commenting. I am grateful to have met you this year. You are such a positive presence — and a tremendous writer.
Thank you for this great reply. And the compliment. I've learned a lot from you this last year, and I am so happy we're connected. Keep doing what you do. You're a creator for sure. I savor what you bring every week. Treasures.
Beautiful and helpful insights. I know my anchor is list making, a sense of control over time and space.Reading the "House that Horror built". Thinking alot about the Greek Gods full of hubris and how we project our human experiences on external forces beyond our control. And lovely October rolling in bright and full of chaos.
Thank you for commenting, Jetton. I agree with lists being such a good tool for so many of us. Interesting about your current focus on Greek gods! I've heard several people talking recently about a new series (Netflix, I think) called Kaos, which is about the Greek gods in current time. I keep meaning to give it a try. I hope the chaos of October is manageable and that all is well.
I have been reading Natalie Haynes books throughout the spring. She has beautiful and interesting insight of womens roles in Myth and Greek society. Divine Might is in my que now. Kaos is delightful very clever and well cast. Take care❤✌
Very small, very simple things that I find fun are most easy for me to maintain in a creative habit. I have maintained a tiny bit of time most mornings this year to jot in my Illustrated Journal with your prompts! It’s not a lot but it’s a gentle way to wake up with coffee and reflect before the day starts. Currently reading a few books with artist characters/art themes/art: Angle of Repose, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Great Believers.
Kristen (@rhode_reads on Instagram)
I don’t think I’ve read any Stegner. That’s an interesting trio of books you have going. Thank you for commenting. It is delightful, really, to hear that you spend those few minutes with coffee and your journal and the prompts. (I really love hearing that!) I think a “just right” sized habit is, in so many ways, a perfect approach to a habit that feels balanced, inviting, and that you feel good about day to day.
What an exhaustive list! I do many of these things already, but so good to be reminded and to see new ideas.
I so wish I could start my writing early in the day, but my diurnal rhythm dictates that I start sometime after 9 most mornings. I begin with a 20-minute writing exercise. Just freewriting for that time, but trying to sero in on emotions.
I write in the mornings. in the afternoons, I often ride the bus, sometimes stopping at a library of coffee shop to write more.
After dinner, I quilt and read.
Poetry intrudes when it damn well pleases. Sometimes in the middle of the night.
Book: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry, by Ransom Riggs. He wrote Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I'm interviewing him next week in connection with his appearance at the Portland Book Festival in November.
I hope the interview went well!
This is such a helpful and actionable list of ways to ensure that our creative practice becomes an integral part of our lives. “Know your why” has been big for me. Acknowledging that a creative practice is necessary and valuable enough to give it that chunk of time. For me that is just having low pressure “me time” in my sketchbook, and connecting that practice with the effect it has on my mental well being as well as how it contributes directly to my creative “work” side of my art has been helpful. There have been times (and still are) when I feel like I should be doing something more “productive” with that time. It is surprising how hard it sometimes is to explain things to my brain.
Having a set up ready to go is such a great point too. I am fortunate to have a whole studio waiting for me to make art, but honestly just a chair with a side table (or piano bench) next to it with a sketchbook, some drawing tools, and a tiny box of watercolor paint has played the same role for me. A small space carved out can be just as powerful as an elaborate studio space, I think. It’s always been the mental hurdle that is bigger for me.
I really enjoyed your flamingo descriptions. I always enjoy your descriptions. Often I feel like they are somehow visually tangible… is that a thing? I don’t think you can touch things with your eyes, but that’s kind of how I feel when I read many of your descriptions.
Ostrich. I think they are uglier than flamingos which I find beautiful.
Thanks, Erin. I appreciate your comment - and I appreciate you mentioning the flamingos, too!