The Gift of Filling The Well - Advice from Julia Cameron of "The Artists Way"

Especially at holiday-time, these words of wisdom from Julia Cameron feel extra-helpful:

Art is an image-using system. In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. We've got big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish-- an abundance of artistic fish to fry. As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem...

As artists we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them-- to restock the trout pond, so to speak. I call this process filling the well.

Is it time to fill your well? 

Happy Holidays,
Lee

"The World’s on Fire. Can We Still Talk About Books?" - A reminder of the importance of what we do

This essay, The World’s on Fire. Can We Still Talk About Books?, by Rebecca Makkai at Electric Lit is so spot-on!

Rebecca asks something I know many of us are grappling with:

Is it really okay to talk about art right now? To leave the real and broken world behind and talk about fictional ones?

Highlights of her essay:

The idea that art is born of leisure, during times of peace, is a simplistic romance, a non-artist’s daydream.

and

Of course, it’s one thing to believe in Angels in America, to believe in Picasso’s Guernica, and another to believe in your own sloppy first draft, or in a picture book about a monkey. One thing to fight for the first amendment, and another to retweet an invite for your friend’s poetry reading. It’s hard to feel you’re helping the world by announcing your Pushcart nomination.

But the exercise of freedom is a de facto defense of that same freedom. Freely making art, and freely talking about the art you made, is valuable in and of itself when free expression is being eroded. If anyone’s still taking that freedom for granted, it’s time to wake up and smell the history.

The whole piece is well-worth reading!

Illustrate and Write On, 
Lee

Check Your Respect - an excellent article about nurturing artists (ourselves and young people) by Paula Chase Hyman on The Brown Bookshelf

“Art is breathing for the artist.”

There is so much wisdom in this piece by Paula Chase Hyman, Check Your Respect.

Paula shares the not-so-helpful comments of others regarding her daughter's pursuit of a future as a dancer, and reflects on how her own journey as an author shares many of the same challenges...

And in the face of those challenges, Paula “knows what it’s like to have Art in you that you’re compelled to put out in the world.” And with that knowledge, she advocates for her daughter, for herself, and for those of us fortunate enough to read her words.

“Please stop smothering us with your fears and concerns. Negative energy is the artist’s natural enemy. We have enough self doubt to fill a stadium. Don’t push yours on us.

Root for us.

Support our work.

Tell others about the artists you know.

We put beauty into the world. That’s never a bad thing.”

Read the full piece here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee