This week I attended a free event at one of my favorite shops in the whole wide world: Two Hands Paperie. This local Boulder store specializes in stationary and pens, but they offer a huge range of art-making classes and products to salivate over. The event I went to featured an artist named Cynthia Morris, who also coaches artists and writers and provides resources for anyone seeking a flourishing creative life.
During the event, Cynthia guided the audience through some writing prompts and conversations to help rejuvenate and clarify what she calls the “creative pulse.” I’m not usually an attendee at workshops like this, but lately I’ve felt lackluster when it comes to my creative endeavors and it’s hard to say no to free inspiration!
Here are the sentences that I wrote during this mini workshop that feel the most essential to my current creative life:
“I am an animator! I can turn a blank page into a story!”
“I love to manifest an inner truth outside myself through art and meet it in the world.”
“I finish something, and I judge it. I expect, and it ruins the fun. Why does the shadow always have to grow with the light?!”
“I need to stop performing for an invisible audience; worrying about a gaze that I feel is someone else’s, but is really my own.”
I’ve begun working with a new sketchbook since attending the event (thus the images scattered throughout this post), with the intention that it’s a place to create ANYTHING with no expectations or judgements. A place for doodling and exploration. Just for fun!!! Over and over, I have to remember that creation needs to be a joyous discovery, not a finished product. So, I’m decorating the cover and adding some pizzazz to the title pages (including washi tape and super intense markers!!!), making it my own, filling the pages with stories (my new manifesto!).
Let me finish with saying, I LOVE MY NEW SKETCHBOOK, even if my cat doesn’t, but that’s ok because:
Compulsive Creation 