Creative Musings

I just spent a week glamping by the Yuba River near Nevada City. The water was lower than last year, but no less refreshing. For me, the most satisfying way to drink in the beauty is to paint it. In the hour spent painting, I am lost in the moment. I have no sense of time passing. It's as if I blink and I have a painting in front of me. And yet, while I'm working, I'm seeing deeply. I study the colors and how they're made up of so many layers; I think about composition; I notice lichen,...

It's amusing to me that in this country, art is often dismissed as unimportant or a waste of time; that artists are seen as flaky, unreliable, or lazy. Amusing because it's not true. Art is actually quite important, and has the power to change peoples' minds across the globe. The government knows it, too. During the Cold War, the CIA secretly supported and funded shows of Abstract Expressionism to promote an image of American cultural superiority. The artists involved were kept in the dark....

It's June (for a few more days), Pride Month in the U.S., and I thought I'd share a project I worked on, in various formats, for 23 years. It was about transgender superheroes. The journey is an example of how creativity cna lead you into unexpected directions. It started in 1997 as a series of watercolors depicting imaginary characters. Long before "they/them" entered the vernacular, both my partner (at the time) and my father's friend/companion identified as "genderqueer" or "other." I...

A month ago, I wrote about my creative process, and how I'd broken it down into three stages: Create-Connect-Share. I explored each of these areas, and what happens when we neglect any one of them. Together, these three stages make up a state of flow. When I'm creating AND making connections with my work AND sharing it with others, I'm in the flow. Of what? I heard an Indigenous tribal leader describe it this way: the connection between Creator and Creation is Creativity. It's the active...

My ex's parents were both artists. They were brilliant and prolific. Their styles and mediums were different but they shared a great respect for the creative life. Neither of them cared much about exhibiting their work. So, inevitably, the artwork piled up—on walls, in closets, in basement storage. When they passed away, their heirs had to decide what to do with their work, much of which was damaged by mold. They both inspired me in many ways. They taught me how to honor creativity no matter...

"Only art penetrates ... the seeming realities of this world," said Saul Bellow. "There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which without art, we can't receive." For me, the most important part of my creative process is making connections. It helps me make sense of things. When I paint or write something, I usually don't know what it's really about until long after I've completed it. Some works come and go quickly; some...

Anyone who "has" to create knows that feeling of not being able to. After awhile, everything feels "off." You get restless, irritable, hungry for something you can't quite find. It's like staring into an empty refrigerator. But the solution is easy: all you have to do is create something, and relief floods in. Every artist knows this feeling. These days, scientists can prove it, too. "Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us" by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross shares current studies on the...

Sometimes, life just sucks. I write this from Chicago O'Hare airport, where I've de-planed the second time today due to maintenance issues. This place is a zoo. Wall-to-wall people, stress in the air, trash all over the floor from the detritus of holiday travel. On top of that, I'm sick. The DayQuil I had to take to survive this trip makes me feel like a Warhol print—slightly off-register, not quite in my body. On the way to visit my mom earlier this week, the second flight was cancelled due...

Yesterday, I researched software platforms to help me organize my work tasks. Normally, I simply write lists to-do on post-its. That way, I can see them all day, and since I write super-small, it feels manageable. The problem with that system is that I just ignore the lists. And so, my desk is littered with post-its full of unfinished tasks. I thought that since I use digital frameworks for so many different things—communication, meetings, scheduling, class delivery, design ideas, etc. — I...