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The first newsletter of every month is dedicated to my own studio practice but invariably includes themes of an artistic nature, which some Private Viewers may find interesting/hilarious/boring ;)
Autumn made a rude and abrupt entrance ten days ago. One day I was slathering suncream on my face; the next, I was popping Vitamin D tablets like they were Love Hearts (my favourite sweets) and watching the rain turn the roses into soggy tissue-paper clumps. Although the sun has made a return, the mornings are cooler, the evenings darker. In the garden, the figs are sitting green and hard on the tree and the tomatoes are so engorged with water that they’ve split their skins.
My body doesn’t like sudden change. I’m waking up later than my norm because it’s grey outside and then wanting to go to bed earlier for the same reason. My day is now three hours shorter. I rummaged in one of the many unpacked boxes and found my therapeutic Happy Light, plugged it in, and bathed my face in 10,000 lumens while searching for cheap flights to Palm Springs. It helped.
All of this is a reminder that as much as I’d love to spin the roulette wheel and have it stop on “Sunny” forever, the Wheel of the Year has rotated. The Earth hasn’t stopped at Summer, the planet is still turning on its axis, and we’re all circling the sun at 66,627 miles per hour. That’s 18.5 miles every second. No wonder my body can’t keep up!
In the studio, I’ve been doing zilch and I’m fine with it. At this point, I’m wondering if I’ll ever make art again, and if I don’t, who will take my huge stash of paints off my hands? Please line up in an orderly queue!
I threw some cut flowers into the studio sink to dry and momentarily dreamed of turning the space into a floristry workshop - Wild Creative Flowers has a nice ring. Then I daydreamed my way into fantasy land and contemplated all the alternative uses for the studio: cheesemaking (for some reason I’ve always fancied making cheese), Kombucha brewing (I already do this but would love to expand my Kombucha empire), pottery studio (never thrown a pot in my life), community bakery (this one made me laugh and it would you too if you’d seen my poor attempts at sourdough).
At least I know the shed won’t go unused.
In all seriousness, I’ve been feeling like I’ve neglected my creative practice this year. I haven’t made any new, fully resolved works and I’m beating myself up about it, which is ridiculous.
When Autumn knocks on the door of my studio I know it’s time for me to carry out an annual review of my art practice; it’s something I’ve done for years and one of the most valuable exercises I do to support my creativity.
I thought this year’s review would be a short one since I’ve done very little, but as I read through the prompts and started to fill out the worksheets, I realised how harsh I’d been on myself. I’d totally ignored this Substack and the fact that I’ve written a post pretty much every single week since I started. Isn’t that part of my creative practice too? Of course, it is.
I pulled out my Rockstar Artist Manifesto (I wrote about that HERE):
10. Be kind to yourself
Something to work on this season.
I’m sure I will find my way back to art-making at some point in the future, but if I don’t then I’m okay with that. We are allowed to pivot. We are allowed to give up hobbies, take up new ones, circle back to old ones, juggle multiple hobbies, or become an expert in just one. Ditto with businesses. It’s our choice.
We have ONE life. We will never get the opportunity to circle back to an old life or take up a new one on this earth (depending on your views on reincarnation of course).
I judge myself because I listen to other people (mostly online) who tell me what I *should* be doing, but those folks know nothing about me and I know very little about them apart from what they choose to show in their feeds, which we all know isn’t the full picture. Why should I trust their 7-second reel of clickbait advice?
It’s important to remember that WE get to decide whether we want to accept any of the advice we’re given or just throw some all of it on the compost heap - and Autumn is the perfect time to give that decision some thought. So, I’m entering Fall with a familiar curiosity about myself and my creative practice. What do I REALLY want to do? What feels nourishing right now? What makes me feel STRONG and WELL?
And maybe finding the answers to those questions IS the art.
Until next time.
JC
If you’re interested in the Autumn review & evaluation exercise I carry out, you can buy it by clicking the image below:
If I ever made pottery I’d want to make it like this…
I like the look of this book:
I love all of Michael Meade’s work and this sounds like a lovely course to do over the Winter:
I always think about Cy Twombly’s work when I think about seasonal change. View his paintings of “The Four Seasons” below - Autumn is my very fav piece, what’s yours?
It sounds a bit like your creativity has shifted focus, if not direction. I think of my creativity as seasons (this is not an original thought), and there is some lying fallow (which for me is often just going off to do something completely different) ... so perhaps this is true for you as well?
Thanks for this! And yes, writing is art! I'm coming to a resolve that my sketchbook and half-finished ideas are okay to remain that way. I'm allowed to start lots of different projects and not finish them. I'm allowed to pull threads from the past and into the future. I'm allowed to have a sketchbook art practice and that be enough for now. Wherever we can find a sliver or edge of liberation and freedom is where we should hang out hat!