... For Creative People: Self love & compassion
February 2023, Edition 28
What do you love about yourself?
What do you love about your business, or the art you create?
When I ask clients this, they will sometimes respond by telling me what they don’t like about themselves or their art, or by sharing their fears and the flaws they notice. That’s a very natural response and is all about trying to keep ourselves safe and not exposed.
I'd like to invite you to turn down the volume on the part of yourself that criticises your business, your art and your creativity. And then firmly crank up the volume on what you DO love about yourself and the things you create.
I want to hear you loud and clear… with a huge long unashamed list of what makes you so great.
If that feels very hard, then try asking someone who has your best interests at heart to help you make the list.
Being down on ourselves can become a habit, an automatic response that we don’t give much thought to. I’d like to encourage you to change that habit… to speak to yourself with love and warmth and compassion and kindness. It may take practice.
I’ve really been enjoying my creative writing pursuits recently. I entered some pieces in competitions, with the aim of entering one competition per month. So far I’ve entered three. The results are encouraging: I was longlisted for one, won one, and the results of the third will be announced this month. I liked the pieces of writing I entered. I felt proud of my efforts. Part of that was about really giving it my best shot. Putting myself into it. And so I could honestly say I’d done the best job I could. It felt hard and vulnerable as some of the pieces are really personal, but I did love the process and my final output. If I didn’t love it then how can I expect the judges to? And my goal is to enter the competitions, not to win… obviously winning is a huge bonus but the goal is meeting the deadlines with pieces I’ve really invested my time and talents into.
So, yes, I love my writing, I love that part of me that can be vulnerable and put it into words creatively. Yes, it feels WEIRD to say that, but there we go. It’s said. And I’m not taking it back. Ha!
What do you love? Get in touch and let me know.
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What's Coming Up?
Journaling to Bring Your Plans to Life • 6 Mar, 7pm Online, all welcome
Journaling to Review Your Progress • 3 Apr, 7pm Online, all welcome
All times shown are GMT
Pre-booking is essential for each workshop. To book click HERE
Photo credit: Junior D.Kannah
THE WOMEN DANDIES OF THE DRC
This travelling exhibition — The Women Dandies of the DRC — documents the life and style of the sapeuses, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s woman dandy subculture, through textile exhibits and the reportage photography of Kinshasa-based photographer Junior D.Kannah.
Currently in London, the project began life in 2017 as a feature collaboration between journalist Sally Howard and Kannah, for Marie Claire USA, and has since evolved into a travelling popular academic exhibition.
You can visit until March 18th at The Heritage Gallery, The Naval College, University of Greenwich, London.
ANITA BHAGWANDAS' BOOK: UGLY
I've been eagerly anticipating my friend Anita's new hardback, which is published this month.
"We've all had those moments. The ones where you look in the mirror and nothing feels ok looking back at you. For Anita Bhagwandas, this started when she was a child growing up in South Wales, and it created an enduring internal torment about her looks.
We're all told that this sadness is just part of 'being a woman'. We're encouraged to obsess over it and go to any length to change it, but we're also ordered to 'just love ourselves' from every corner of the internet. But what if there was another way out of the beauty myth? In Ugly, Anita uncovers where these beauty standards started, unpicks why they've been perpetuated and unmasks how they're still being upheld.
It is time to finally break free from those limiting beauty standards, because feeling ugly has nothing to do with us."
You can order Anita's book HERE
AN INDIGO SUMMER
Ellie Evelyn Orrell
I’m really looking forward to a book-reading at North Books in Hay with the author of An Indigo Summer.
Here’s an overview of the book’s themes which sounds very apt for me. All of these themes resonate with me personally and I’m sure many will speak to you too:
‘There is a certain feeling – standing between rows of richly dyed blue cloth – that you are within an enclave of protection, that within this ocean you can feel calm; a separation from the outside world.’
One summer, a mother and daughter are reunited in the small village of Betws Gwerful Goch in North Wales following the death of a father and grandfather. Ellie returned from studying at university, while Jeanette had been studying the art of indigo dyeing in Japan. In this lyrical memoir, Ellie Evelyn Orrell transports readers to their hillside garden, reflecting on a summer spent learning to work with indigo, and witnessing the power of creativity in moments of mourning and recovery. In it, she weaves together stories of resettling in a once-familiar landscape; the healing powers of art; the historical, mythological and present day properties of indigo; and the presence of this indelible colour within the Welsh landscape.
An Indigo Summer is an absorbing mediation on art, rural life and roots, grief, creativity and the artistic process.
Now Booking...
Case Study: Jonathan Weinberg, The Write Story
Interview by Kate Williams