SPARKING and ALIVE
STRANGELY OKAY
Something heart-breaking
happened in my life this summer.
It’s knocked me toward a different kind of
rest-of-my-life than the one I always wanted.
I keep waiting for the grief to overwhelm me.
Instead, it’s been like waking up
having slept through the night
away from home
for the first time.
A terrifying, impossible separation
is now swaddled in the knowing that
sunrise light, hunger, soft morning hands
will be with me anywhere.“Strangely Okay” 2023
— Prints are available now in the shop.
— Stickers of this piece are going out to September patrons. Join a tier with a sticker reward before the end of the month if you’d like one.
The Making of Strangely Okay
Read this – it's freedom bundled in 8 sentences:
People often say, "I was walking along, or driving, shopping, jogging, and I had this whole poem go through my mind, but when I sat down to write it, I couldn’t get it to come out right." I never can either. Sitting to write is another activity. Let go of walking or jogging and the poem that was born then in your mind. This is another moment. Write another poem. Perhaps secretly hope something of what you thought a while ago might come out, but let it come out however it does. Don’t force it.
- Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones
The reason I write about using our supplies freely is because my impulse is to save them. And they're not the only creative resource I like to hoard: I like to store up ideas too. But you know what's impossible? Pulling out a creative vision, sparking and alive, days later.
There's a small window for capturing a moment, which is the moment itself. This is a reason to keep a sketchbook close by. But the other medicine for the transience of ideas is this: This is another moment. Write another poem.
Learning this with writing has changed the way I paint. Last week I sat down to make some art. I was going through my notebooks looking for ideas to bring forward. Everything was room temperature. I needed something hot. I remembered "write another poem." I wanted to tell a story about something hard that was happening in my life. Everything I had sketched so far was trying to explain how hard it has been, but it all felt, in that moment, like it was about someone in a situation like mine, instead of being about this moment. I remembered what I've learned about writing, that we write to be awake to what is happening right now, to put it down on paper while it's still breathing.
So I painted out the moment:
I sketched this in about 2 minutes. I knew it was right. I spent an hour writing about it and landed on a small poem to accompany the art.
The next day I thought I would share it online, but I didn't have footage of making it so I tried to repaint it and film it. I painted it five more times but none of them were right, which makes sense: the moment had passed.
I shared the original sketch, and it seems to have found the people it needed to: the other ones out there whose moment, somehow, had the same guts as mine.
— this is writing is from Easy Does It, our art-making space for the creative and creative-curious in our community. (If you’d like to join us and get access to the full archive, we’d love to have you. We have a live online class this Saturday for those on the Light tier too! EASY DOES IT)
NEWS
🥳 50 STICKER PACKS are live in the shop! I finally put these together after getting so many sweet requests from educators who wanted to share stickers with their students, people who wanted to give them out at parties or weddings, and therapists who wanted to use them with their clients (either as a deck or to give out).
50-Sticker Pack Fun Facts:
- you have the option for 50 unique stickers or a set that has some groups of 2-3 of the most popular ones
- You can share the purpose for your pack and we can shift the focus (more mental health, more queer, more family friendly, etc).
- You can keep them as a set to use with clients like a deck, or give them out!
- Some educators keep them on a desk in their office with a Take What You Need sign 🫶🏼 how sweet is this??
- This is the only way to get a wide range of stickers most of the year (we only stock lots of stickers occasionally for Sticker Day- next one will be at the holidays ❄️🎄)
- The set is marked down by $50 and it's coupon eligible!
- The STUDENT and EDUCATOR sliding scale sale is going on for a few more days. go get your art at the price that feels best 💛
📚 It bears repeating: The STUDENT and EDUCATOR sliding scale sale is up for a few more days! Swing by to get some art a the price that feels best for you.
😎 The September-vibe prints are still 15% off, but only for a little longer, so be sure to browse those while they’re on sale :)
