Breathe in: Be inspired

Take a deep breath…. and look at my April Sketchbook...

Dearest Friend,

I have been searching for inspiration this week. 

While I was working I learned a new word: grabbling. Which is searching for something in the dark… like deep in the back of a drawer, or in a pocket. 

Where would be the most likely place to find misplaced inspiration? 

The inside pocket of my spring jacket? The way you find money in last season’s coat and feel like you’ve had the luckiest day?

Or in the everything drawer in the kitchen, along with the string, the randomly sized screws, and half of the lemon squeezer (where is the other half?). 

In fact, inspiration isn’t something one can find. It is something one invokes. You need to sit quietly and invite it into your life.

Make space for it. 

Then inspiration will find you. 

I’ve been going for long walks in the park, breathing deeply. The air smells of ferns. They are reaching for the sky, spreading the tips of their fronds in pythagorean spirals. There are signs of spring awakening everywhere. 

Did you know, the word "inspire" means "to breathe in.”  

From "in" and "spirare" which is the Latin for "to breathe." 

The word spirit means breath: from spiritus, which means breath, wind, and of course, spirit. 

It has the same root as respiration (meaning: to breathe again). Even the word "conspire" comes from the same root.  People who conspire together are thinking in such close harmony that they are breathing together. (con= with, spire=breathe) 

On the flip side, if you want to breathe in, you also have to breathe out. Exhale. (From ex= out, and halare= breath)

Take a moment; clear your mind. Breathe out. Make space for the next breath to bring what you need to nourish your creative soul.

Breathe in. 

Inspiration. 

Breathe out.

Make space.

It is a new mantra for me. 

I find that when days get difficult or complicated, I hold my breath; or I gasp; or I sigh; or I exhale sharply in annoyance. 

But do I breathe deeply? Do I invite inspiration into my dilemmas? 

They say six deep breaths can change your outlook on life in any moment.

Sometimes I pause in the middle of "the hard thing" and remind myself to breathe. When I inhale, deeply, I can feel the muscles in my upper back and shoulders expanding, and when I exhale they loosen and relax. 

When we feel that inspiration is scarce, and no ideas are flowing, taking a deep breath is often the cure. Just as there is always enough air for us to breathe; there are always enough ideas, if we slow down enough to receive them. Let the wind send some ideas to you.

And breathe.

Sending big virtual hugs,

Jane

P.S. Click on the heart on this email to make me smile!

P.P.S. This is a long-ish email with lots of good things in it. If it gets clipped in your inbox, just click “View entire message”.

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April Drawings…

We read together every evening and call it “book club.”

9-year-old daughter thrives in her swimming lessons.

Even laundry can be artistic.

Bluebells in the graveyard of our local church.

I swim for sanity…

I’m trying to paint every full moon of 2024.

Nothing is too prosaic for art. The neighbour’s roofer was a study in grey.

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Creativity Q and A session:

1. What is your favourite hot drink?

I love a decaf latte or rooibos tea with honey (top points if it can be honey from my uncle’s honey farm). And a piece of dark chocolate!

2. Do you have any creative routines? Things that you do regularly to keep your creative muscles strong, or before you start a creative session? 

It is difficult to keep a routine with a child in the mix. I can only work on school days (and there seem to be a lot of holidays!), and I can only start when our daughter is at school in the mornings. I come home from drop-off and I do 20 minutes of meditation. This is non-negotiable. Then I start whatever is the most important thing that day, creatively. I usually can get 2-3 hours of solid creative work done in the morning before my brain needs a break.

3. Planning your life: do you use digital devices for schedules and to do lists, or paper, or a mix? (all of our brains organize things differently!) 

This is a question I find so fascinating, because “organization” looks so different for everyone. Don’t be fooled by the tech-guys with YouTube channels who demonstrate elaborate efficiency routines. I’ll bet they don’t have kids…

I keep a master calendar in iCal (is it still called that?), with all my daughter’s school and extracurricular events. On a day-to-day basis, I write the day’s events and tasks down in a day-a-page paper planner. Always in pencil!

For the tasks: I write my most important, energy-focused creative tasks from the top of the daily list to the bottom. And from the bottom of the list, going up, I write the mundane errands and to-dos. If the list meets in the middle… buckle up!… it’s going to be a crazy day!

4. Are there any paintings, poems, books, songs, movies or shows that you return to repeatedly for inspiration?

Poetry by e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson and Czesław Miłosz. Music by Debussy and Rameau.

5. Where in the world are you based? Does your location influence your work? 

This is also a really interesting question for me, as I feel our surroundings influence our work, whether we realize it or not. I grew up in rural Manitoba. I moved to England to do a post-graduate degree. I met my South African husband and lived in Cape Town for three years. Now we are back in England, but all of those “homes” have deeply changed me. They all nourish my creative life.

6. Do you have any favourite supplies to work with? (writing supplies, art supplies, music supplies, craft supplies, apps…?) 

I keep a small moleskine pocket sketchbook for daily drawings. When it comes to work sketches, I use large Seawhite of Brighton sketchbooks. I usually use pencil, ink, water-colour and gouache. I love Japanese brush pens.

7. Do you keep a journal? Or a notebook in which to jot inspiration and ideas? If so, do you write by hand or on a device?

I journal in an app called Day One. I can type my thoughts faster than I can write them. Plus I can have it on my phone as well, for capturing on-the-go thoughts. And it is searchable! I am humbled by the number of notebooks I have filled since I started journaling at the age of 13. It is so cumbersome to keep track of them all! I keep story idea notes and research in the iPhone Notes app. Also searchable!

8. Do you have a dedicated space for your creative work? Or not? (Sometimes the kitchen table can be the most creative place in the house!) 

For many years, the kitchen table was my only workspace. Now I have a corner of our bedroom that overlooks the garden with a drawing table and a few bookshelves. But I usually end up propped up on huge cushions on the floor with my computer when I’m writing, with my notes and reference sketches spread out on the floor around me.

9. What do you do when you feel creatively blocked? Do you have any tricks that help to jump-start your creative soul?  

I go for walks. I listen to music (jazz, classical, and movie soundtracks). I draw random things.

10. What advice would you give yourself if you could travel in time to visit your younger self?

Just keep going. Each day is a new beginning. The power is in cumulative effort. A word after a word after a word. A drawing after a drawing after a drawing.

11. If someone doesn’t know your work, where should they start?

Definitely with "Every Home Needs An Elephant,” my middle-grade hybrid-graphic novel. And with my daily drawings on my website.

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