For those of you who have been asking about my book, you can order a copy now.
I’ve called it Creating from the Inside Out: Motivational Strategies for Artists & Writers.
It’s filled with inspiring quotations, mini essays on the creative process, and black and white digital collages.
Creating from the Inside Out is 177 pages: 6.5 x 6.5" and coil bound.
Each copy is $25 (Canadian) plus postage.
So how do you review your own book? If I had a promotional turn of mind I’d probably come up with a list of five good reasons why you should read it. But I have to be honest. The main reason I wrote Creating from the Inside Out was because I had to.
For years I felt like I was hovering around the edges of my own creativity. I could never seem to access it with any kind of consistency, and this frustrated me. I became convinced that if I only had more—more time, more money, more talent, more opportunities, more support from the universe, more recognition from others (etc.)—then I’d be able to enter the magic kingdom/queendom of creativity and proceed full speed ahead.
I thought to myself: if there’s a system to creativity, I’m going to find out what it is and then tell everyone else. And if it turned out there wasn’t one …well, I was going to invent my own!
But I soon discovered that you can’t control creativity. It’s huge and it’s fluid, and all you can ever hope to do—and the only thing you should do—is to align yourself with it. You’re an individual reflection of something greater than you are, and your task is to get down to the business of expressing who you really are.
This can’t be done by wishing your circumstances were different or by waiting for ideal conditions. No. You need to act—and you need to act now. I suggest you begin by examining your thinking because the way you view the creative process will influence the action you’re likely to take—or not take, as so often happens.
Let me give you an example. Time was the first topic I tackled when I started working on my book. I’d always felt that not having enough of it was responsible for holding me back. But the more I thought about this, the more I realized I spent more time being annoyed about my lack of it than actually using what I had! I also believed that unless there were several free hours available to paint or write, there was no point in starting anything.
While it’s true we don’t ask for many of the challenges life hands out to us, we have to take responsibility for them anyway—and once I recognized it was up to me to use what time I did have wisely, things really began to open up for me.
Self-motivation is crucial to anyone who wants a happier and more fulfilled life, and it’s my hope that people who read my book will be inspired to take action towards realizing their own creative dreams. Making even small changes to the way you engage in your creative process can deliver big results down the line. I firmly believe that if I can write and illustrate a book—and have a solo art show—you can achieve what you want to do as well. You probably won’t accomplish this with Zen-like serenity and immediate results because I know I didn’t. But don’t let that hold you back. Just go for it. Not tomorrow, next week or next year but right NOW!
When I was decorating the tree before Christmas, I heard a crackling sound. At first I didn't know what it was. Then I looked down at the remaining ornaments still carefully laid out on the coffee table, and I could see that one of my favorites—a lilac and silver heart—had cracked all over.
