The Creative Identity

Liberate Your Art

I haven’t just been reading over the past couple of weeks or so, oh no. I’m tying up lots of proverbial loose ends insofar as a couple of projects are concerned, I am getting started on another two or three and I am also finally focusing on gaining a little more visibility in my visual arts-related endeavours. In a sense, all of this overwhelms me slightly. I am not a person who thrives on burning out and, stupid as this sounds, there are people who do just that. Give them more to do and they’ll be ever more fired up, more focused, more switched on, more able. Cast me in the multi-tasking arena and I’ll fight it all the way, cursing myself to boot. Hence this Bank Holiday weekend saw me focused on one thing only, the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap organised by Kat of Kat Eye Studio. It did help that the weather was propely Mancunian (which, for the non-Mancunian among yourselves, means proverbially shit, cold and wet) and that all I really wanted to do was cracking open my new set of Staedtler Triplus Fineliners while watching DVDs. During the week I am constantly torn between the writing/editing I need to do and the writing/drawing I want to do, and I must confess that reaching a time compromise for the latter is not coming easily. So weeks ago I signed up for this fabulous new project because there is nothing like a nice fat deadline to get... Read more →

Intermission

Think I've fallen off the radar dear reader? Not so. In fact, I've been reading an awful lot. One of the new things I've read this week is a fantastic site by a fantastic writer and artist whom I shall throw in the next Creative Times for sure: Summer Pierre. Oh my God, why haven't I got such a fabulous name?! Why am I not the one living in Brooklyn? Why didn't I think of The Artist in the Office? Why cannot my lines be so straight and sure, like a railway track? Gah, next time maybe. Also, I'll call myself Delysia LaFosse. So there. I'm on page fifteen at her digs, but if you only have time for a quick read, then please make it this one. Read more →

You Are A Writer!

I am always interested in other people's jobs. I often wonder what my life would be like if I were a vet (more like, if I had the stomach to be one), or a chef, or a maid at The Waldorf Astoria, or a hairdresser like my dad is and so on. I also wonder about other people's skills and about the boring and the mundane which I am absolutely certain affects each one of us, no matter how exciting our job may sound to someone else. Tell someone that you're a writer though, and many people won't be quite so forthcoming. Reactions I've witnessed upon my revealing that I'm a writer included: No, seriously! What do you do? We're all writers, hahaha, I mean, how do you earn a living? Riiiiiiiight... Oh ok. [insert stupefied look and smirk here] And what do you write exactly? You mean you write marketing copy or what? [insert baffled frown here] This list is not exhaustive by the way and I'm sure that you have your own variations. After a bit more prodding when I usually name journals or articles or books I've edited or even this site right here, I also get, 'Ok. Never heard of it though'. I must honestly tell you that I really don't think there's another profession out there that gets as vituperated as this one. It seems to me like only writers of best-sellers can rightfully call themselves 'writers' without having anyone objecting to it and indeed... Read more →

Dancing With Your Wonder-Full Self

Dear me, how I’ve missed time at my online digs! I’ve pretty much fallen off the online radar for the past two weeks, not something that I like to do without a plan. But, as I myself always say, plan by all means, but do so in pencil. Last Monday I managed to send out the tenth issue of The Creative Times but even that was by a hair. April has been entirely ghastly. By the time I found myself in London last week, cabbing it from Harrods to meetings to Harrods to meetings, I did not quite feel like enjoying myself, simply because my nerves were shot to pieces. Both my dogs are doing absolutely fine now, but I went through an awful lot of preoccupation when it was evident that neither were ok at all. During those very upsetting days, I found refuge, as I often do when worried to the bone or sick, in a book. This was one of those colourful, diary-like books that I love so much and that I always tend to recommend on here. Sark’s Succulent Wild Woman is a love-it-or-hate-it thing that was most likely hated by its previous owner, as I picked it up in pristine condition in a second hand bookstore. I’ve known of Sark’s work for many years and I follow her online exploits closely. Her contribution to the landscape of creative writing (and thinking) is effervescent, delicious, delightful, even festive. As you can see from her website, Sark’s... Read more →